Heterogeneity in Parental Trauma, Parental Behaviors, and Parental Academic Involvement

We explored the role of selected parental environmental factors (e.g., adverse childhood experiences) and behavioral factors (e.g., discipline and parental empathy) in perceived parenting as it pertains to parent involvement (PI) in their child’s education. Data were collected from families who resided in the southeastern and western USA ( N = 201). Six parent profiles emerged from finite mixture model analysis: (1) high trauma/low involvement parent group ( n = 27); (2) referent parent group ( n = 100); (3) passively involved parent group ( n = 17); (4) average trauma/intensively involved parent group ( n = 13); (5) controlling parent group ( n = 29); and (6) low trauma/ high involvement parent group ( n = 15). Subsequent multinomial regression analyses demonstrated that primary profile membership for parents was generally unrelated to sex, race, socioeconomic level, or the mother’s educational level. These distinct parenting profiles may be an additional tool to better understand PI that can ultimately be used as a mechanism to better understand child academic and functional outcomes.