Parental Involvement in the Academic Performance of Students in Ghana: Socio-Economic Status

: The purpose of the study was to assess the socioeconomic status and levels of parental involvement on the academic performance of Junior High School Students in the Upper West Akim District in Ghana. The study adopted the quantitative approach and specifically used the descriptive survey design. Simple random sampling and purposive sampling techniques were used for the selection of schools and respondents for the study. The main instrument used for data collection was questionnaire. The Statistical Product and Service Solutions (SPSS) software version 22 was used for analysis of data gathered. The study concluded that, parents’ socioeconomic status specifically; education, occupation and income levels, is an important factor that determines the academic performance of students in the Upper West Akim District. The educational and income statuses have a positive relationship with the academic performance of students. The findings from the study also revealed that, parents who ensure that their children study at home, provide their educational needs, discuss their progress with their teachers and attend PTA meetings regularly have children who perform better academically as compared to children whose parents do not see to it that their children study at home, provide the educational needs of their children, discuss their children’s learning with teachers and attend PTA meeting regularly. It is recommended that, Considering the strong positive relationship between parental involvement and academic performance, it is recommended that government through the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) should educate parents, teachers and school managers on the relevance of parental involvement in the education of the child and the need for the school to create an atmosphere that would involve parents in the education of their wards. It is also recommended that, adult literacy should be enhanced by government to improve the level of education of parents in the Upper West Akim District which will go a long way to improve participation of parents in children’s education and hence improve their academic performance.


Introduction
Education plays an essential role in the acquisition of knowledge and skills. Educational statuses of the parents and students' academic achievement have a close relationship. This is because parents themselves having being to school realized the importance of being educated. They stand better chance to support their children for better academic achievement. These students received encouragement and motivation from the family perform better in schools than their counterparts from non-encouraging families [1].
The United Nations Report highlighted education as a basic right and need which is significant in the accomplishment of the second goal of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) [2]. This is because good education, and for that matter, high academic performance guarantees skilled and dynamic citizens. A person's education is closely linked to his life chances, income, and well-being [3]. Therefore, it is important to have a clear understanding of what benefits or hinders one's academic achievement. Family is the initial contact where the child learns the concept of authority, good manners and respect for elders. It also lays down or determines the intellectual development of the child through activities that develop language and number competence in the child [4].
Basically, lack of parents' involvement in the welfare of their children immensely contributes to students' low performance. Students' attitudes towards their learning have been highlighted. There is a proverb which says "you can lead a horse to the river but you can't force to drink." But with proper guidance students' mindset can be changed. Effective teaching and learning result into high quality teaching staff required for high quality education [5]. Parental involvement in schooling also predicts achievement [5,6]. Variance in psycho-social and emotional fortification in the family background could be an indicator to high or low academic performance of students, bearing in mind the intervening effect of high and low socio-economic status and emotional stability of students which is a pre-requisite for academic achievement [7]. This is because psychological problems are potential sources of trouble with learning.
The involvement of parents in the education of the child is very crucial. Socioeconomic status of single-parent and household dynamics being ever-changing has an influence on student learning, and if there was a relationship between single parent households and parental involvement with student learning [7].
This study therefore sought to find out whether the differences in academic performance among JHS students in the district can be attributed to differences in students' socioeconomic status and levels of parental involvement and which of the conditions studied has the strongest effect on students' performance. The Upper West Akim District was chosen for the study because the researcher works in the District Education Directorate as a Circuit Supervisor and is much aware of the issue of poor students' performance especially at the JHS level and the desire to find the actual cause of poor academic performance among most JHS students necessitated the conduct of this study.
This study therefore sought to find out whether the differences in academic performance among JHS students in the district can be attributed to differences in students' socioeconomic status and levels of parental involvement and which of the conditions studied has the strongest effect on students' performance. The Upper West Akim District was chosen for the study because the researcher works in the District Education Directorate as a Circuit Supervisor and is much aware of the issue of poor students' performance especially at the JHS level and the desire to find the actual cause of poor academic performance among most JHS students necessitated the conduct of this study. The purpose of the study was to assess the socioeconomic status and levels of parental involvement on the academic performance of Junior High School Students in the Upper West Akim District. The study was guided by these hypotheses-HI 1: Students from high socioeconomic status families perform better academically than those from medium and low socioeconomic status families. HI 2: There is significant positive relationship between parental involvement and students' academic performance.

