Differential Ecologies of Teacher and Parent Warm Involvement: A Pattern-Centered Analysis of Students' Academic Engagement

Students’ academic development is influenced by the differing social ecologies they inhabit, including the supportive interactions they experience with teachers and parents. To gain a more holistic understanding of how social contexts shape academic engagement during third-sixth grade, this study utilized a pattern-centered approach, in which median splits of teacher and parent reports of their involvement were used to create four social ecologies: (1) high teacher/parent support; (2) high teacher/low parent support; (3) low teacher/high parent support; and (4) low teacher/parent support. Results demonstrated that students belonging to ecologies with higher support from both adults had the highest levels of student- and teacher-reported engagement at both timepoints compared to students with high support from just one or neither adult.