As one of the most important topics in education research, parental involvement in children’s learning has received extensive and lasting attention with a broad international consensus (Jeynes, 2012, 2017). Promoting parental involvement in children’s education is an important cornerstone for improving children’s academic performance (e.g., Hill & Tyson, 2009; Jeynes, 2017), non-cognitive development (e.g., Ho, 2003; Li & Xie, 2017), and behavioral problems (e.g., Aizer, 2004; Nokali et al., 2010). Epstein focused on the central role of children and emphasized the overlapping spheres of influence from home, school, and community on children’s development (Epstein, 2010). Adapting Epstein’s framework of overlapping spheres of influence, Hornby developed a model of factors influencing parental involvement: individual parent and family factors, child factors, parent-teacher factors, and societal factors (Hornby & Lafaele, 2011; Hornby & Blackwell, 2018).

In this study, we aimed to apply the model of factor by Hornby et al. (2011, 2018) and examine the multidimensional forms of parental involvement in China, and to assess to what extent and how child characteristics, family background, and school-related factors are related to the various forms of parental involvement. Specifically, the following questions were investigated in this study: (1) Do child characteristics, family background, and school-related factors have impacts on parental involvement among Chinese middle school students? (2) Could school-related factors play a moderating role in the relationships between child characteristics and family background on parental involvement?

The data is taken from the China Education Panel Survey (CEPS), and a total of 17,306 students from 112 schools are used. Hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) was applied to investigate the relationships between different aspects of factors with parental involvement since the student-level data was nested in the school-level variables in CEPS dataset.

Results indicate that, first, student characteristics, including gender, grade level, and cognitive ability have significant associations with both home-based and school-based involvement, and Hukou (Household registration in China) shows a significant effect on school-based involvement. Second, family structure including living with both parents and the number of siblings is only significantly related to home-based involvement. Family socioeconomic status (SES) at the student level and school level shows significant effects on the various forms of parental involvement. Finally, school quality, school size, and school invitations for parents not only significantly affect parental involvement, but also reduce the relationship between family SES and parental involvement.

Our evidence implies that schools should take the initiative to invite parents for various kinds of activities, and institutionalize a more open policy for inviting different kinds of parents. In addition, schools should provide parents, especially those of new students, with specific information and training on how to participate in their children’s education at home and in school. As to address the social inequality of parental involvement, monitoring school size and enhancing school quality contribute to not only the improvement of parental involvement, but also, to a certain extent, the reduction of the impact of socio-economic status on parental involvement.

The data used in this study was from The China Education Panel Survey (CEPS), a large-scale, nationally representative, longitudinal survey starting with two cohorts – the 7th and 9th graders in the 2013-2014 academic year conducted by National Survey Research Center (NSRC) at Renmin University of China. The CEPS aims at explaining the linkages between individuals' educational outcomes and multiple contexts of families, school processes, communities and social structure, and further studying the effects of educational outcomes. The CEPS applies a stratified, multistage sampling design with probability proportional to size (PPS), randomly selecting a school-based, nationally representative sample of approximately 20,000 students in 438 classrooms of 112 schools in 28 county-level units in mainland China (see more information from http://ceps.ruc.edu.cn/English/Overview/Overview.htm). We applied Hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) to explore whether the different characteristics of students, parents and schools have an impact on different aspects of parental involvement. The dependent variable in this study was parental involvement. 15 items were used to measure the frequency of parents involves in children’s learning. Exploratory factor analyses (EFA) were conducted to explore how to categorize the 15 items about parental involvement in CEPS. Five factors were identified and labelled as home discussion, cultural organized activities, home supervision, social communication, and parent-teacher communication. The former four dimensions were home-based parental involvement, and the latter one was school-based parental involvement. The independent variables were child characteristics, family background, and school-related factors. Child characteristics includes students’ gender, grade level, cognitive ability, immigration status, and Hukou. Family background consists of family size, weather living with parents, and family SES. In addition, school-level factors include public or private school, school quality, school size, rural or urban school, school-level average SES, the percentage of rural students in the school, and the frequency of school invitations for parents.

Results indicate that, first, student characteristics, including gender, grade level, and cognitive ability have significant associations with both home-based and school-based involvement, and Hukou (Household registration in China) shows a significant effect on school-based involvement. Second, family structure including living with both parents and the number of siblings is only significantly related to home-based involvement. Family socioeconomic status (SES) at the student level and school level shows significant effects on the various forms of parental involvement. Finally, school quality, school size, and school invitations for parents not only significantly affect parental involvement but also reduce the relationship between family SES and parental involvement.

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