Social Capital and Determinants of Immigrant Family Educational Involvement

Family educational involvement has been identified as a particularly beneficial practice for the achievement and behavioral outcomes of all students, including ethnic-minority students from families who have low levels of income, education, and English language proficiency. However, despite the associated benefits not all families are involved in their child's education and the explanation for differing involvement patterns has not been fully explored. This study examines precursors to parent educational involvement with an emphasis on immigrant families who may face more involvement barriers using the immigrant sample from the Child Development Supplement of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (N = 189). Results provide limited support for the Hoover-Dempsey and Sandler theoretical model for family involvement; self-efficacy and perceived opportunities for involvement predicted immigrant families' home-based involvement. No antecedents, however, predicted school-based involvement. In addition, results suggest expanding this model to include social capital, which significantly predicted immigrant families' home-based involvement activities.