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ABSTRACT Research has shown that parents play a positive role in children's educational outcomes (Chao, 1996; Gottfried, Fleming, & Gottfried, 1994; Grolnick, & Slowiaczek, 1994; Wigfield, Eccles, Schiefele, Roeser, & Davis-Kean, 2006). The purpose of the present study was to examine the parental role in more detail by investigating how parents' educational beliefs and perceptions of children's academic engagement influence parental motivational practices and in turn, how parents' practices affect children's academic intrinsic motivation and subsequent achievement during elementary school. Data were from the Fullerton Longitudinal Study, an investigation following participants from infancy through early adulthood. Using Structural Equation Modeling, four models were developed to test hypotheses regarding the relationships of among parents' beliefs and perceptions, parental involvement, and children's academic intrinsic motivation and achievement in reading and math. All measures were assessed at age 9. Results revealed that parents' beliefs were positively related to their motivational practices. Parents' intrinsic motivational practices were in turn positively related to children's intrinsic motivation in reading and math, whereas parents' extrinsic motivational practices were negatively related to children's intrinsic motivation in math. Children's intrinsic motivation positively impacted children's achievement in reading and math respectively. The parental perceptions models did not reveal adequate fit. The findings and implications are discussed, and suggestions for future studies are provided.

LIST OF FIGURES Figure Page la. Parental Reading Perceptions Model: Relationships of parents' reading perceptions on parental motivational practices, and parental motivational practices to children's academic intrinsic motivation and subsequent achievement in reading.. 13 lb. Parental Math Perceptions Model: Relationships of parents'math perceptions on parental motivational practices, and parental motivational practices to children's academic intrinsic motivation and subsequent achievement in math 13 2a. Parental Reading Beliefs Model: Relationships of parents' reading beliefs on parental motivational practices, and parental motivational practices to children's academic intrinsic motivation and subsequent achievement in reading 14 2b. Parental Math Beliefs Model: Relationships of parents' math beliefs on parental motivational practices, and parental motivational practices to children's academic intrinsic motivation and subsequent achievement in math. 14 3. Parental Reading Beliefs Model: Modeling the relationships of parents' reading beliefs on parental motivational practices, and parental motivational practices on children's academic intrinsic motivation and subsequent achievement in reading 24 4. Parental Math Beliefs Model: Modeling the relationships of parents' math beliefs on parental motivational practices, and parental motivational practices on children's academic intrinsic motivation and subsequent achievement in math 26 iv

To my sisters Kristy and Michelle - you mean the world to me. I hope to always inspire you to follow your dreams. Work hard, stay determined, and be persistent. Thank you for always loving me, supporting me, and being my sisters. Finally, this thesis is dedicated to my parents, thank you for everything that you've done for me. vii

3 the future (United States Department of Education, 2006). To ensure excellence, assessments like The California High School Exit Exam (C AHSEE) were created to measure students' academic achievement. It is used as an indicator of whether students are proficient in subjects of English and mathematics upon graduation (Callet, 2005). A rich body of literature focusing on children's academic achievement has indicated that math and reading skills are essential for future success (Pezdek, Berry, & Renno 2002; Snow & Juel, 2005). Abilities in math and reading allow students to effectively function in school and in the greater society. President George W. Bush signed the "No Child Left Behind Act" (NCLB) in 2002 to ensure skills in these subjects are adequately met (Carlisle & Hibert, 2004). The law provides federal funding to schools to help students improve their math and reading scores (U.S. Department of Education, 2005). Standardized measures such as the Woodcock Johnson Psycho- Educational Battery (WJPEB) are frequently used to assess students' academic achievement. More importantly, the WJPEB separately measure student's math and reading skills (Shull-Senn, Weatherly, Morgan, & Bradley-Johnson, 1995). Investigations of relationships among parental involvement, academic intrinsic motivation and achievement will expand our knowledge of understanding the development of children's academic success. Reading Reading is one of the primary subjects in elementary school in which students are expected to learn and master for many reasons. Reading helps students to develop vocabulary, comprehension, and language skills that are necessary for everyday life.

