Parental Engagement in Children's Education: Motivating Factors in Japan and the U.S.

In spite of evidence indicating the benefits of parental engagement for children's achievement, little is known about the factors that contribute to parental engagement in countries outside the United States. In this study, we addressed this gap in the literature by examining teachers' outreach in addition to maternal psychological elements (maternal role construction and parenting self-efficacy) in predicting Japanese and American mothers' home- and school-based engagement at the second grade level. We found that these factors uniquely and significantly contributed to home-based engagement (homework supervision and engagement in cognitive activities) and school-based engagement in both countries. Furthermore, these factors accounted for between-country differences in the extent of home-based engagement. Between-country differences in school-based engagement remained significant even after the three factors were entered, suggesting a need for additional theorizing in contexts outside the U.S. Findings of this study also highlight the importance of teacher invitations in stimulating parents' engagement.