The mediating role of fathers' school involvement on student achievement

The purpose of this exploratory study was to examine the relationship between school-, neighborhood-, and family-level resources and children's academic achievement, and to identify the role played by father involvement in mediating contextual influences on children's learning. A subsample of 1334 families with children between the ages of 5 and 12 was drawn from the 1997 Child Development Supplement of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) for use in the analyses. Findings revealed a significant relationship between aspects of father involvement in their children's education and student achievement beyond that accounted for by mother involvement. The findings also lend partial support for a model outlining father involvement in school activities as a mediator of the relationship between contextual factors and children's school achievement.