Parental efficacy and parents' collaboration with school during the early childhood years

Parental involvement has attracted extensive research attention in the last decades because of its positive influence on children (Hong & Ho, 2005; Griffith, 1996). Bandura (1997) argues that parental efficacy, which is defined as the beliefs of parents toward their contribution to their child__s schooling and development, may influence their choices of parental involvement. In particular, parents who feel confident in their ability to promote their child__s academic achievement are more likely to have higher levels of parental involvement than those who are not confident (Waanders, Medez, & Downer, 2007). However, limited studies have examined the relationships between parental efficacy and parents__ collaboration with school during the early years. Therefore, this study is designed to extend the parental involvement literature using a preschool sample to determine the relations between family SES, parental efficacy and home-school collaboration. Approximately 229 children with a mean age of 64.4 months participated in this study. Class teachers reported on parents__ involvement behaviors in school using the Chinese Early Parental Involvement Scale (Lau, Li, & Rao, 2012), while each parent completed the 10-item Parental Efficacy subscale of the Parental Locus of Control Scale (PLOC) (Campis, Lyman, & Prentic-Dunn, 1986). Results suggested that parental efficacy was positively correlated with fathers__ school involvement, while parental efficacy was not related to mothers__ school involvement. Implications for parent education will be discussed.