The Role of Parents in College Students' Sociopolitical Awareness, Academic, and Social Development

This study examined the relationship between parental contact (frequency of student-parent communication) and involvement (parents’ interest and/or involvement in students’ academic progress and decision-making) with college students’ personal, social, and academic development. Parental involvement accounted for over two-thirds of the significant relationships detected, most of which were positive. Parental contact produced only 10 significant relationships, half of which were negative. The results also reveal conditional effects by race, gender, social class, and year in college.