Brazilian parents’ involvement in education supports their children’s dedication to schoolwork and math and reading achievement

Decades of research from the United States and other high-income countries has demonstrated that parents’ involvement in their children’s education positively impacts student academic achievement. However, it is not clear if these findings would generalize to a middle income country such as Brazil, where average parent education is much lower and resources to invest in children are often more limited. On the other hand, Brazilian parents might encourage children’s schooling because Brazilians benefit from some of the highest returns to education in the world. Using data from several million fifth-grade and ninth-grade students enrolled in Brazilian public schools, PRC Graduate Student Trainee Andrew Koepp, PRC Director Liz Gershoff, and PRC Faculty Scholar Letícia Marteleto found that parent involvement was indirectly linked to student achievement through students’ completion of homework and that even parents with very limited educational experience themselves supported their children’s academic achievement when they were involved in their education. They argue that interventions and outreach programs should therefore target all parents to improve children's long-term academic and career success. ; Para a tradução brasileira deste artigo, ver http://dx.doi.org/10.26153/tsw/44346 ; Population Research Center