Home-school collaboration in kindergartens: The effect of socio-economic status on parents’ involvement

This study aims to examine whether SES, including education level, income and occupation would have an effect on parents’ level of involvement in home-school collaboration in terms of quantity and quality, and also the differences in the practices. 65 targeted parents participated in this study. Regression was run to analyze the effect of SES on parents’ level of involvement in collaboration and to find out the differences in their involvement. Results showed that SES, including education level, income and occupation showed a greater effect on parents’ degree of involvement than that on their number of involvements. Parents with higher SES backgrounds generally showed a higher level of involvement. But in some practices, parents with a comparatively lower SES backgrounds would instead show a higher level of involvement than those who are at a relatively higher level. Some possible reasons were discussed. Suggestions were made to kindergartens to better support parents with low SES backgrounds in home-school collaboration.