There are not many studies providing a specific, widely accepted definition of the term “parental involvement” despite the considerable amount of educational research literature on the subject (Bakker & Denessen, 2007). “What does an engaged parent look like? Is it the parent who reads the school newsletters, makes sure their child has lunch and snow pants every day, and turns up yearly for parent-teacher interviews? Or the one who does all that and also reads every night with their child, supervises homework, and helps to serve pizza lunches occasionally? Or is the parent who sits on school council, knows every teacher by name, wants a say in how daily physical education is implemented and is certain to attend every school event the one who is truly engaged?” (Arnott, 2008:30). Previous research defined parental involvement as the activity of parents in school, while Grolnick & Slowiaczek (1994) define it as “the dedication of resources by the parent to the child”.  In defining the concept, Hoover-Dempsey et al. (1992) defined parent efficacy as parents' belief that they are capable of exerting a positive influence on their children's academic performance. Other researchers in turn interpret it as the investment of parents and educators in their children’s education (LaRocque, Kleiman & Darling, 2011). Hoover-Dempsey & Sandler (1997) use the term to refer to parents’ home and school activities that are related to their children’s learning.  Epstein (1987) specifies parents’ activities at home as assistance in preparing homework and discussing school life and achievements. She highlights six different types of involvement that have a favorable impact on students’ school careers. According to Sui-Chu and Willms (1996), the term parental involvement should be considered as a multidimensional concept: parent-teacher contact and school participation. Relationships between the parties can be examined at institutional and individual levels. Likewise, they distinguish between two aspects of parental involvement at home: talking about learning and what happens at school, and supervising the child at home. Today it is generally known that digital tools suitable for enriching education can both benefit and hinder the teaching-learning process. Digital education raises many questions and is the subject of constant debate, to which the COVID-19 pandemic has contributed greatly. The main focus of professional discussion, however, has been on the challenges and practices of digital education at schools. Ideally, parents and educators can work together to overcome the difficulties they face, but the rapid development of technology and children’s intuitive approach to digital devices can make it very difficult for both sides to participate effectively in children’s digital education.  The literature defines digital parenting as the practice of parental efforts to understand, support, and control children’s activity in the digital space (Benedetto & Ingarissa, 2021). For international comparison, recent data are provided by the PISA 2018 study. According to the school leaders surveyed, 41% of parents of students in OECD countries discussed their children’s development with teachers on their initiative and 57% on the teachers’ initiative. Only 17% of parents were involved in local school councils and 12% volunteered for physical or extra-curricular activities (e.g. building maintenance, and going on field trips) (OECD, 2019).

Most of the articles analyzed present US research published in overseas journals. Our study fills a gap, as parental volunteering is not widely discussed in European research. In Hungary, the intensity of parent-teacher cooperation lags behind expectations in comparison to international data, while the effect of family background is particularly strong, which determines the content and quality of parenting activities at home, parental aspirations, and also the school performance of students.  The research team aims to develop the activities of teachers that strengthen parental competencies and commitment to education. 

The research on which this paper is based was implemented by the MTA-DE-Parent-Teacher Cooperation Research Group with support provided by the Research Programme for Public Education Development of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. The Research Group aims to study parental involvement among Hungarian parents. The main question of our study was what are the characteristics of parental involvement in the examined sample? We hypothesize that parental involvement is most intense among students attending elementary school, while it is less intense in vocational schools that not giving a high school diploma. The current data collection is titled "The Relationship between Family and School from the Parents' Perspective." The research took place in the autumn of 2022, and the data collection was carried out using a paper-based questionnaire method, accompanied by a voice recording, queried by an interviewer. The database was created in 2023 (N=295) with anonymous and voluntary questionnaires. The subjects are the parents: the person who is primarily involved in the upbringing of the child and who has the most information on matters related to the child. This will most often mean the mother or the father. In the absence of a biological parent, a foster parent or guardian can be appointed. We surveyed parents whose children attend one of the following levels of education: upper elementary school, vocational secondary level (providing a high school diploma), vocational schools (not giving a high school diploma), general high school (gymnasium), from all maintenance sectors. The field of the research: Hajdú-Bihar, Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg, Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén, Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok in Hungary. The data for secondary analysis were processed using SPSS 22.0. The questionnaire consists of five major sets of questions, namely on characteristics of students, demographics, school-family-community partnerships, and parents’ home and school activities (digital parenting and parental volunteering). Each thematic unit contains detailed questions related to parental engagement. For example, have you participated in any of the following school-related activities? Participated in local school government, e.g. parent council or school management committee. Volunteered in physical or extracurricular activities (e.g. building maintenance, carpentry, gardening or yard work, school play, sports, and field trips). The first limitation of our research is the sample, this is a non-representative sampling, thus the results cannot be generalized, and no clear conclusions can be drawn about parental involvement in Hungary. Our research is significant because data fills gaps collected about a less frequently addressed actor in Hungary.

A significant relationship was found between school maintenance and some forms of parental involvement. Parents whose children attended a church-run school were more likely to talk about spiritual issues, more likely to read together, and more likely to be involved in the school. The differences between school types were more pronounced Parents whose children attend the upper grades of elementary school more often organize a joint program with their child almost every day. While parents of students attending vocational high school organize a joint program with their child once a month. From the point of view of parental involvement in school, workplace reasons and incompatible schedules seem to be the biggest obstacle. The labor market status of parents has a decisive influence on the extent and form of their involvement. Parental involvement is less intense in vocational schools. In these institutions, one of the barriers to parental involvement is that parents feel uncomfortable in the school. Obstacles are mostly related to family, including practical difficulties (work reasons, commuting), as well as cultural difficulties (values, expectations, obstacles due to cultural differences). We did not examine the obstacles related to institutions, such as teachers' skills and time or the lack of school leadership. We confirmed the fact that parental attitudes and behavior have a strong impact on children’s use of digital devices, which supports the idea that, compared to setting direct rules, parents’ digital habits have much greater educational power, as children primarily adopt their parents’ habits. Our results showed that parental involvement in digital education is still in its infancy.

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