Parental Involvement and Academic Engagement in Children: The Mediating Role of Academic Self-Efficacy

Background and Objective: Academic engagement plays a central role in children's overall development, yet how parental involvement shapes students’ self-efficacy and, in turn, their engagement still needs more empirical attention. This study examined whether academic self-efficacy mediates the relationship between parental involvement and academic engagement among upper elementary students in Neyshabur, Iran.

Methods and Materials: Using an applied, correlational design, this study applied structural equation modeling (SEM) to data from upper elementary students in Nishapur during the 2021–2022 academic year (N=16,000). A sample of 375 students was selected through multi-stage cluster sampling based on Cochran's formula. Three validated instruments were used: the Parental Involvement in Academic Activities Questionnaire (Shakari, 2013), the Student Self-Efficacy Scale (Jenks & Morgan, 1999), and the Academic Engagement Scale (Reeve, 2013). Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation, and SEM in SPSS 20 and AMOS 24.

Results: All direct paths in the model were significant: parental involvement was positively related to both academic self-efficacy (P < 0.001) and academic engagement (P < 0.001), and academic self-efficacy was in turn positively related to academic engagement (P < 0.001). Bootstrapping further confirmed a significant indirect effect of parental involvement on academic engagement through academic self-efficacy (P < 0.001).

Conclusion: Parental involvement supports students' academic engagement both directly and by strengthening their academic self-efficacy. Programs aimed at increasing parental participation and building students' self-efficacy beliefs may therefore be an effective way to promote academic engagement and psychosocial wellbeing in primary school children.