The Role of Parental Involvement in Shaping Psychological Adjustment Among Primary School Children: A Narrative Review

Abstract

Children’s psychological adjustment during the primary school years is critical for long-term mental health, social functioning, and academic success. Parental involvement has been widely associated with positive child outcomes. However, existing findings remain fragmented, conceptually diverse, and often focused on academic achievement rather than psychological adjustment. This narrative review synthesizes empirical literature published between January 2015 and July 2025 to examine the role of parental involvement in shaping psychological adjustment among primary school children, with a particular focus on identifying key forms of parental involvement, underlying mechanisms, contextual influences, and gaps in the current literature. The synthesis highlights parental involvement as a multidimensional construct encompassing home-based involvement, school-based involvement, and relational quality, which includes parental warmth, acceptance, and autonomy support. Findings consistently indicate that relational quality of involvement is a stronger predictor of children’s psychological adjustment than mere quantity of time spent. Moreover, relational quality serves as a key generative mechanism that enhances the effectiveness of both home- and school-based involvement. This mechanism often mediates the impact of involvement through children’s self-regulation, school engagement, and perceived parental acceptance, with evidence suggesting particularly strong effects when fathers are actively involved. The implications for practice, policy, and future research are discussed..