Socioeconomic Background and Academic Performance
The socio-economic status of a family is capable of affecting the behaviour of the children and determines their aspiration. Families with high socio-economic status often have more success in preparing their children for school because they typically have access to wide range of options that provide their young children with high quality child-Patrick Kwarteng et al.

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care, books and encourage children in various learning activities at home. They also have easy access to information regarding their children's health, as well as social, emotional and cognitive development, in all socio-economic groups, parents face major challenges when it comes to providing optimal care and education for their children and these challenges are more pronounced in poor families [8]. This, according to Ojo and Yilma, when the basic necessities are lacking, parents must place top priority on housing, food, clothing and health care, regarding education materials and books as luxuries. They added that poor families may also have inadequate or limited access to community resources that promote and support children's development and school readiness. They further asserted that these disadvantages can negatively affect families' decisions regarding their children's development and learning [8]. The situation according to Ojo and Yilma may also expose the infants in poor families to a greater risk of entering kindergarten schools unprepared unlike their peers from rich families. Again, the health status of children which could also be traceable to parental socioeconomic background can be another factor that can affect the academic performance of the students [8]. In a rural community where nutritional status is relatively low and health problems are prevalent, children's academic performance is greatly hindered [9]. This assertion is again hinged on the nature of parental socioeconomic background. Moreover, a researcher opined that, when a child gets proper nutrition, health care and stimulation during preschool years, the ability to interact and take optimal advantage of the full complement of resources offered by any formal learning environment is enhanced [10].
A relationship among the courses opted by different children belonging to different socioeconomic status families. The students from higher income families tend towards the costly and more beneficial courses while the students of poor families go towards the cheaper study programmes [11]. Basically, great challenges are faced by parents at the time when they start to send their children to the schools. The children always have competition with their counterparts in having the type of notebooks and type of toys. The children from rich families always use costly toys to play which make poor children to feel low [12]. Socioeconomic status of parents not only influences the development of children at home but it also develops a competition among the students belonging to persons of different social and economic strata. The children of parents belonging to low socioeconomic status feel depressed as against students from higher socioeconomic status [13]. The differences among the students exist due to the family backgrounds such as nutrition and health status, environment at home, income of parents, their educational level and experiences as well as means of recreation in the family are the main factors that affect the educational and social achievement of students [14]. A study by Oni and Omoegun concluded that, a significant difference exists among the rate of deviant behaviour among the students belonging to different socioeconomic statuses. The findings of this current study support the previous research study by Oni and Omoegun postulated that, children from low-income families are more likely to exhibit deviant behaviour than children from high-income families [15]. This is because parents of lowincome families lack control over their children as a result of their inability to provide the basic needs of the children such as food, clothes, shelter and education.
Studies have proven that socio-economic status influences students' achievements [16,17]. Students with low socio-economic status parents show poor result and are more likely to drop out of school [16,17]. Many research studies have shown that socioeconomic status is a factor responsible for the academic attainment of students. In addition, in a Meta-analysis of 620 respondent's correlations coefficient from 100 students, describes that there is a definite relationship between socio-economic status and academic achievement of the students [18]. He noted that the frequency obtained correlation ranged from 0.10 to 0.70 which is a positive relationship. It means that if one factor is increased the other also increases. It came to light that those children whose socio-economic status is strong show better academic performance and those with poor socio-economic status show poor and unsatisfactory academic performance [18].
