The relationship between Parental

Involvement and Academic

Performance among African American
students at Historically Black Colleges
and Universities (HBCUs)
Logan Battle
Daniel West
Morehouse College

Purpose of Study
The objective of this confirmatory study is to
quantitatively define the relationship between parental
involvement and academic performance of African
American students at Historically Black Colleges and
Universities (HBCUs).
Research Question: Is there a relationship between
parental involvement and academic performance for
African American students at Historically Black Colleges
and Universities?

What does the research

say?
5 dimensions of Parental Involvement (Epstein,
1991)
Parental involvement is associated with positive
educational outcomes (Waterman & Zellman
2008)
parental involvement becomes less of a predictor
of academic performance for African American
students as the students progress through their
academic career (Catsambis , 2001).

Variables of Interest
H1: There will be a significant relationship between
parental involvement and academic performance
H0: There will not be a significant relationship
between parental involvement and academic
performance.
DV: Academic Performance
Previous semester GPA

IV: Parental Involvement

Perceived Parent and Teacher Involvement Scale total,
Perceived Academic Support, Perceived Academic
Monitoring

Methods: Sample
Sample consist of n=47 respondents. African American
women (N=34) represented 72.34% of the sample while
African American men (n=13) represented 27.65% of
the sample. The participants represented three
institutions in the Atlanta University Center: Morehouse
College (N=13, 27.65%), Clark Atlanta University
(N=10, 21.27%) and Spelman College (N=24, 51.06%).
Demographic information also included the students
classification. Freshman/ First Year students (N=1)
represented .02% of the sample. Sophomores/ Second
Year students (N=6) represented 12.76% of the sample.
Juniors/Third Year students (N=7) represented 25.53%
of the sample. Seniors/Fourth Year students (N=30)
represented 63.82% of the sample. Fifth Year and
Beyond students (N=3) represented .06% of the
sample.

Methods: Data Collection

Assessment:
Data collected via Qualtrics
Demographic information (age, gender and institution)
Academic performance (ie. Overall GPA, current semester average, highest GPA
recorded)
Perceptions of Parent and Teacher Academic Involvement (PPTAI), (Dumas,
Loose and Regner 2009)
Perceived Academic Monitoring (PAM)
Perceived Academic Support. (PAS)
The survey was amended to only include questions concerning parental
involvement.
Analysis plan:
Pearsons product-moment correlation coeeficent to determine the strength and
direction of the relationship between academic performance and parental
involvement i.e. perceived academic monitoring and perceived academic support.

Findings
Correlations: Parental Involvement Measures and
GPA

A Pearsons product-moment correlation coefficient was used to

investigate the relationship between the students previous semester GPA
(m=3.31, sd=. 43) and their total scores on the Perceived Parental and
Teacher Academic Involvement Scale (PPTAI) (m=29.34, sd=6.250 and
their total scores for both subscales: Perceived Academic Monitoring
(PAM) (m=16.28, sd=6.25) and Perceived Academic Support (PAS)
(m=13.06,sd=3.91). The results of the analysis showed that their was no
significant correlation (p >.05) between the students previous semester
GPA and their scores on the PPTAI (r=.01 ) nor the subscales, PAM (r=.07)
and PAS (r=-.03).

Findings Cont.
Correlations: Parental Involvement Measures
and
GPA (Gender)r

p
Men

Total PPTAI -.56

.05

PAM -.65

.11

PAS -.48

.02

Women

Total PPTAI .15

.39

PAM .65

.28

PAS .2

.62

Secondary analysis of the data showed that there are significant effects when
the data is split by gender. There was a significant (p < .05) moderate negative
correlation between both Total PPTAI scores (r=-.56) and GPA as well as PAS
scores (r=-.48) and GPA for males. However, there was still no significant (p
>.05) correlation between measures of parental involvement and GPA for
females.

Conclusion & Further

Study
Due to the results of the Pearsons correlation analysis we
failed to reject the null hypothesis. There is not a significant
relationship between academic performance and parental
involvement for African American students at HBCUs.
Further study into the relationship between academic
performance and parental involvement for African American
students at Historically Black Colleges and Universities should
investigate parental involvements impact on male students,
including but not limited to academic performance.

Further Study
Further study into the relationship between
academic performance and parental involvement
for African American students at Historically Black
Colleges and Universities should investigate
parental involvements impact on male students,
including but not limited to academic
performance.
Teacher Involvement
Valid measure of academic performance

Aknowledgements
Dr. Teaniese Davis ( Directed Studies course
instructor)
Dr. Tina Chang and Dr. Bryant Marks (Capstone
Project Advisors)
Dr. Yohance Murray (project advisor)
Dr. David Wall Rice (Psychology Department
Chair)

References
Battle, J. J. (1998). What Beats Having Two Parents?: Educational Outcomes for African American Students in
Single-Versus Dual-Parent Families. Journal of Black Studies, 28(6), 783801. doi:10.1177/002193479802800606
Catsambis, S. (2001). Expanding Knowledge of Parental Involvement in Children's Secondary Education:
Connections with High School Seniors' Academic Success.Social Psychology Of Education,5(2), 149-177.
DePlanty, J., Coulter-Kern, R., & Duchane, K. (2007). Perceptions Of Parent Involvement In Academic Achievement.
The Journal of Educational Research, 361-368.
Fantuzzo, J., LeBoeuf, W., Rouse, H., & Chen, C.-C. (2012). Academic achievement of African American boys: A citywide, community-based investigation of risk and resilience. Journal of School Psychology, 50(5), 559579.
doi:10.1016/j.jsp.2012.04.004
Hayes, D. (2011). Predicting Parental Home and School Involvement in High School African American Adolescents.
The High School Journal, 94(4), 154166. doi:10.1353/hsj.2011.0010
Jeynes, W. (2005). The Effects of Parental Involvement on the Academic Achievement of African American
Youth.Journal of Negro Education,74(3), 260-274.
Jones, C. B., & Palmer, J. K. (2004). Family Involvement with African-American Youth during the Pre-College Years:
From a Psychology of Oppression to a Positive Black Psychology. Negro Educational Review, 55(1), 41.
Pallant, J. (2010). Choosing the Right Statistic. In SPSS survival manual a step by step guide to data analysis using
SPSS (4th ed., pp. 128-145). Maidenhead: Open University Press/McGraw-Hill.
Rgner, I., Loose, F., & Dumas, F. (2009). Students Perceptions Of Parental And Teacher Academic Involvement:
Consequences On Achievement Goals. European Journal of Psychology of Education, 263-277.
Seyfried, S., & Chung, I. (2009). Parent Involvement as Parental Monitoring of Student Motivation and Parent
Expectations Predicting Later Achievement Among African American and European American Middle School Age
Students.Journal of Ethnic and Cultural Diversity in Social Work,109-131. Retrieved March 26, 2015, from
http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/wecd20
Zellman, G., & Waterman, J. (1998). Understanding the Impact of Parent School Involvement on Children's
Educational Outcomes. The Journal of Educational Research, 370-380.
Pallant, J. (2010). Choosing the Right Statistic. In SPSS survival manual a step by step guide to data analysis using
SPSS (4th ed., pp. 128-145). Maidenhead: Open University Press/McGraw-Hill