When parental aspirations aren’t enough: An exploration of the importance of parental aspirations in the socioeconomic gradient in child outcomes

Using data from the Growing Up in New Zealand (GUiNZ) longitudinal study on child development, this research looks at the importance of parents’ aspirations for their children in the positive correlations between parents’ socioeconomic status and children’s pre-school educational and socioemotional outcomes.

Key findings include:

• there was little evidence parental aspirations are an important reason for disparities in child outcomes
• certain forms of parental involvement in their child’s education are strong predictors of improvements in child outcomes. Involvement such as encouraging children to learn and reading to them regularly is associated with improved pre-literacy and early numeracy skills, which are associated with higher SES as adults.
• findings do not differ by ethnicity. This suggests parental involvement is equally important for children's outcomes regardless of ethnicity.