To be academically triumphant, many researchers have proved that the parents' literacy play a pivotal role in it [19]. It is a consistent finding across numerous countries that individuals with higher levels of schooling have children who also attain higher levels of schooling [20]. There are two main sources of this intergenerational correlation and distinguishing between them is of considerable importance. The first explanation of the intergenerational link is a selection story-characteristics that lead parents to select into higher levels of education may also impact their abilities in child-raising or be related to other genetic and environmental factors share with their children that will lead the children to also achieve higher levels of education. The second explanation is a casual story-as a result of attaining more education, the parents with higher levels of schooling provide a better childhood experience and home environment and consequently their children do better in school. The relationship between parent's education and their children's academic success is on the notion that the parents gain knowledge of parenting and this influence their interaction at home [21]. In a 2005 article published by the London Review of Education, Eccles noted that parents with higher education levels have stronger confidence in their child's academic abilities, and they also have higher expectations of their child. They expect that their child will earn good grades, behave well in school and attend college. These high expectations motivate their child to do well. The confidence they have in their child builds his own confidence in his academic abilities and makes him more likely to succeed. Again, in an article for the National Institutes of Health, a professor of psychology at Bowling Green State University, reports that data analysed over time suggests that maternal education plays a significant role in a child's developing intellectperhaps even more than his family's socioeconomic status. Similarly, a 2005 study by the Institute of Social Research at the University of Michigan found that a parent's education directly affects standardized achievement testing scores of their children [22].
In Ghana, studies have shown that there is a positive correlation between a parent's educational attainment and the type of school the child attends. Highly educated fathers appear to send their children to well-endowed schools than less educated fathers [23]. Also findings in a recent study conducted by Opoku in three communities namely Srodae, Betom and Adweso in the New Juaben Municipality in Ghana showed that, women's socioeconomic status affect the academic attainment of their children [24]. The results of the bivariate analysis showed that, occupation of women, education of women, marital status of women and economic status of women were all significantly related to the academic attainment of their children, at α = 0.05. Mothers who were educated were three (3) times (OR=3.29) more likely to have children with high academic attainment than mothers who were not educated [24]. It can be concluded that the more educated parents are, to an extent, the more likely are their children to perform well in their education. This assertion has been supported by the study by Good and Brophy which stressed that educated parents usually show interest in their children's academic performance and choice of career while in school [25].

Parents Involvement in the Education of Children and their Academic Performance
Parental involvement, that is "parents' interactions with schools and with their children to promote academic success" (Hill and Taylor 2004, p. 149), is an umbrella term that includes a variety of behaviours and activities of parents directly or indirectly related to the education of their children. On the other hand, Berthelsen and Walker use Reynolds' and Clements' (2005) broad definition of parental involvement which is "parental behaviour with, or on behalf of children, at home or at school, as well as the expectations that parents hold for children's future education" [26]. Jeyne's definition of parental involvement is also all-encompassing, stating that it refers to "parental participation in the educational process and experiences of their children" [27]. Many researchers traditionally viewed parental involvement as "purposeful actions by parents to engage with their children's school, or school related activities" [28] However, they suggest that, more recently, parental involvement is seen as the 'tacit' aspects of parenting, such as expectations of children's academic performance, communication and parenting styles. 'Parental involvement' is generally used to refer only to those activities that take place in the school, such as volunteering, meeting with teachers, attending school events and parent-teacher conferences [29]. They prefer to use the term 'parental engagement' as "partnerships between families, schools and communities, raising parental awareness about the benefits of becoming engaged in their children's education, and providing them with the skills to do so" [29]. Although the terms parent involvement and parent engagement are often used interchangeably, researchers and practitioners make important distinctions between the two and use them intentionally [30]. She also observes that definitions of 'parent involvement' tend to be focused on programs or activities that are initiated and directed by schools to try and involve parents in school activities or to teach parents skills for reinforcing school tasks at home. Cronin suggests that the term 'parent engagement' is increasingly being adopted by practitioners. Parents can help children do better in school by making time for the children, read or tell stories to them, help the children build a self-esteem, discipline the children, motivate the children, build a sense of responsibility in the children, reinforce learning in the children, help children with their homework and get to know the children's teachers. Parents are important in providing environmental, social and economic factors, which have powerful effects on pupils' academic lives. Academic performance of students heavily depends upon the parental involvement in their academic activities to attain the higher level of quality in academic success [31]. Parental participation in pre-school activities includes a wide range of behaviours but generally refers to parents' and family members' use and investment of resources in their children's schooling. These investments can take place in or outside of school, with the intention of improving children's learning. Parental involvement at home can include activities such as discussions about school, helping with homework, and reading with children. Involvement at school may include parents volunteering in the classroom, attending workshops, or attending school plays and sporting events [32]. As parental involvement is one of the most malleable factors of the student's home situation, it has become a relevant subject for schools and educational policy.
