Parental Involvement at Home: Analyzing the Influence of Parents’ Socioeconomic Status

Abstract

The present study focuses on the relationship between parent’s socioeconomic status and parental involvement in their child’s education at home. Eighty Indian students who were studying in one the best performance-based National Type Tamil Schools in the state of Kedah, Malaysia were chosen based on purposive sampling. It comprised 20 students from Year Two, 20 students from Year Three, 20 students from Year Four and 20 students from Year Five. Of these 80 students, 40 low-achieving students and 40 high-achieving students were identified based on the previous final year school examination results. A questionnaire was used to obtain quantitative data related to the parent’s socio-economic background and their ¬involvement strategies in their children’s education at home from the students’ parents. The findings of this study indicated that most parents, regardless of their socioeconomic background showed a high degree of involvement in most of the involvement strategies at home to ensure their child’s educational success. However, the parent’s education level, employment status, and income among the parents from the lower socioeconomic class affect their understanding and knowledge on the actual values that need to be placed on their child’s education. This causes their children to experience deprivation. As a result, the higher the parent’s socioeconomic status, the greater the parent’s involvement in their child’s education. As a result, the parents inculcate good skills, behaviour and values of education in their children which are extremely important for their academic success.

Keywords: Parental involvement; Socioeconomic; Education; National Type Tamil School