Abstract
Parental care and involvement as well as co-curricular activities in schools are
demonstrated as a key and major factor in the academic performance and outcomes of many
children. Therefore, the major goal for this study and research is to investigate if parental care
and involvement as well as the participation in co-curricular activities in schools can predict the
well-being as well as the academic performance in schools (Kisango, 2016). According to many
studies related to children development in terms of personality, child-parent interconnection as
well as their involvement in various co-curricular activities plays a major influence in many
aspects concerning the development of children in terms of academic performance. According to
the title of the study “Influence of parental care and co-curricular activities on the children’s
education”, this study is based on a quantitative design and it aims at knowing how parent’s
involvement and co-curricular activities affect their overall performance in school. The
respondents to the study were generally 72 students from Integrity National High School. The
results gave out that parental support as well as pressure when combined with the students’
involvement in co-curricular activities really had an impact on the well-being and academic
performance and competence. A find out about analysis was conducted in order to establish the
various differences between the children that participate in low or few co-curricular activities
and those that participate in high or more co-curricular activities. The results are addressed in
terms of how the co-curricular activities as well as parental care and involvement have positive
impacts on children’s education.
PARENTAL CARE AND CO-CURRICULAR ACTIVITIES 3
Introduction
Parental care and involvement in co-curricular activities by children have always been
related with the general academic performance and success as well as the well-being of all
school children. This has been pointed out as a crucial as well as a positive variable on the
academic success of children. These two factors can as well promote the socio-emotional
evolution among children. In considering the ecological framework, the interaction between the
various schools and families can present positively to the socio-emotional as well as cognitive
evolution. The empirical discoveries have shown a positive relationship between the parental
care and involvement in their children’s education and their academic performance. This really
helps children develop a strong self-esteem and also maintaining better school attendance
records. Parental involvement and engaging in co-curricular activities in school in school has
been found to be connected to positive children’s attachments to the school. More researches that
have been done on the same have portrayed that parental involvement and engaging in co-
curricular activities have shown that the various programs that focus on the improving parental
involvement and engagement on co-curricular activities in education have a positive effect on
school communities, families and children.
Parental involvement and child outcomes
Parental-school relationship promotes the conceptualization of the roles as well as the
relationship and the effects on the growth of children on a wide aspect. According to this
PARENTAL CARE AND CO-CURRICULAR ACTIVITIES 4
approach, schools and families are the major players in building their roles and figure of
involvement thus generating new and assorted actions that can be related to according to the
specified educational conditions (Park & Holloway, 2018). The major discoveries in the family
and school relationship demonstrate positive impacts on the same partnership thus contributing
to the academic success as well as performance. Concerning the same study, there is also a bold
support from the various international researches that demonstrate the positive effects of parental
care and involvement towards the success. This is portrayed basing on a variety in meta-analysis
beyond several populations as well as different educational levels. However, there exists a very
wide range when it comes to parental care and involvement in education definitions. This is
because there exists a concurrence among results on research about the general influence of
parental care and involvement towards their educational success.
In accordance to a current systematic literature review on parental involvement on their
children’s education in various cities in America, there is one study from Mexico that was
recognized to be largely influenced by the interference as from the United States (Eichin &
Beach, 2018). In another study, Chile acknowledged the supremacy of the collaboration
connections between schools and families thus coming up with a national policy for all the legal
guardians, fathers as well as mothers involvement to the educational system (Castro-Sandoval et
al., 2019). After this policy was published, there has been the emergence of many different local
initiatives within the country having the aim of strengthening family school relationships (Lara
& Saracostti, 2019). However, majority of the research done within the country has been in a
qualitative nature which focuses majorly on the description of the relationship between all the
family members as well as the schools they are involved in.
PARENTAL CARE AND CO-CURRICULAR ACTIVITIES 5
Generally this study focuses on the advancement on the analysis in the impacts of
parental care and involvement in schools and how this involvement promotes the well-being of
their children as well as their academic performance. This parental involvement can take a broad
variety of forms. These include the continuous communication between the parents and the
school management, supporting all the children’s learning activities both in school and at home
and lastly the parental involvement the various school occasions and activities.
Extracurricular activities and child outcomes
On a general aspect, the children’s involvement in co-curricular activities is associated
with various aspects of positive impacts in the development of children and their overall
performance in school. According to many researches done on the same study, show that the
performance and grades were remarkably high for all the students and children that took part or
participated fairly in co-curricular activities as compared to the performance and grades of the
students that did not participate or took part in the various extracurricular activities (Verma &
Jaiswal, 2020). Some other studies on the impacts of children’s involvements in extracurricular
activities have found that the children who decline to participate in co-curricular activities are
more likely to drop out of school as compared to the students that participate in these co-
curricular activities.
Similar researches and findings have been communicated from a social point of view.
