Test of a Model of the Organizational Antecedents of Parent Involvement and Satisfaction with Public Education

Abstract

Researchers have speculated on the nature of relations among parental satisfaction, school climate, and other variables. However, few empirical studies have examined relations among these variables in a causal framework, even when rhetoric of organizational change and its positive effects on parents, students, and teachers is abundant. The purpose of this study was to test a causal model incorporating school climate, school-parent communication, and parent empowerment and their effects on parental involvement and satisfaction. The present study employed a 71.2% sample of 42,818 parents (or 33,244 responding parents) from 122 elementary schools. Parent-school communication and school climate showed the strongest direct effects on parental satisfaction, followed by empowerment. The strongest indirect path to parental satisfaction was from school climate through informing parents. Other paths that showed weaker relations to parental satisfaction were: School climate-empowerment-informed; school climate-empowerment; and school climate-involvement. Parental involvement contributed little variance to parental satisfaction. Nonetheless, interaction terms (parent reports of individual-level school involvement x school-level parent perceptions of school climate, x being informed, x being empowered, x involved) showed that the relation of parental involvement to satisfaction was moderated by how well parents were informed, empowered and involved by the school, and their perceptions of positive school climate.

Keywords

school climate school-parent communication parent empowerment parent involvement parent satisfaction with public education

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