Why are middle-class parents more involved in school than working-class parents?

Abstract

This article studies why middle-class parents are more involved in school than working-class parents. From theoretical approaches developed in different disciplines hypotheses on the mediating effects of five mechanisms are derived: cultural capital or educational resources, concerted cultivation, economic and time resources, parents’ own school experience and status maintenance motives. Using data from a French national survey on students in 9th grade, I analyse to what extent these mechanisms mediate social class differentials in (1) attendance at parents’ evenings, (2) PTA-membership and (3) being parent representative. I find that educational resources mediate the largest parts of the social class differences. Concerted cultivation, status maintenance, parents’ working status, number of siblings and single-parenthood have mediating effects, too. In contrast to a claim made in the literature, parents’ own school experience has no effects on their involvement.