The role of parents in the school environment is very different to their role in the home, thus the effect that parental involvement in school has on a child's academic achievement is difficult to determine [29]. They point to reports dating back to the 1960s in both the United Kingdom and the United States which insist that schools make little difference to student outcomes. They note that, since then, "Many studies have confirmed that family background and other non-school factors are more influential than schools in determining academic outcomes" [29]. They suggest that it is difficult to quantify the relative influence of parental involvement due to "the difference in parental engagement across studies; lack of standardization of parental engagement approaches (thereby making it impossible to 'tease apart' or isolate the relative impact of home and school); and lack of agreed measures of parental engagement" [29]. Despite this, they state that there is broad consensus that positive parental engagement significantly influences student academic attainment [29]. There is an important distinction between involving parents in schooling and engaging parents in learning. They note that it is the latter that has the greatest influence over academic achievement. The authors state that "while involving parents in school activities may have an important community and social function; it is the engagement of parents in learning in the home that brings about positive changes in children's academic attainment" [29]. They suggest that parental engagement promotes shared responsibility for education between both parents and teachers and enables the learning process to move beyond the school environment [29]. Therefore, parental support and a good home environment can motivate students to achieve and learn.
A significant body of research that indicates that parental involvement impacts positively on student learning outcomes [33]. He notes that much of this research concludes that "the most accurate predictor of student achievement is the extent to which the family is involved in the student's education", and that the "family's contribution remains critical from the earliest years of childhood to the end of secondary schooling" [33]. Research indicates that parental involvement by parents in academics at home is more important for academic achievement than involvement at school [34]. It is only at home that parental involvements have positive effects on achievement and adjustment [35].
Conflicting with the above arguments, recent researchers are disputing the link between parental involvement in school settings and successful educational outcomes [28]. A study by Fan and Williams concluded that parental expectations are a more significant predictor of academic achievement than parental involvement within the school [36]. The study by Fan and Williams analysed a representative cohort of over 15000 high school students and found that high parental aspirations for their child's secondary education were positively predictive of student's self-efficacy, engagement and motivation in both mathematics and English. Fan and Williams suggest that this may be due to students' internalization of parental values [36].

Materials and Methods
This study adopted the quantitative research approach and descriptive survey design. The population of the study consisted of all Junior High School Students in the Upper West Akim District. There are forty-four (44) Junior High Schools in the district with a total of three thousand, four hundred and twenty (3420) students [37]. The target population therefore was three thousand four hundred and twenty (3420). simple random and purposive sampling techniques were used to select the study district, schools and respondents for the study. Two (2) schools from each of the seven (7) circuits in the district making a total of fourteen (14) Junior High Schools were randomly selected for the study. This was done to ensure that all seven (7) circuits in the district were fairly represented and to reduce sampling error. For each of the fourteen (14) sampled schools, simple random sampling technique was used to select 30% of students based on their enrolment. A total of three hundred and seventy-four (374) students were sampled. Purposive sampling technique was used to select three (3) teachers who were class teachers from each of the fourteen (14) sampled schools. A total of forty-two (42) teachers were sampled. The class teachers were involved in the study because they were closer to the students and have a lot of information on students and their homes that helped the study. The sample size for this study therefore was four hundred and twenty (416) representing 11.4 percent of the target population. This was based on Kreejie and Morgan (1970) assertion that at least 10 percent of a study population gives a proportional representation. The main instrument used for data collection in this study was questionnaire. Data analysis was done by using the SPSS software package version 22. The data was edited, coded and analysed into frequencies, percentages with interpretations. Correlation, cross tabulation and a Chi Square were used to establish the relationship among variables.

Socioeconomic Status of Parents and Academic Performance of Students
Socioeconomic status is the social standing of an individual in society with respect to his or her level of education, income, type of occupation and general quality of life. It also includes his or her access to goods and services in the market place. The upper-class 'persons are influential and powerful in their communities' [38]. On the other hand, people with low socioeconomic statuses are seen as 'low in prestige and power'. Indeed, the factors that determine one's class may vary from one society to another and even within the same society.
