Starch-grafted acrylic polyvinyl alcohol water absorbent resin was prepared by solution polymerization, in which a suitable amount of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) was introduced. By investigating the reaction conditions for preparing the copolymer and the factors affecting the water absorption of the product, the suitable conditions for synthesizing the copolymer were determined as follows: starch∶acrylic acid (AA) ratio∶PVA = 4∶10∶1, reaction temperature was 65 ℃,  the pH of the reaction was 0.75% system was 6, the weight of crosslinking and the weight of the initiation was 1.5% of that of the starch, the reaction time was 4 h. Under the above conditions, the maximum absorption rate of distilled water and brine reached 275 g/g and 15 g/g, respectively.