Latino Fathers' Involvement in Their Children's Schools

• Date: 01 October 2013
• Author: Veronica Terriquez
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/fare.12026
• Published date: 01 October 2013

VERONICA TERRIQUEZ University of Southern California

Latino Fathers’ Involvement in Their Children’s

Schools

Latinos make up the largest racial/ethnic

minority group in the United States, yet we know

very little about Latino fathers’ involvement in

their children’s lives. This article adds school

participation to conceptualizations of paternal

involvement and contributes to an understanding

of the role of immigrant acculturation in

shaping Latino parenting practices. Drawing

on nationally representative data, the author

finds that U.S.-born Latino fathers are just as

likely as U.S.-born White fathers to participate

in children’s school activities, after controlling

for other covariates. The author also shows

that indicators of immigrant acculturation

account for some variation in parental school

participation among Latino fathers. Findings

point to recommendations for engaging Latino

fathers in educational interventions that benefit

their children and communities.

Research has demonstrated that fathers’ involve-

ment in children’s lives can benefit children’s

academic and social development (Alfaro,

Uma˜

na-Taylor, & B´

acama, 2006; McBride,

Schoppe-Sullivan, & Ho, 2005; Plunkett,

Behnke, Sands, & Choi, 2009; Yeung, Dun-

can, & Hill, 2000). Yet even though Latinos

make up the largest racial/ethnic minority group

in the United States and immigration contin-

ues to expand their proportion of the nation’s

Departmentof Sociology, 3620 S. Vermont Blvd., Kaprielian

Hall 352, Los Angeles, CA 90089-2539 (vterriqu@usc.edu).

Key Words: father involvement, parental school involve-

ment, Latino families.

population, we still know very little about Latino

fathers’ parenting roles. Most research on pater-

nal involvement has focused on White fathers

(Cabrera & Bradley, 2012; Campos, 2008; Parke

et al., 2004). Studies have only begun to explore

whether or not Latino fathers differ from White

fathers in their paternal involvement (Hofferth,

2003; Toth & Xu, 1999; Yeung, Sandberg,

Davis-Kean, & Hofferth, 2001), and if immi-

grant acculturation shapes the roles they assume

in their children’s lives (Coltrane, Parke, &

Adams, 2004; Taylor & Behnke, 2005). This

article focuses on one dimension of paternal

involvement often ignored by family schol-

ars: fathers’ participation in children’s schools.

Exploring Latino paternal involvement in chil-

dren’s schools is important because Latino

students average lower high school graduation

and postsecondary participation rates than any

other major racial/ethnic group in the nation

(National Center for Education Statistics, 2011).

Parental school participation can improve stu-

dents’ educational outcomes (Behnke & Kelly,

2011; Desimone, 1999; Domina, 2005; Jeynes,

2005, 2007; Marschall, 2006; Plunkett et al.,

2009). Therefore, investigating Latino fathers’

school participation not only furthers an under-

standing of paternal roles in children’s lives, but

also has implications for the educational out-

comes of a population of children who encounter

challenges to educational attainment.

This article explores patterns of Latino

fathers’ school involvement and makes impor-

tant contributions to theorizations of fathers’

roles in children’s lives. First, it adds school

participation to conceptualizations of paternal

662 Family Relations 62 (October 2013): 662 – 675

DOI:10.1111/fare.12026