Parental involvement, parent socioeconomic status, and primary school children’s literacy achievement: a case of Mbale district in Uganda

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to establish the relationship between parental involvement, parent socioeconomic status, and primary school children’s literacy achievement. The objectives of this study included; to assess the relationship between parental involvement and primary school children’s literacy achievement; to examine the relationship between parent socioeconomic status and primary school children’s literacy achievement; to examine the relationship between parent socioeconomic status and parental involvement; to examine the predictive potential of parental involvement and parent socioeconomic status on primary school children’s literacy achievement and to establish the mediating effect of parent socioeconomic status in the relationship between parental involvement and primary school children’s literacy achievement. The researcher used a crosssectional descriptive research design where both qualitative and quantitate approaches were employed to analyze data. The main study consisted of 425 primary school pupils from Mbale district. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics, and cross tabulations. Pearson correlation coefficient was utilized to derive an association among the study variables and findings were presented in pie diagrams and bar graphs and frequency tables. A multiple linear regression analysis to establish the prediction potential of parental involvement and parent socioeconomic status on primary school children’s literacy achievement was employed. Confirmation of mediation of Hypothesis five was done using Hayes process model (Hayes, 2017). The study revealed that showed that a weak significant positive relationship existed between parental involvement and primary school children’s literacy achievement in Mbale district (r = .219, p≤0.01); a weak significant positive relationship existed between parent socioeconomic status and primary school children’s literacy achievement in Mbale district (r = .290, p≤0.01); a weak significant negative degree of association existed between parent socioeconomic status and parental involvement in Mbale district (r =-.158, p≤0.01). Results in the regression analysis revealed that a combination of predictor variables parental involvement and parent socioeconomic status accounted for 15.1% (adjusted R square =.151) variation in primary school children’s literacy achievement. Based on the findings, there’s need to improve primary children’s literacy achievement. This can be done through schools and other development workers working together with professional counselors to respectfully encourage parents and care givers to fully participate in the education process of their children as well as supporting parents and caregivers to improve their family socioeconomic status since it has been noted to affect a children’s literacy achievement.