The teenagers who participated on many co-curricular activities usually have high satisfaction in
life as compared to those that participate to a few or no extra-curricular activities thus having
very low life satisfaction. The participation of the children on co-curricular activities usually a
PARENTAL CARE AND CO-CURRICULAR ACTIVITIES 6
positive impact in improving the maturity as well as the ability to make decisions among the
school children. Concerning the same, the engagement in co-curricular activities reduces the
engagements in the various criminal activities in the society. This is because the various co-
curricular activities improve the reasoning as well as the decision making capability. From the
above study on the impacts of children’s involvement in extracurricular activities promotes
positive academic performance as well as all the social outcomes in children.
Methods
Participants in the study
The participants in this study were generally 72 students from Integrity National High
School as well as their parents. These participants were taken from the Integrity National High
School in the Western Canada and there was no any kind of inducement that was offered. The
students had ages that range from 14 years to 18 years. This group of students had a mean age of
15.6 years. Among these students, 41 of them were males while 31 of them were females. The
students were in various grades which included grade 9 (n=12), grade 10 (n=28) and grade 11
(n=32). A large number of the parents who participated in the filling of the questionnaires were
identifies as being married mothers who live with their husbands. These parents had all
completed their post-secondary education which is the Bachelor’s level. All the teachers in the
school were requested to give enough time to the children so that they can get good time in
completing the questionnaires.
Measures
PARENTAL CARE AND CO-CURRICULAR ACTIVITIES 7
The various scales that were used in carrying out the study included the co-curricular
activity engagement questionnaire, the self-perception profiles in children, the parental
involvement in activities scale and the demographic questionnaire scale.
The Self-Perception Profile for Children
This scale comprises the quantity of the perception of the children concerning their
educational competence, athletic competence, collective acceptance, their physical appearance as
well as their behavioral conduct and the overall acknowledgement of self worth. This scale is
made up 36 components and therefore utilizes a structural alternative configuration where the
children are presented in two states. These two states must therefore decide which state is ‘really
true for me’ or which one is ‘sort of true for me’. This type of scale shows to have an acceptable
analysis stability (Granleese & Joseph, 1994).
The Parental Involvement in Activities Scale
This scale explains the measure of the perception of the child towards their parent’s
degree of support as well as pressure concerning the engagements in co-curricular activities.The
questionnaire had 16 components in this scale. This scale is rated by the use of four points. The
first one is ‘never’, the second ‘sometimes’, the third is ‘usually’ and the fourth one is ‘always’.
Using a factor analysis that was done on the results, it was found that parental support as well as
the parental pressure towards co-curricular activities is much high on the children and is thus
reliable (Anderson et al , 2003).
PARENTAL CARE AND CO-CURRICULAR ACTIVITIES 8
The Co-curricular Activity Engagement Questionnaire Scale
This scale includes a list of all the possible co-curricular activities. These co-curricular
are split into five major types. The pro-social activities, performing arts, sports teams, school
involvement activities and the last one is the academic clubs. Each of the students were asked on
the number of times they participate on these activities as per week. They were also asked how
many times they participate on other activities on the same week. The combinations of all these
activities that are carried out within a week were used for the analysis in the study.
The Demographic Questionnaire Scale
The demographic questionnaire was made up questions on the parents’ age, educational
level as well as their marital statuses. On the same questionnaire, the gender and age of their
children were included all the questions in this questionnaire were all optional for the parents.
This questionnaire is used in the examination of the demographic characteristics that can affect
the involvement in co-curricular activities and parental care towards the academic performance
of the students.
Procedure
All the students that were chosen to be used in carrying out the study were taken out of
their classes according to the time they had agreed with their teachers. The reason and the
purpose of carrying out the study was well explained to the students and the students were given
the chance to ask the various questions they had about the study. The students were divided into
PARENTAL CARE AND CO-CURRICULAR ACTIVITIES 9
various groups where they completed and filled three questionnaires, the self-perception profile
for children, the extracurricular activity participation questionnaire and the parental involvement
in activities scale. The demographic questionnaire was given out to the students to go and fill
them from home.
Results
The main goal for this study was to examine and investigate the moderated tracks
towards the wellbeing and academic success from the cooperation between the parental
involvement and extracurricular participation. With much analysis conducted and done on the
study, the major objective for the study is to relay the various findings in the moderated
regression analysis. It is important to note that there was no difference in the gender and the
grades of the variables used to carry out this study.
Moderated regression analysis
To study the interactive tracks in predicting the wellbeing of the children as well as their
academic success and competence, the relationship between the involvement in co-curricular
activities and other two classes of parental care was explored by the use various regression
analysis (Disatnik & Sivan, 2016). The Cohen’s partialed products technique was used. In this
case, all the independent variables are put into a regression equation in the form of a block. This
is then followed by the relationship terms. At all the steps, the coefficient of determination (R 2 )
change was demonstrated to determine the presence of key effects and relationships
PARENTAL CARE AND CO-CURRICULAR ACTIVITIES 10
The relationship terms were generated by the combination of the activity involvement
within a week with the parental pressure as well as the pressure. After the terms were created,
they were then re‐standardized. The interactions (co-curricular involvement within a week *
parental involvement) were evaluated to predict the overall academic performance of the
children.
