Financial Strain, Major Family Life Events, and Parental Academic Involvement During Adolescence

Parental academic involvement—whether through school participation and communication, or supervision and assistance at home—often has been cited as a way to enhance academic achievement. Yet, little is known about how the financial and life pressures faced by families can compromise parents’ ability to become involved in their adolescents’ education. In the current study, these dynamics were examined among Mexican-origin families, who often may face challenging financial and familial circumstances, and whose students may have more difficulty in secondary school. Parents of Mexican-origin ninth and tenth grade students from two high schools in Los Angeles (N = 428; 50 % female) completed quantitative interviews. The results revealed that financial strain predicted less involvement at school, and major family life events predicted less involvement at home, even after controlling for potentially confounding factors. Moreover, both of the associations between parental stress and parental academic involvement were mediated by lower levels of relationship quality between parents and adolescents, but not by conflict within the parent–adolescent dyad or parental depressive and somatic symptoms. The findings suggest that stress may limit parents’ ability to become involved their adolescents’ education, and highlight the importance of understanding family dynamics when examining parental academic involvement among Mexican-origin families.