Parents and homework help Motivation
Children felt they got more homework help and less freedom than their parents thought, and autonomy support went with better results
Parents and their 9 to 10 year olds in Lithuania were asked separately how often parents helped with homework and how much they let the child make their own choices about it. Children reported more help and less autonomy than their parents did. A year later, children whose parents reported helping more did worse on the national grade 4 exams in maths and literacy, while children whose parents reported more autonomy support did better, even after accounting for earlier skills.
| Paper | Parent and child perceptions of homework practices and their associations with children's achievement |
| Authors | Mia M. Maurer, Gintautas Šilinskas |
| Published | 31 January 2026 · Psychology, Society & Education 18(1), 21–30 |
| Study type | Longitudinal correlational study (grade 3 to grade 4) · Peer-reviewed |
| What we read | Full text read. We read the open-access full text. |
| Summarized |
What they did
At the end of grade 3, parents and children filled in matching questionnaires about homework help (for example "How often do you help your child prepare for their assignments?") and autonomy support, and children took maths and reading fluency tests. At the end of grade 4, the children's national exam scores in maths and literacy came from school records. Regressions controlled for earlier skills, gender and the highest education in the family.
Who took part
446 parent–child pairs from 12 urban and rural Lithuanian schools; children aged 101 to 134 months at the start (about 8 to 11 years; average 115.5 months). Most responding parents were mothers (89.5%).
What they found
- Children reported more homework help than parents did (child mean 3.43 vs parent 3.04 on a 1–5 scale; d = −.33).
- Children reported less autonomy support than parents did (3.44 vs 3.93; d = .509).
- In maths, parent-reported help predicted lower grade 4 exam scores (β = −.17) and parent-reported autonomy support predicted higher scores (β = .104). Child-reported help also predicted lower maths scores (β = −.123).
- In literacy, parent-reported help predicted lower scores (β = −.138) and parent-reported autonomy support higher scores (β = .112). Children's own reports did not predict literacy.
- Homework practices explained an extra 5.9% of the variance in maths and 3.2% in literacy beyond the control variables.
Effect size: Standardised regression weights (β) from −.17 to .112; parent–child differences d = −.33 (help) and .509 (autonomy support).
Limitations
- Correlational: help may increase because a child is struggling, rather than causing lower scores.
- All homework practices were self-reported, so social desirability may play a role.
- Achievement was measured differently in grade 3 (fluency tests) and grade 4 (national exams).
- One country; the authors note results may not generalise to other cultures.
What this means for learners and parents
- Children may experience your help as more controlling than you intend. It is worth asking them how homework time feels.
- Letting a child choose how and when to tackle homework, and making their own attempt first, went with better results than frequent help.
- "Less help" here does not mean no support: autonomy support is still active involvement, just with the child in charge of the work.
Put it into practice (free tools)
- How to help with homework without giving the answer
- Homework fights: what helps
- How to check homework without redoing it
Citation
Mia M. Maurer, Gintautas Šilinskas (2026). Parent and child perceptions of homework practices and their associations with children's achievement. Psychology, Society & Education 18(1), 21–30. https://doi.org/10.21071/pse.v18i1.18317
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