New journal article published in Social Psychology of Education

The article by Sebastian Vogel, Justine Stang-Rabrig and Nele McElvany focuses on the role of parental support and family structural characteristics for motivation and learning behaviour under pandemic conditions. During the COVID pandemic, large parts of the lessons could not take place in the schools, so that the schoolchildren participated in the lessons digitally from home instead. It can therefore be assumed that students’ parents were more involved in the learning process and took on an important role in it. Since especially socioeconomically disadvantaged students were negatively affected by the pandemic, this study focused on a sample of comprehensive school students in ninth to eleventh grade that had a low average socioeconomic status. The association of demanding-structuring and responsive-motivational parental involvement and parents’ perceived responsibility for their children’s learning success with students’ motivation and participation in learning activities was investigated. Additionally, the relation of socioeconomic status and immigrant background with these variables was included. It was shown that different forms of parental support were positively associated with different motivational aspects as well as with participation in learning activities. In the sample, the levels of parental demanding and structuring support as well as the parental sense of responsibility were also rated somewhat lower on average by young people with a migration background than by their peers without a migration background. This was ultimately reflected in slightly lower extrinsic motivation. The results of the sample thus underline the relevance of the role of parents in maintaining the learning motivation and participation in learning of disadvantaged adolescents who participated in classes under pandemic conditions.