Homework in the Home: How Student, Family, and Parenting-Style Differences Relate to the Homework Process

The Need to Distinguish Between Quantity and Quality in Research on Parental Involvement: The Example of Parental Help With Homework

“…Another reason for focusing on the example of parental help with homework is the fact that this is the most controversial type of parental involvement. That is, research has shown that homework help may have not only positive but also detrimental effects on students' academic development (H. Cooper, Lindsay, & Nye, 2000;Desimone, 1999;Pomerantz, Wang, & Ng, 2005;Xu, 2004). In line with these findings, Hill and Tyson (2009) reported in their meta-analysis that homework help was the only type of involvement that was not consistently related to academic achievement.…”

Making the difference with active parenting; forming educational partnerships between parents and schools

“…Most probably this can be explained as a result of a discrepancy between the given explicit instruction at school and the instruction parents provide at home (cf. Cooper et al 2000). Therefore, as the occasion arises, it might be necessary to teach parents in using specific instructional techniques (cf.…”

Literature Review

“…This indicates that the effects of student background characteristics on the relation between parental involvement and student outcomes are also unclear. While most studies show a positive relationship between SES and parental involvement (Cooper et al 2000;Fan and Chen 2001;Mattingly et al 2002), a study of Dutch parents of primary school students (Stoep et al 2002) revealed that home-based involvement was higher among lower SES parents than among high SES parents. Yet another Dutch study found no relation between the educational level of the parents of primary school children and involvement in their child's education (Bakker et al 2007).…”

“…The third parenting style that may have a positive influence on student attainment is provision of structure (i.e., providing clear and consistent guidelines and rules) with regard to homework or other school-related aspects. Cooper et al (2000) applied this theory in their study on parental involvement in homework and showed (1) a positive relationship between support for autonomy and student achievement, and (2) a negative association between direct parental involvement and student achievement. These findings are explained by the student's performance at school; parents of low-performing students become more proactively involved with their child's learning, while parents of students doing well at school, are more likely to support the autonomy of their child.…”

“…For lower-achieving children, or parents with unrealistically high expectations, these tensions may have a negative impact on the child's self-esteem and performance at school. Helping with homework might also interfere with learning if parents are not sufficiently equipped to help, if their instruction is very different from that of the school teacher, or if parents are overly involved, for example, completing assignments themselves (Cooper et al 2000).…”