Middle School Student and Parent Perceptions of Parental Involvement: Unravelling the Associations with School Achievement and Wellbeing

Parents play an important part in adolescents' life and significantly contribute to youngsters' academic success. However, parents' and students' perceptions regarding parental involvement may differ and how these perceptions are related to school achievement and wellbeing have been poorly researched. Therefore, self-report measures assessing students' and parents' perceptions of parental involvement were completed, using a sample of 5003 7th grade students and their parents. The results indicate parallels between parent and student perceptions. However, parents indicate a higher extent of parental involvement compared to students. According to students, parents focus on monitoring grades, whereas parents display the highest scores for interest in school and learning. Parental involvement seems to impact student achievement and wellbeing. Nevertheless, effects are small, and the effects of socio-demographic variables overrule these effects. These results give insight in different perceptions on parental involvement and underpin the importance of middle school students as active participants in learning.