Parent Involvement in Education as Predictors of Social-Emotional Strengths in Kindergartners

Although more is known about how general parenting practices predict social-emotional strengths in children, less research has looked at parent involvement in education and children's social-emotional strengths. This study examined the extent to which parent involvement, specifically home-based involvement, parent-teacher trust, and home-school communication, predicted children's social-emotional strengths in kindergarten. The study featured both parent (n = 120) and teacher ratings (n = 156) of children's social-emotional strengths. We examined the association between parent involvement and social emotional strengths while controlling for child age and gender, socioeconomic status, and general parenting (positive verbal discipline and harsh/inconsistent discipline). Parents' reports of home-based involvement were a moderate to strong positive predictor of their child's social-emotional strengths over the kindergarten year. For teacher ratings of social-emotional strengths, parents' trust of the teacher was associated with higher social-emotional strengths. The findings may inform essential components in parenting or school-based interventions for social-emotional development, as well as differences in what parents and teachers perceive as related to social-emotional development in young children.Impact StatementParents play an important role in children's social-emotional development. The current study demonstrate parents perceive home-based involvement activities are associated with child social-emotional strengths, while teachers perceive a trusting relationship between home and school as most important. Results highlight ways to support schools and families working together to support social-emotional strengths.