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Parental Educational Involvement and Latino Children’s Academic Attainment

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Handbook on Positive Development of Minority Children and Youth

Abstract

A preponderance of research documents the benefits of parental educational involvement on children’s academic performance. However, the majority of this work has primarily focused on European American children in middle to upper income homes as well as examining mostly school-based forms of parental involvement. By contrast, this chapter relies on developmental theories and a resilience framework to address parental educational involvement as a protective factor, bolstering the academic performance of low-income, Latino children specifically. We examine parental educational involvement across Latino children’s elementary through high school years. Further, we conceptualize parental involvement as a multidimensional construct, incorporating parental behaviors and strategies beyond the traditionally measured aspects of parental participation in school-based activities (e.g., PTO meetings, parent-teacher conferences). Finally, we discuss implications, provide suggestions for future research directions, and highlight the importance of incorporating Latino cultural values in future work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

    Rosario Ceballo, Rosanne M. Jocson & Francheska Alers-Rojas

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  1. Rosario Ceballo
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  2. Rosanne M. Jocson
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  3. Francheska Alers-Rojas
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Correspondence to Rosario Ceballo .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Human Development and Quantitative Methodology, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, USA

    Natasha J. Cabrera

  2. Fakultät für Psychologie, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Bochum, Germany

    Birgit Leyendecker

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Ceballo, R., Jocson, R.M., Alers-Rojas, F. (2017). Parental Educational Involvement and Latino Children’s Academic Attainment. In: Cabrera, N., Leyendecker, B. (eds) Handbook on Positive Development of Minority Children and Youth. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-43645-6_21

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