Parental Assets: A Pathway to Positive Child Educational Outcomes

A growing body of evidence suggests parental assets have positive effects on children’s well-being. Using 2004 data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation, this study tests the effect of parental asset holding on child educational outcomes, and explores whether this relationship is mediated by parental involvement and expectations. Results indicate that assets are a significant predictor of all child academic outcomes of our study, however income is not a significant predictor for school outcomes when controlling for assets. The mediation analyses show the effect of assets on school outcomes is mediated by two of the three parenting measures: parental expectations and the number of parent-child breakfast days per week. Implications for policy and practice are included.

Subsequent publication: Grinstein-Weiss, M., Yeo, Y. H., Irish, K., & Zhan, M. (2008). Parental assets: A pathway to positive child educational outcomes. Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare, 36(1), 61–85. https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/jssw/vol36/iss1/4