Low-Income Urban African American and Latino Parents’ School Involvement: Testing a Theoretical Model

摘要

This exploratory study investigated whether: (a) the three process variables (role construction, sense of efficacy, and sense of being invited) in Hoover-Dempsey and Sandler’s model of parental school involvement provide unique contributions to explain parental involvement among African American and Latino immigrant parents, (b) there are significant differences in parental involvement between these groups, and (c) these process variables mediate the effect of status variables on involvement practices. Only perceptions of teachers’ invitations consistently predicted parents’ involvement practices. Latino immigrant parents obtained lower at-home, at-school, and total involvement practices scores and lower scores on perceptions of being invited by teachers than African Americans. The effects of annual income and race/ethnicity on parental practices were mediated by perceptions of teacher invitations. Data suggested the need to distinguish between at-home and at-school parental involvement.