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Parental Involvement in Child Care','by Stephen D. Green, Ph.D.
Caregivers, teachers, peers, extended family, media, heredity, and the environment all contribute to a childs development; however, parents (if present) are the most powerful influence in the lives of their children. Parental involvement not only shapes development during the initial years of life, but also during the adolescent and adult years.
Given this important role, to what extent should parents be involved in their childrens development? According to the National PTA, "Parental involvement is the participation of parents in every facet of the education and development of children from birth to adulthood, recognizing that parents are the primary influence in their childrens lives." If this statement is correct, then parents have a tremendous responsibility to be involved with their children both inside and outside the home, including their childrens non-parental childcare arrangements.
Decades of research have demonstrated that the more involved parents are in their childrens development, the greater chance children have to succeed, particularly in their academic performance. Consistently, researchers have discovered that greater parental involvementin a childs education is associated with: higher student grades and test scores, better attendance, higher rates of homework completion, more positive student attitudes and behavior, higher graduation rates, and greater enrollment rates in post-secondary education.
The same researchers also noted that when parents are involved, children achieve more regardless of their socio economic level, ethnic/racial background, or the parents educational level (Henderson ;Berla, 1994). As recent research on early brain development has shown, positive parental involvement needs to begin long before children enter into formal schooling arrangements.
The early years of a childs life are critically important for healthy brain development, attachment formation, and language acquisition. Prime opportunities for learning exist during the first few years oflife that may not be recovered at a later stage.At the same time, todays children are spendingmore and more time in non-parental childcare arrangements. A childcare provider may spend more waking hours with a child than his or her parents. Therefore,it is important for childcare providers and parents to work together as a team to promote as much parental involvement as possible. Parental involvement in childcare not only benefits children, but also parents and childcare providers.
In interviews with parents and childcare providers, Preston Britner discovered that parental involvement was one of the key factorsin how satisfied parents were with their childrens care arrangements. The greater their involvement, the more satisfied they were with their childrens care. Other surveys indicate that childcare providers are overwhelmingly in favor of parental involvement from both mothers and fathers.
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