When children affect parents: Children’s academic performance and parental investment

• I model the effects of children’s academic performance on parental investment.
• Improvements lead to greater economic resources, social capital, and expectations.
• Declines are associated with more time spent on educational activities.
• I examine changes over time and compare effects of language and math achievement.
• Results are similar among children who are consistently high- or low-achieving.

Sociologists have extensively documented the ways that parent resources predict children’s achievement. However, less is known about whether and how children’s academic performance shapes parental investment behaviors. I use data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten Cohort (ECLS-K) and longitudinal fixed effects models to examine how changes in teacher assessments are related to changes in the conferral of various parent resources. Overall, I find that the relationship between achievement and investment varies based on the directionality in children’s achievement and the type of resource at hand. Children whose performance improves receive a broad range of enrichment resources, while declines in performance are met with corrective educational resources. Results are largely consistent whether language or math assessments are used to predict investment, and also among children whose achievement does not change over time. I discuss these patterns, along with implications for the use of parent resources in education and family research.