Love, Money and Involved Parenting? Associations Between Parents’ Perceptions of Economic Inequality, Financial Scarcity, and Their School Involvement

It has been suggested previously that rising economic inequality would push parents to become overly involved in their children’s academic lives. In the present investigation we examined whether parents’ perceptions of economic inequality, in terms of perceived income inequality and perceived job insecurity, is predictive of their school involvement, thereby distinguishing between controlling and autonomy-supportive school involvement. Further, we also tested whether these associations are particularly pronounced among parents facing financial scarcity. To test these hypotheses, we gathered data among 908 parents (58.70% mothers), who filled out questionnaires assessing their perceptions of income inequality and job insecurity, their financial scarcity, as well as their controlling and autonomy-supportive school involvement. Analyses indicated that higher levels of perceived income inequality related to more autonomy-supportive school involvement, whereas higher levels of perceived job insecurity related to more controlling school involvement. Parents’ financial scarcity did not moderate any of the associations, but higher levels of financial scarcity consistently predicted more controlling school involvement. To conclude, these results suggest that both parents’ macro-economic perceptions as well as their personal financial situation shape their child-rearing practices in ways that may potentially perpetuate socio-economic disparities.