Research Interests

My research focuses on the following questions:

1. What roles do parents play in children’s learning and achievement in school? How may parental academic socialization contribute to children’s beliefs about learning? How may parenting practices such as parental involvement and responses to children’s performance shape children’s academic functioning and performance?

2. What are the factors that underlie parenting practices in the academic realm? How may these practices be guided by parenting cognitions, such as parents’ socialization goals and beliefs about their role in children’s learning? How may parents’ ego-involvement in children’s learning and performance shape their parenting practices and their own emotional functioning?

3. In what ways do parenting cognitions and practices as well as their implications for children vary according to children’s characteristics, such as gender and achievement level? How do these parenting processes change as children grow older and why?

4. How may parenting cognitions and practices differ among parents who come from different backgrounds? For example, how may dominant values of a country or an ethnic group shape parents’ socialization goals and practices? How may socioeconomic status and immigrant status influence parents’ attitudes toward children’s learning and their expectations for children’s achievement?