6 Whereas various studies have focused on parents' involvement in school and at home, parents' socialization processes have also been examined as a mean to understand their involvement at home, including parents' encouragement in schooling (Pomerantz, Moorman, & Litwack, 2007). One way to examine parental encouragement strategies is through their motivational practices. Parental motivational practices is concerned with parents' facilitation of task-endogenous and task-exogenous academic encouragement that occur in the home (Gottfried, 1994). These practices can either promote children's intrinsic motivation for learning, or is characterized by use of extrinsic means in motivating children to do well in school. Studies examining such practices have found that when parents are involved in a manner that encourages persistence and effort, children reported being more intrinsically motivated, and have higher academic achievement (Dweck, 1999; Gottfried, Fleming, & Gottfried, 1994; Henderlong & Lepper, 2002). Gottfried and colleagues' study (1994) of the role of parental motivational practices in relation to students' academic intrinsic motivation demonstrated that when parents facilitate a more task-endogenous motivational practice, they help to foster children's academic intrinsic motivation and positively impact children's academic achievement. It was also shown that when parents encouraged their children by using extrinsic practices, such as rewarding or removing a privilege in response to children's good or poor academic performances, this was negatively related to children's intrinsic motivation and achievement. These studies provide a foundation in understanding how parents' encouragement can affect students' academic success.

9 parents' beliefs and values, and involvement. Spera (2006) demonstrated in his study that adolescents' perceptions of parental goals and values were positively related to their reports of their parents' educational involvement, which in turn had a positive relationship with their interest and engagement in school. Additionally, cross-cultural studies have found that broad societal beliefs about the importance of educational success are related to parents' approach to academic socialization process through their expectations, and involvement with their children (Fuligni, 1997). Parents' beliefs about the importance of their children's academic achievement can influence the way they encourage their children's academic success. Some may use more intrinsic motivational practices, while others may use extrinsic practices, or both forms of encouragement may be utilized to ensure success in their children's learning and education. Investigation of parents' beliefs can provide some insight into how parental involvement is influenced by parents' beliefs about the importance of their children's academic achievement. The Present Study Research regarding parental academic involvement has examined parents' involvement through various aspects, ranging from psychological aspects such as perceptions and beliefs to behavioral aspects like motivational practices. By looking at multiple aspects of parent involvement, this can provide a clearer picture of how involvement in various aspects can help students succeed. Further, by exploring how non- behavioral factors such as parents' beliefs and perceptions of children's academic engagement might influence the relationship between parental involvement and

12 relationship with children's intrinsic motivation in reading, while parents' use of extrinsic motivational practices would negatively impact children's intrinsic motivation in reading. Children's intrinsic motivation in reading will have a positive impact on children's academic achievement in reading. Hypothesis 4. The parental math beliefs Model is shown in Figure 2b. With parents' math beliefs, it is hypothesized that it will positively relate to parental intrinsic and extrinsic motivational practices. Parents' use task-endogenous motivational practices will positively impact children intrinsic motivation in math, and parents' use of extrinsic motivational practices would negatively relate to children's intrinsic motivation in math. Children's intrinsic motivation in math will have a positive association with children's academic achievement in math.

13 Figure la. Parental Reading Perceptions Model: Relationships of parents' reading perceptions on parental motivational practices, and parental motivational practices to children's academic intrinsic motivation and subsequent achievement in reading. Parental >. rceptions in ) Reading / Parental Motivational Practices - Extrinsic Parental Motivational Practices - Extrinsic Children's Intrinsic Motivation - Reading Children's Academic Achievement - Reading Figure lb. Parental Math Perceptions Model: Relationships of parents' math perceptions on parental motivational practices, and parental motivational practices to children's academic intrinsic motivation and subsequent achievement in math. Parental Motivational Practices - Extrinsic Parental Motivational Practices - Extrinsic Children's Intrinsic Motivation - Math Children's Academic Achievement • Math

14 Figure 2a. Parental Reading Beliefs Model: Relationships of parents' reading beliefs on parental motivational practices, and parental motivational practices to children's academic intrinsic motivation and subsequent achievement in reading. Parental Beliefs ^ \ in Reading J Parental Motivational Practices - Extrinsic Parental Motivational Practices - Extrinsic Children's Intrinsic Motivation - Reading Children's Academic Achievement - Reading Figure 2b. Parental Math Beliefs Model: Relationships of parents' math beliefs on parental motivational practices, and parental motivational practices to children's academic intrinsic motivation and subsequent achievement in math. Parental Beliefs ^v in Math J Parental Motivational Practices - Extrinsic Parental Motivational Practices - Extrinsic Children's Intrinsic Motivation - Math Children's Academic Achievement - Math

