Parents' Substance Abuse History, Self-Efficacy, and Involvement in Their Children's Educatio

The purpose of this quantitative correlational study was to examine parents in a low-income urban community in Southeast Michigan to determine if and to what extent there is a relationship between parents' history of substance abuse, their level of perceived parental self-efficacy, and their perceived level of involvement in their children's education. Epstein's six type of parental involvement theory and Bandura's self-efficacy theory provided the foundation for this study. A sample of 54 participants completed four survey instruments: the involvement subscale of the Parent and Student Surveys of Family and Community Involvement in Elementary and Middle Grades, the Parenting Sense of Competence Scale, the CAGE Adapted to Include Drug and Alcohol, and a researcher developed demographic survey. Kendall's tau-b correlational analysis revealed that parents' history of substance abuse negatively correlated with their involvement in their child's education (tau b = -.230, p = .034). The results also showed that there is no statistically significant relationship between parental self-efficacy and their involvement in their child's education (taub = .058, p = .545). This study partly contributed to scientific knowledge by informing low-income urban school leaders about the possible influence parents' history of substance abuse and level of perceived parenting self-efficacy has on parents' perceived level of involvement in their children's education.