For the purpose of accessing the moderating effects specific variables were input to the
hierarchical regression analyses. The block of variables include the parental care and
involvement, the second block of variables included the co-curricular activities done in a week
and the third block is the interaction term which is made up of a combination of the parental
support and pressure as well as the participation in co-curricular activities doe in a week.
Parental support
The results obtained from the regression analysis shown that an important relationship
between the parental support and the wellbeing of their children and the various activities the
children carried out within a week. The results made out of a follow-up analysis shown an
important positive correlation on parental support and the wellbeing of their children who carried
out few weekly activities as compared to those that carried out high number of weekly activities.
This then shown as parental support raised, the general wellbeing of the students that carried out
few weekly activities.
Parental pressure
PARENTAL CARE AND CO-CURRICULAR ACTIVITIES 11
The results obtained from the regression analysis shown that an important relationship
between the parental pressure and involvement in the weekly co-curricular activities in
predicting the wellbeing of the children. Relationships were examined by the re-figuring the
regression analysis differently for the students that report below or above the mean in terms of
the participation in the co-curricular activities. Results from this study shown that a negative
correlation exists between the wellbeing of the students who carry out high number of co-
curricular activities per week and the parental pressure. Therefore, this shows that parental
pressure increase causes an improvement in the wellbeing of the students who carry out higher
number of co-curricular activities.
Discussion
The main aim of this study was to examine the influence of parental care and co-
curricular activities on the children’s education. The results obtained from the study shown
various interesting relationships (Johnson et al., 2016). The various levels of parental
involvement can interact with the participation in co-curricular activities to predict the wellbeing
as well as the academic success of their children in schools. Parental support can lead to children
wellbeing. This applies to the children that participate in higher number of co-curricular
activities as compared to those that only participate in low or no co-curricular activities.
There was an important interaction between the parental pressure and the involvement
co-curricular activities in promoting and improving the wellbeing and academic success of
school children and students (King et al., 2020). The division of the co-curricular activities into
low and high levels, a follow-up analysis shown a negative interaction between the students who
participate in high number of co-curricular activities and the parental pressure. This is not the
PARENTAL CARE AND CO-CURRICULAR ACTIVITIES 12
case with the students who participate in low number of the co-curricular activities. Therefore
this shows that parental pressure on the number of activities carried out by their children per
week promotes much to the wellbeing and academic performance of the children.
The students that participate in various co-curricular activities have some specific
features that can gave an impact on their reaction to pressure. Some children may decide to join
co-curricular activities so as to satisfy their needs but on the process experience pressure for their
parents on how they can improve on their performance on the co-curricular activities and this
may cause worries and stress to the children thus causing a decrease in the wellbeing of the
children.
The involvement in co-curricular activities can prevent children from engaging
themselves on bad things in the society such as school drop-out. The co-curricular activities also
improve the skills as well as the thinking capacity of the students. This is because they are able
to face and different situation which allow them to grow emotionally (Ritchie, 2018). Whenever
the parental pressure is considered, the children who participate in many co-curricular activities
experience a negative improvement in their well‐being. It is very possible to find out that
children participating in few co-curricular activities experience other negative effects on their
lives. Therefore, pressure does not affect their well‐being.
There is an extra important interaction between parental pressure and the involvement in
extracurricular activities that promote the prediction of academic success and competence
(Boonk et al., 2018). A follow‐up analysis showed that negative correlation between pressure
PARENTAL CARE AND CO-CURRICULAR ACTIVITIES 13
and academic success and competence for the children who involve themselves in low numbers
of co-curricular activities and not for the case of those who engage in the participation of high
numbers of co-curricular activities. This shows that for children that participate in fewer co-
curricular activities, the pressure from parents cause a negative effect on their academic success
and competence.
In general, the involvement of school children and students in different varieties of co-
curricular activities promote the general wellbeing as well their success in the academic
performance.. Parental support and parental pressure may also play a vital role in the manner in
which children perceive different abilities in different aspects in their lives. The manner in which
children understand these abilities can really affect their general well‐being as well as academic
performance and competence. Unfortunately, due to the increased importance of these co-
curricular activities, some of the children may experiencing an increased pressure from their
parents so as to succeed in their academics. This pressure can negatively be associated with the
well‐being for the children engaged in many co-curricular activities, and on the other hand a
perceived academic success for children who are engaged in low number of co-curricular
activities (Villalobos et al., 2016). However, an increase in the parental support during the co-
curricular activities can positively impact the various children’s well‐being and academic
performance, especially those participating in fewer co-curricular activities who may require
some additional and more encouragement and support from their parents.
Conclusion
PARENTAL CARE AND CO-CURRICULAR ACTIVITIES 14
Most importantly, this study has offered various new perspectives on the topics that don’t
have the support in the current literature. One of the major and main findings in the study is that
the parental support and pressure can show different impacts on the children’s well‐being as
well as academic performance and competence. This is based on the prevalence of the co-
curricular activities. These important and significant relationships provides a strong foundation
for researches to be done in future as well as providing an empirical springboard to those that are
interested in solving these complex collection of issues.
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PARENTAL CARE AND CO-CURRICULAR ACTIVITIES 15
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