The current study examined the cross-linguistic validity of an established parent involvement measure (developed by Walker et al., 2005). This measure was chosen because it is brief and based upon a popular parent involvement theoretical framework (Hoover-Dempsey and Sandler, 1995; 1997), specifically measuring home- and school-based involvement. The parent involvement survey was translated into Spanish and completed by 585 parents, of which 215 were English-speaking and 370 were Spanish-speaking. Two separate confirmatory factor analyses and a measurement invariance test were conducted to determine if the measure could be appropriately used with Spanish-speaking parents. Then, mean differences between the two groups were examined on every item of the survey to determine, which group demonstrated higher levels of involvement on each measured behavior.

Additionally, the home- and school-based involvement subfactors were examined within a structural equation modeling framework to investigate the relation with the psychological beliefs of parental self-efficacy and role construction. Results from the CFA indicated that the parent involvement measure demonstrated excellent model fit for both groups. The subsequent measurement invariance test revealed that the scale functioned differently across English- and Spanish-speaking parents. The tests of item mean differences indicated that English-speaking parents showed higher levels of involvement in the areas of practicing skills at home and helping at school; however, Spanish-speaking parents reported higher levels of involvement at open houses and PTA meetings. Finally, it was found that parental self-efficacy significantly predicted home-based involvement for English-speaking parents, and school-based involvement for Spanish-speaking parents.

Role construction significantly predicted levels of home-based involvement for Spanish-speaking parents as well. Implications and recommendations for future research are discussed in the final chapter.