Results from the study indicated that majority of parents of JHS students in the Upper West Akim District belong to the low and medium socioeconomic background 251 (80.7%) with only 60 (19.3%) in the high socioeconomic background. Generally, parental education was low in the Upper West Akim District. About (80%) of parents had either no education or just basic education and (4.5%) with tertiary education, an indication that parents in the study area have not attained higher education. The low parental education level to a large extent, accounted for the low academic performance of most of the JHS students in the district. This is because most parents are not able to read to their children especially during infancy and also help them with their homework. Most children of noneducated parents will have lower academic achievements when compared to those from educated homes. Again, to be academically successful, many researchers have proved that the parents' literacy play a pivotal role in it. The role played by family is essential in both formal and informal education [19]. It is a consistent finding across numerous countries that individuals with higher levels of schooling have children who also attain higher levels of schooling [20].
The result of the study also shows that the socioeconomic background of parents, particularly parents' occupation and income levels determined the financial capability in providing the educational needs of their children. Most parents in the study area are either unemployed or are not on jobs that earn them regular income. It was shown that over (70%) of parents are farmers; these are small holder subsistence farmers with very low income levels. Most students therefore lack items such as calculators, textbooks, story books, study rooms among others. The low family income results in poor feeding as most children come to school without money for feeding and also have to support family income in diverse ways. For example, selling of coconuts and other commodities in the streets after school and even in the night, motorbike services popularly known as "Okada" business, provision of labour in the farms of others for money among others. This is in line with the "Good parent" theory propounded by Adams & Singh which holds that, low income hurts children not because poor families have less money to invest in their children, but because low income reduces parents' ability to be "good parents". There are two versions of the theory; the parental stress version and the role model version. The "parental stress" version which dominates psychology holds that poverty is stressful and that stress diminishes parents' ability to be supportive, consistent and involved in their children's education. The role model version holds that low income parents develop values, norms and behaviours that are "dysfunctional" for success in the dominant culture. In this case, their children in turn adopt their parents' dysfunctional behaviour; as a result, the children's own chances of success decline [39].
Children from low-income families are more likely to exhibit deviant behaviour than children from high-income families. This is because parents of low-income families lack control over their children as a result of their inability to provide the basic needs of the children such as food, clothes, shelter and education [15]. In addition, Francis opines that the lower income families may be aware of the importance of education in the society, but at the same time, they are also aware of their limited resources to measure up with such educational demands. According to the author, a family that can scarcely provide for the basic needs of the family which include food, shelter and clothing will hardly motivate the academic excellence of their children, instead they will pressurize their children to seek job opportunities with the little education they acquired so far to support the family [40]. The Table 1 revealed that socioeconomic status do have some significant influence on academic performance. Table 1 above, representation from low socioeconomic statuses were 20 in number. Out of this, 16 of them had poor academic performance representing 80 per cent, and 4 had average academic performance representing 20 per cent. Also, 228 of the students reported coming from medium socio-economic statuses families. Out of this number, 132 representing 57.9 percent had poor academic performance, 92 representing 40.4 per cent had an average performance scores and 4 representing 1.8 per cent had good academic performance scores. Finally, 58 of the students reported as wards from parents with high socioeconomic statuses. Out of the number, 24 of them representing 41.4 per cent had poor academic performance scores, 28 of them representing 48.3 per cent had an average academic performance scores whilst 6 representing 10.3 per cent had good academic performance scores. These differences in relationship were found to be significant with a Chi Square value of 18.48, p <.01. The result suggests that socioeconomic status do have some significant influence on academic performance. Table 1 revealed again that, at least the number of students who performed 'good' were relatively higher for those from high SES, followed by Medium but those in low SES had no representation. Interestingly, 4 of the low socioeconomic status group had an average performance scores indicating that at least not all were poor in performance. In the same vein, more than half of the representation of the medium group had poor academic performance scores and less than half of the high SES group had poor academic performance scores. These interesting outcomes indicate that other potential variables (e.g. intelligence, teacher factor, environmental conditions, selfbelief/esteem of students etc.) other than socio-economic status may exert some significant influence on academic performance.

Parental Involvement and Academic Performance of Students
Berthelsen and Walker used Reynolds' and Clements' (2005) broad definition of parental involvement which is "parental behaviour with, or on behalf of children, at home or at school, as well as the expectations that parents hold for children's future education" [26]. Parental school involvement consists of volunteering at school, communicating with teachers and other school personnel, assisting in academic activities at home, attending school events, meetings of Parent-Teacher Associations (PTAs), and parent-teacher conferences [41]. Also, Fan and William mentioned four types of parental involvement which include basic obligations, school-to-home communication, parents' involvement at school, and parents' involvement in learning activities at home [36].
