Parental involvement with adolescents' education: Do daughters or sons getmore help?

This research examined whether parents were involved differently with the e ducation of their adolescent daughters and sons. The investigation used dat a from the National Education Longitudinal Study (NELS), which collected in formation from approximately 25,000 eighth-grade students. Several types of parental involvement were analyzed for gender differences, including schoo l discussion, parent-school connection, parental expectations, parental att endance at school events, and three measures of parental supervision (check ing homework., limiting television watching, and limiting going out with fr iends). The results showed that, net of students' grades, tests scores, and educational aspirations, parents helped daughters in some ways and sons in other ways. Generally, daughters experienced more parental involvement wit h their education than did sons. The findings are discussed in terms of par ents' traditional socialization practices versus a shift in parental treatm ent in response to social trends.