Parents’ Perceptions of Their Involvement in Schooling

Parent involvement has an influence on children’s educational engagementduring the elementary years. The objective of this study was to examine theperceptions of rural Turkish parents about their involvement in schooling withelementary school students based on Epstein’s (1995) six types of parentalinvolvement (parenting, communicating, volunteering, learning at home,decision-making, and collaborating with the community). This study also investigated the differencesamong parent demographic characteristics (education level, income, marital status,and age) and parent involvement at the elementary grade level in rural areas ofTurkey. 742 parents of elementaryschools in three rural settings in the city of Konya, Turkey completedquestionnaires and assessments. Aquantitative analyze method is used to analyze verified data. Findingsindicated that family income had a statistically significant impact on combinedfactors of parent involvement. Education level by Age interaction, Income byAge interaction, and Education level by Income by Age interaction had astatistically significant impact on combined factors of parent involvement. Nosignificant differences were found in parent involvement among parents who arefrom different education levels, marital status, and age groups in Turkey. Thisstudy showed that family income is the most significant factor on parentalinvolvement in schooling for Turkish parents in all regions.