CHAPTER 2 METHOD Participants The study participants were part of the Fullerton Longitudinal Study (FLS), which began its investigation in 1979 with a sample of 130 participants. Neonates and their families were selected from hospitals surrounding the California State University, Fullerton campus with several criteria: children were full-term with normal birth weight; were free of visual and neurological abnormalities; and that families were English speakers (Gottfried, Gottfried, Bathurst, & Guerin, 1994). The sample comprised 62 females (48%) and 68 males (52%), which included 117 Caucasians (90%), 7 Latinos (5%), and 7 subjects of other ethnicities (5%): Asian, Iranian or interracial (Gottfried et al., 1994). Families in the FLS represent a wide range of middle-class socio-economic status as measured by the Hollingshead Four Factor Index of Social Status (Hollingshead, 1975). The majority of parents (both mothers and fathers) graduated high school (98%) and 30% of mothers and 48% of fathers graduated from college with a bachelor's degree or higher. Additionally, 121 of families comprised biological parents who were married (93%). Sixty-four percent of the mothers were unemployed whereas all of the fathers were employed at the onset of investigation. The particular sample used in this study consisted of 97 participants and their mothers during the 9-year assessment. 15

16 Procedures Throughout the course of the study, a battery of standardized instruments and questionnaires was administered to both the participants and their parents. The standardized scales and inventories were used to assess a variety of developmental constructs such as cognitive ability, home environment, parenting, temperament, intrinsic motivation, and social history. Tests were administered to participants individually while parents watched behind a two-way mirror in an adjoining room. The vast majority of parent inventories were completed by mothers. Assessments took place in the Developmental Laboratory of California State University, Fullerton (CSUF). Infants were assessed every six months from the age of 1 year until the age of 3.5 years. Thereafter, families were tested annually until the children were 17 years of age. Assessments lasted between 1 to 2 hours and participants received small rewards such movie tickets, baseball caps, and CSUF attire upon completion of individual sessions. Financial incentives of $100 were given at the 17-year assessment due to the substantial length of time required to complete (6 hours). All assessments were conducted by trained members who were part of the FLS research team (Gottfried et al., 1994). Measures Parental Perceptions of Children's Academic Engagement. Parents' perception of children's academic engagement was measured using items from a reading and math scale developed in a prior study (Ho, Gottfried, Gottfried, Vaughan, & Martinez, 2007). Parents completed a survey at the 9-year assessment. Items tapped parents' perceptions of

17 children's academic interests, abilities, and effort, and expectations of children's achievement. Each item asked parents to separately rate their opinion of their children's in reading and math. For example, one item asked, "How interested is your child in the following school areas?" Parents rated their response on a 6-point Likert scale for each subject areas. Ratings ranged from (1) not at all interested to (6) very strongly interested, with the most positive rating being the highest. Similarly, another question asked, "How much ability do you think you child has in the following areas?" Responses on this question ranged from (1) very little to (6) very much. Parental Beliefs. Parents' educational beliefs were measured using items from a parental reading beliefs and parental math beliefs scale developed in a prior study (Ho, 2006). Parents completed a survey at the 9-year assessment. Items on the survey tapped parental educational beliefs of the importance their children receiving the best possible report card grade, learning difficult materials, and doing well in school. Parents were asked to rate their opinion of their beliefs in reading and math. For example, one item asked, "How important is it to you that your child does well in the following areas?" Parents rated their response on a 6-point Likert scale for each subject areas. Ratings were constructed with the most positive rating being the highest, ranging from (I) not at all important to (6) very important. Parental Motivational Practices. Parental motivational practices were assessed with separate scales measuring task-endogenous and task-exogenous (referred to as parental intrinsic motivational practices and parental extrinsic motivational practices, respectively) practices employed by parents when children performed well or poorly in

18 school (Gottfried et al., 1994). The parental intrinsic motivational practices scale included items pertaining to encouragement of mastery, persistence, curiosity, and exposure to new experiences. Parents rated their response from a survey of school-related items, which was completed during the 9-year assessment. Ratings were on a 6-point Likert scale, where higher ratings represented higher usage of the practice. For example, mothers were asked to rate such statements as "I encourage my child to enjoy school learning, and "I encourage my child to be persistent in school work" (from at not all true [1] to very true [6]). Similarly, the parental extrinsic practices scale include items (ratings from [1] rarely to [6] always) such as, "When my child does not do well on a school task I usually take away a privilege." Children's Academic Intrinsic Motivation. Academic intrinsic motivation was measured with a published, psychometrically sound instrument, the Children's Academic Intrinsic Motivation Inventory (CAIMI) (Gottfried, 1986). The CAIMI is a self-report instrument which measures academic intrinsic motivation across subject areas and for school in general (Gottfried, Fleming & Gottfried, 2001). The reading, math, and general school CAIMI subscales administered at age 9 years will be used for analyses in the present investigation. Each subscale raw score included items that measured student's intrinsic motivation on a 6-point Likert scales separately in reading and math. Items on the inventory examined how much students enjoyed learning new things and finding answers to questions in school in general. Other items tapped student's curiosity, mastery

