Examining the relationship between parental involvement and student motivation

Parent involvement has a sound research base attesting to the many potential benefits it can offer in education. However, student motivation as an aca-demic outcome of parental involvement has only recently been investigated. The purpose of this article is to show how parent involvement is related to students ’ motivation. Studies of students from the elementary school to high school show a beneficial relationship between parental involvement and the following motivational constructs: school engagement, intrinsic/extrinsic mo-tivation, perceived competence, perceived control, self-regulation, mastery goal orientation, and motivation to read. From the synthesis of the parent in-volvement and motivation literature, we offer potential explanations for their relationship. Directions for areas of continued research are also presented