The study revealed the strongest positive relationship between parental involvement and academic performance of students. With (β=0.28) of parental involvement, standard deviation (SD) of 5.18 and SD of academic performance at 14.46, it means that for every 5.18 increase in parental involvement in their children's school activities, there is increase of 4.05 scores in terms of their children's academic performance. In line with this finding in the study, Barnard (2004) noted that academic performance of students heavily depends upon the parental involvement in their academic activities to attain the higher level of quality in academic success. Again, further researches in support of this study regarding parental involvement and academic achievement have shown consistently that parental involvement is integral to high student academic achievement. Parent's involvement in their children's education is the single most important predictor of student academic success [42]. Parents have a major influence on their children's achievement in school and through life. When parents are involved in their children's education, students of all backgrounds and income levels are found to perform better in academic work and extra curricula activities [43]. Also, a study conducted by Etsey, Amedahe, and Edjah revealed that the inability of parents to provide the basic needs of students, attend Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) meetings and limited interaction with children's teachers among others are some of the causes of low academic performance of some public schools in Ghana [44].
Notwithstanding the relationships between parental involvement and academic performance that was found to be statistically significant with a Chi Square value of 12.80 and p <.01, the interesting revelation from Table 2 is that, in terms of good academic performance percentage ratings, those in the low level parental involvement category had relatively higher score of 53.8 per cent and 46.2 per cent for those in high parental school involvement category. The findings from the study suggest that parental involvement in the education of children alone does not contribute to high academic performance among Junior High School Children in the Upper West Akim District but other variables apart of parental involvement may contribute to academic performance. Result is presented in Table 2 below.

Note: Percentage per parental involvement representation is in parentheses
The result in Tab 2 indicates that 182 students reported that their parents were less involved in terms of their school activities. Out of this number, 122 representing 67 percent had poor academic performance scores, 53 representing 29.1 per cent had an average academic performance scores whilst 7 representing 3.8 percent had good academic performance scores. In addition, 148 of the students reported that their parent highly gets themselves involve in terms of their school activities. Out of the number, 71 representing 48 per cent had poor academic performance scores, 71 representing 48 per cent had an average academic performance scores and 6 representing 4 per cent had good academic performance scores. These relationships were found to be statistically significant with a Chi Square value of 12.80 and p <.01. The interesting revelation is that, in terms of good academic performance percentage ratings, those in the low level parental involvement category had relatively higher score of 53.8 per cent and 46.2 per cent for those in high parental school involvement category.

Conclusions and Recommendations
The study concluded that, parents' socioeconomic status specifically; education, occupation and income levels, is an important factor that determines the academic performance of students in the Upper West Akim District. The educational and income statuses have a positive relationship with the academic performance of students. This is because parents themselves having being to school realised the importance of education. They stand a better position to support their children for better academic performance. This implies that low socioeconomic status may result in poor academic performance of children. It can therefore be concluded that socioeconomic status alone does not account for high students' academic performance in all children but natural endowments in children also contribute to high students' performance.
The findings from the study also revealed that, parents who ensure that their children study at home, provide their educational needs, discuss their progress with their teachers and attend PTA meetings regularly have children who perform better academically as compared to children whose parents do not see to it that their children study at home, provide the educational needs of their children, discuss their children's learning with teachers and attend PTA meeting regularly. Nevertheless, some children with less involved parents who depend on colleagues and others put up performances that were in parity with children with highly involved parents. In spite of the positive correlation that exist between parental involvement and academic performance children as reported by the study, parental involvement alone is not a panacea to high academic performance in all JHS students in the Upper West Akim District.
It is recommended that, Considering the strong positive relationship between parental involvement and academic performance, it is recommended that government through the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) should educate parents, teachers and school managers on the relevance of parental involvement in the education of the child and the need for the school to create an atmosphere that would involve parents in the education of their wards. It is also recommended that, adult literacy should be enhanced by government to improve the level of education of parents in the Upper West Akim District which will go a long way to improve participation of parents in children's education and hence improve their academic performance.