19 orientation, persistence, task endogeny, and the learning of challenging, difficult and novel tasks. (Gottfried et al., 1994). Children's Academic Achievement. Reading and math achievement were assessed with the Woodcock-Johnson Psycho-Educational Battery, and analyses were conducted using the achievement assessments at the age 9 years. The Woodcock-Johnson is a comprehensive, norm-referenced, individually administered assessment of cognitive abilities, skills, and academic knowledge. This battery of tests, suitable for use between ages 2-90, and possess a median reliability of .94 (McGrew, Werder, & Woodcock, 1991). All measures were assessed at age 9.

CHAPTER 3 RESULTS Four hypothesized models were examined in this study. Two models were developed to examine how parents' perceptions of children's academic engagement were related to parental motivational practices, which in turn relate to children's academic intrinsic motivation and subsequent achievement. Models were developed separately for reading and math, which are referred to as the parental reading perception model and the parental math perception model, respectively. The remaining two models were created to test relationships between parents' educational beliefs and parental motivational practices and its association with children's intrinsic motivation, and subsequent achievement. Separate models were created for reading and math domains, which are referred to as the parental reading beliefs model and the parental math beliefs model respectively. AMOS 16.0 was used to conduct analyses on the four hypothesized structural equation models. The significant models are presented in Figures 3 and 4, in which circles represent latent variables, and rectangles represent observed variables. Each path being estimated is represented by lines with an arrow. Each model seeks to understand how parental beliefs or perceptions in reading and math influences parents' motivational practices. The predicted outcomes are the children's academic intrinsic motivation and subsequent achievement within the respective school subjects of reading and math. 20

21 A latent variable was created to represent items that comprise parents' reading perceptions and parents' math perceptions, respectively. Additionally, a latent variable was created to represent items that comprise parents' reading beliefs and parents' math beliefs, respectively. The parental reading perception and parental math perception latent variables consisted of 4 items that tapped parents' perceptions of their children's interest, ability, effort, and parents' expectation in the respective school subjects. The parental reading beliefs and parental math beliefs latent variables was based on 3 items pertaining the importance their children receiving the best possible report card grade, learning difficult materials, and doing well in school. Latent variables were created for parental perception and beliefs using items based on scales that were previously developed in an earlier study. The reasoning for this is twofold: 1) to test the internal consistency of items from the scale by examining the factor loadings of the latent variable, 2) to account for measurement error in this model since the previously developed scale (comprised of the same items) has not been used or replicated widely. The factor loadings for the parental perception of academic engagement in reading and math; the factor loadings ranged from J4-.94, and .66-.91, respectively (all/?s<.001). Similar results were found for the latent constructs of parental reading belief and math belief latent constructs ranged from .48-.85, and .66-.86, respectively (all ps<. 001); the significant and salient factor loadings of the items demonstrate support for the internal consistency reliability assessment (Tabachnick & Fidell, 2001). The results showed high loadings for each of the four latent variables

(parental reading beliefs, parental math beliefs, parental reading perceptions, and parental math perceptions) as expected and thus replicated previous findings. Model Assessments Several fit indices were used to assess model fit (Kline, 2005; Tabachnick & Fidell, 2001), including the chi-square value, normed chi-square (NC), root-mean-square error of approximation (RMSEA), goodness-of-fit index (GFI), comparative fit index (CFI), and Akaike information criterion (AIC). It is desired for the chi-square significance value to be less than .05, and the NC (x 2 /df) should be less than 2. Values closer to 1.0 (usually .90 or higher) indicate better fit for the GFI, CFI, and NNFI fit indices (Hu & Bentler, 1999). Models with RMSEA values less than .05 are considered to have close approximate fit, values ranging from .05-.08 indicate reasonable fit with error, and values of .10 or above suggests poor fit (Browne & Cudeck, 1993). Parental Reading Perceptions Model. The parental reading perception model did not have adequate model fit. The chi-square value for this model, x 2 (19, N = 92) = 81.47, p = .00, indicated a lack of adequate fit. The NC value for this model was 81.472/19 = 4.29, suggests that the model does not adequately fit the data. Finally, the values of RMSEA = .19, GFI = .84, CFI = .79, and AIC = 115.47, all suggest that this hypothesized parental reading perception model does not adequately fit the data. Parental Math Perceptions Model. In the parental math perception model, adequate model fit was not found. The chi-square value for this model, x 2 (19, N= 92) = 73.89, p = .00, indicated a lack of adequate fit. The NC for this model was 73.89/19 =

