Parent involvement is a multidimensional construct that has been shown to be a strong predictor of positive educational outcomes. While many studies have examined the relationship between parent involvement and academic achievement, research attempting to link parent involvement with social and behavioral outcomes is limited. Moreover, it is unclear which aspects of parental involvement would be most effective in preparing a child to enter school for the first time. In addition, many studies have overlooked sociodemographic characteristics when conducting empirical analyses.

The purpose of this study is to fill these gaps in the literature by examining the effects of parent involvement as a form of social capital on a child’s reading skills, self-control and school adjustment at school entry while taking into account various sociodemographic factors.

This study used data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study – Kindergarten Cohort (ECLS-K, 2002). A secondary data analysis was conducted on a nationally representative sample of male and female children between the ages of 3 and 5 years old (n = 13,111, unweighted sample).

Bivariate analysis indicated that parent involvement was associated with all the outcome variables. Parent involvement was related to the child’s reading, self-control, and school adjustment, although the correlation coefficients were small. Using hierarchical regression analysis, parent involvement was found to have an influence on reading; however the effect was negligible. Moreover, a hierarchical regression analysis indicated that parent involvement had an influence on self-control; however, the effect was weak. Results of a multivariate binary logistic regression analysis indicated that the model was not a good predictor of school adjustment.

The results suggest that parent involvement, as defined in this study, may not directly influence the adaptive transition to preschool for very young children. Other factors including more nuanced measures of parent-child interaction and parental expectations, as well as parenting styles, may be more robust indicators, and should be studied in the future.