Sociological analysis of parental involvement in schooling: “time matters”

Abstract

Most research on parental involvement and social class is based on the “General Linear Model” (Abbott). This model ignores sequence effects, failing to consider how results may be altered by the order in which the phenomena occur, and network effects, attempting to separately isolate the effect of each variable. In this work, this perspective has been contrasted with a procedure and network approach. Here, parental behavior and expectations are not merely independent variables since they are modified by the child’s behavior and academic results. While the first approach attributes differences in involvement between social classes to cultural factors, the second suggests that these differences are due to progressively unequal parental resources and the academic results of the children.