23 3.89. The values of RMSEA = .18, CFI = .80, GFI = .85, and AIC = 107.89, suggesting poor fit of the model to the observed data. Parental Reading Beliefs Model. The parental reading beliefs model demonstrated moderate adequate model fit as examined through several fit indices. For this model, x 2 (13, N= 92) = 21.50, p = .06, andthe NC was 21.50/13 = 1.65. The values of RMSEA = .09, CFI = .92, GFI = .94, and AIC = 51.50, suggest a mediocre fit between this hypothesized model and the observed data (MacCallum, Browne, & Sugawara, 1996). The fit indices are shown in Table 1.0. Path coefficient revealed positive associations between parental reading beliefs and their intrinsic and extrinsic motivational practices (r = .58, p<.001; r = .29, p<.05, respectively) Further, results showed parents' intrinsic practices had a positive relationship (r = .30, p<.01) but parents' extrinsic practices did not significantly relate (r = -.18, ns) with children's intrinsic motivation in reading. Finally, children's achievement in reading was positively related to their intrinsic motivation in reading (r = .22, p<.05). This model is illustrated in Figure 3.0. Table 1.0. Parental Reading Beliefs Model: Fit Indices. Fit Indexes Fit Statistics Root Mean Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA) 0.09 Chi-Square/Degrees of Freedom (21.498/13) 1.65 Comparative Fit Index (CFI) 0.92 Goodness-of-Fit Index (GFI) 0.94 Model AIC 51.50

Figure 3.0. Parental Reading Beliefs Model: Modeling the relationships of parents' reading beliefs on parental motivational practices, and parental motivational practices on children's academic intrinsic motivation and subsequent achievement in reading. 0.34 Importance of child doing well in Reading Importance of child receiving best possible report card grade in Reading Importance of child learning difficult material in Reading 0.85 *— 0.66 f 0.48 / 0.. ' Parental Beliefs in v Reading 0. Parental Motivational Practices - Intrinsic 0.08 Parental Motivational Practices - Extrinsic 0.30* 0.10 0.05 Children's Intrinsic Motivation - Reading 7 \~ 0.22* • Children's Academic Achievement Reading -0.18 Note: (*) indicates significant path coefficient, p<.05. (**) indicates significant padi coefficient when p<.01. (***) indicate significant path coefficient when p<.001. to

25 Parental Math Beliefs Model. The model demonstrated adequate fit as examined through several fit indices. For this model, x 2 (13, N= 92) = 19.19,/? = .12, and the NC was 19.19/13 = 1.48. The values of RMSEA = .07, CFI = .96, GFI = .94, and AIC = 49.19, suggest close approximate fit between this hypothesized model and the observed data. The fit indices are shown in Table 2.0. Path coefficient revealed a positive associations between parental reading beliefs and their intrinsic and extrinsic motivational practices (r = .57, p<.001; r = .34, p<.01, respectively). Further, results showed parents' intrinsic practices had positive associations (r = .20, p<.05) and parents' extrinsic practices had negative associations (r = ^.30, p<.01) with children's intrinsic motivation in reading, which had a positive impact on their academic achievement in reading (r = .36, p<.001). Results of the parental math beliefs model are illustrated in Figure 4.0. Table 2.0. Parental Math Beliefs Model: Fit Indices. Fit Indexes Fit Statistics Root Mean Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA) 0.07 Chi-Square/Degrees of Freedom (21.498/13) 1.48 Comparative Fit Index (CFI) 0.96 Goodness-of-Fit Index (GFI) 0.94 Model AIC 49.19

