Relationship between parental involvement and school readiness: a meta-analysis

School readiness is foundational for children's later achievement. Despite a surge in studies examining the relationship between parental involvement and school readiness in recent decades, to the best of our knowledge, no systematic reviews have comprehensively addressed this link. This meta-analysis mapped the evidence on the relationship between facets of parental involvement and school readiness, and examined potential moderators across 73 studies (859 effect sizes, N = 109,931). We found a small, significant overall effect of parental involvement on school readiness, r = .12, 95% CI [.10, .14], with similar publication bias-adjusted estimates. This effect size remained relatively stable across the levels of studied moderators. Notably, our results suggest that socioeconomic status acts as a suppressor for the association between parental involvement and school readiness. The findings suggest that addressing socioeconomic challenges may attenuate constraints on the causal link from parental involvement to school readiness.