Figure 4.0. Parental Math Beliefs Model: Modeling the relationships of parents' math beliefs on parental motivational practices, and parental motivational practices on children's academic intrinsic motivation and subsequent achievement in math. 0.32 Importance of child doing well in Math Importance of child receiving best possible report card grade in Math Importance of child learning difficult material in Math V 0.86 «— 0.66 — ( 0.71 0.. ' Parental Beliefs in <v Math o.: Parental Motivational Practices - Intrinsic 0.20* 0.10 0.13 Children's Intrinsic Motivation- Math 7 V 0.36*** -H Children's Academic Achievement Math -0.30* 0.12 Parental Motivational Practices - Extrinsic Note: (*) indicates significant path coefficient, p<.05. (**) indicates significant path coefficient when p<.01. (***) indicate significant path coefficient when p<001. to

CHAPTER 4 DISCUSSION The present study sought to examine the role of parents' educational beliefs and perceptions of children's academic engagement in reading and math, and investigate how these cognitive dimensions of parental involvement are related to parents' motivational practices. Further, it also seeks to investigate how parents' motivational practices in turn affect children's academic motivation and subsequent achievement. Several conclusions emerged from this study. First, items that comprised the parental beliefs and parental perception constructs showed cohesive relationships and thus the previously developed scales are concluded to be reliable. Second, the hypothesized parental reading and math belief models demonstrated that the models had adequate fit. The parental reading perception and math perception models did not reveal adequate fit of the data. The findings of this study showed that parents' beliefs are related to parental involvement, while parents' perceptions did not relate to parents' involvement. It may be that parents' beliefs may be formed prior to parenthood through one's education, experiences, and own upbringing. These educational beliefs may be inherent and predetermined to parents' actual actions. Parents' perceptions, on the other hand, may simply be parents' interpretation or gauge of reality, yet may not necessarily predict parents' involvement, through their motivational practices. Parents' perceptions of 27

children's academic engagement did not significantly predict parental involvement, whereas parents' educational beliefs did significantly predict parents' involvement. Parents' beliefs about the importance of their child doing well, receiving the best possible report card grade, and learning difficult materials in reading and math showed significant associations with parental motivational practices. Parental intrinsic motivational practices had a significant and positive relationship with children's reading and math intrinsic motivation, which in turn was significantly and positively related to their academic achievement in reading and math respectively. Parental extrinsic motivational practices was significantly and positively related to children's intrinsic motivation in math, but was not related to children's intrinsic motivation in reading. Perhaps parents' use of extrinsic rewards or encouragement does not motivate children to read, which may require less parental involvement once children develop an interest in reading, and when children's reading skills are developed. Success in mathematics may require more parental encouragement, whether through intrinsic motivational encouragement or extrinsic motivational encouragement, especially when math problems become more challenging with each new topic learned. This study demonstrated that when parents believed it was important for their child to do well in reading and math, they reported using more intrinsic and extrinsic practices to encourage their children. Accordingly, when parents used more intrinsic motivational practices, children reported being more intrinsically motivated in reading and math, which in turn positively impacted children's reading and math achievement.

However, children reported being less intrinsically motivated in math when parents utilized more extrinsic motivational practices to encourage their children. Education & Policy Implications The findings presented here have important theoretical, educational, and practical implications. Future research regarding parental socialization and involvement processes in children's academic lives can benefit from the results found. It is important to understand the psychological mechanisms that can influence parents' involvement in children's schooling, and advance theoretical development that investigate the processes by which parents' beliefs and practices can help cultivate children's academic intrinsic motivation. Federal and state policies that seek to develop programs to help increase parental involvement can include aspects of educating parents about the benefits of children's academic success. This can help parents internalize educational beliefs regarding the importance of their children doing well, receiving the best possible report card grade, and learning difficult materials in school, which could help to enhance their intrinsic motivational practices thus positively impacting children's motivation and achievement. Further, it is imperative for educational institutions to understand how parental motivational practices are related to their educational beliefs when considering methods to help get parents involved in children's academic lives. Children's academic success is not solely dependent on one factor, the development of their success require participation from many different people in their lives, including, parents, teachers, and peers.

Collaboration and cooperation from each party will help each student to develop to his or her best abilities. Limitation and Future Direction While several important implications emerged, there are a few limitations to this study. The sample population in this study included a predominantly Caucasian population, Future research investigations should aim to include a more diverse population to gain insight about whether similar relationships are found among other ethnicities. Iyengar and Lepper (1999) found cultural differences between Asian American and Anglo American students' intrinsic motivation in regards to the task choices that were based on trusted authority figures such as their mothers or teachers. Parental educational beliefs and parental perceptions of children's academic engagement were reported from mothers and did not include fathers' perspectives. Inclusion of mothers', fathers', teachers', and peers' beliefs, perceptions, and motivational strategies can help determine how these individual may uniquely contribute to the development of students' academic intrinsic motivation and achievement. It has been found that social support from teachers and peers are motivating factors of children's achievement (Juvonen, 2007; Wentzel, 2005). Further, it would be beneficial to examine the child's own perceptions of these individuals' beliefs, perceptions, and motivational strategies that may shape other important factors of their intrinsic motivation such as self-theories, beliefs, perceptions, regulations, and expectations. Measurement of parental motivational practices was not subject-specific, and examining these practices in specific school subjects would be beneficial to

31 understanding the specificity of parental involvement. Further, conducting a longitudinal study would help determine developmental patterns of parental involvement with regards to children's academic intrinsic motivation and achievement over time. Finally, the small sample size of this study could have affected the results; and analyses used in this study were correlational in nature and should be interpreted with caution. Human behaviors are complex and can not be truly explained through mere correlation; other extraneous or confounding variables may also influence the outcomes of these relationships observed. Conclusion Relationships among various aspects of parental involvement and children's academic intrinsic motivation and achievement were explored in this study. While parents' perceptions models did not show significant results, several conclusions emerged suggesting that parental motivational practices were related to non-behavioral factors of parental involvement such as parents' educational belief. Parental involvement, as indicated by parents' use of intrinsic and extrinsic motivational practices, was associated with children's academic motivation and subsequent achievement. With regards to reading, when parents believed it was important for their child to do well, receive the best grade, and challenging materials, they tended to use more intrinsic and extrinsic motivational practices to encourage their children. Subsequently, when parents facilitated more task-endogenous encouragement, children reported having higher academic intrinsic motivation, and their achievement in reading was also higher. Similarly, when parents rated higher on the importance of math achievement, they reported using more intrinsic and extrinsic motivational practices. Additionally, when parents encouraged

32 their children in math using intrinsic motivational practices, children's intrinsic motivation in math was higher, while their use of extrinsic practices led to lower intrinsic motivation in math. Finally, children's academic achievement in math was higher when they reported having higher intrinsic motivation in math. The findings suggest that parents' educational beliefs about the importance of children's achievement in reading and math are important non-behavioral factors that relate to their behavioral involvement such as their motivational practices. These practices, in turn, are uniquely related to children's academic intrinsic motivation and subsequent achievement in math and reading. Perhaps parents' educational beliefs about reading and math achievement help to guide their involvement, just as one's religious beliefs may guide his or her actions and decisions. These educational beliefs may also be deep rooted and established even prior to parenthood and are influenced by their own experiences, education, or other socioeconomic factors. This study contributes to the ongoing established research that parents are important figures in the children's academic development.

APPENDIX Parental Perceptions Items 1 . How interested is your child in the following school areas? S9M1 S9M2 Not At All Interested Reading 1 Math 1 2 2 Moderately Interested 3 4 3 4 5 5 Very Strongly Interested 6 6 2. How much ability do you think you child has in the following school areas? S9M11 S9M12 Reading Math Very Little 1 1 2 2 Average 3 4 3 4 5 5 Very Much 6 6 3. How much effort does your child put into his/her school work in the following areas? S9M16 S9M17 Reading Math Very Little 1 1 2 2 Moderate 3 4 3 4 5 5 Very Much 6 6 4. How well do you expect your child to do in the following areas by the end of this school year? S9M21 S9M22 Reading Math Poorly 1 1 2 2 33 Average 3 4 3 4 5 5 Superior 6 6

Parental Beliefs Items 1. How important is it to you that your child does well in the following areas? Not At All Moderately Very Important Important Important S9M26 Reading 1 2 3 4 5 6 S9M27 Math 1 2 3 4 5 6 2. How important is it to you that your child receives the best possible report card grade in the following areas? S9M43 S9M44 Not At All Important Reading 1 Math 1 2 2 Moderately Important 3 4 3 4 5 5 Very Important 6 6 3. How important is it to you that your child learns difficult material in the following areas? S9M48 S9M49 Not At All Important Reading 1 Math 1 2 2 Moderately Important 3 4 , 3 4 5 5 Very Important 6 6

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