Forms Of Parental Involvement Research Articles

Parental Involvement in Education: The Influence of School and Neighborhood

Drawing on the life course paradigm, this study views school-based forms of parental involvement in education as elements of the linked lives of family members that are embedded in larger social contexts. Estimating multi-level models on a sample of 6,141 adolescents from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, I find that parental participation in school activities and interaction with school personnel is largely a function of the characteristics and behaviors of parents and adolescents, but that, to a lesser extent, these phenomena are influenced by characteristics of the schools that adolescents attend (e.g., school size) and the neighborhoods in which families live (e.g., urbanicity, poverty level). Ethnicity moderates the influence of both school and neighborhood on parents' educational involvement, with minority parents' involvement more contingent on social context, especially school context.

School Characteristics and Parent Involvement: Influences on Participation in Children's Schools

Several school-level variables thought to influence the degree to which parents are involved in their children's education were explored. The author sought to clarify, both theoretically and empirically, the meaning of parent involvement. Also, several statistical regression models were developed on the basis of school characteristics. The models help to explain the variance in 9 categories of parent involvement. The results of this study indicate that many forms of parent involvement, such as the structure that parents create for students in the home environment, are not easily influenced by school-level variables. However, several forms of parent involvement, including parent volunteerism and participation in parent-teacher organizations, can be increased when teachers attempt to contact parents.

Developing Student Codes of Conduct

Recent research on educational policy development has emphasized the importance of parental involvement in schools. How ever, there is little reported research which documents processes to involve parents in such policy development. The purpose of this article is to document a project in which parent-principal collaboration pro vided a policy framework for student codes of conduct. This framework was important for two reasons. First, it addressed an important concern for both parents and principals, namely the problems of bullying and victimization in schools. Second, the framework was the outcome of a systematic, research-based process which provides a model for parent principal collaboration. The implications for using this approach are discussed in the context of more general forms of parental involvement.

Maternal Employment, Parent Involvement, and Mathematics Achievement among Adolescents

Of women in labor force, it mothers with children at home whose numbers have grown fastest in recent decades. In 1987, 71% of mothers with husbands present in household and children between ages of 6 and 17 years and 57% of those with husbands present and children under 6 were employed. In 1973 (roughly year students in this study were born), those figures were only 50% and 33%, respectively (U.S. Department of Labor, 1989). The research on effects of maternal employment on child indicate mixed results. In a review of research on maternal employment and children's achievement for National Academy of Sciences, Heyns (1982) concluded that the children of working mothers differ very little from children of non-working mothers [on achievement] (p. 238). Another review published 2 years before found that there were measurable differences in academic performance and other measures of children's well-being depending on maternal employment status (Hoffman, 1980). Each has maintained and elaborated her position since (Heyns & Catsambis, 1986; Hoffman, 1989). Surely if maternal employment makes a difference to child it likely to be exhibited in parent-child relationships. Nock and Kingston (1988), for example, found differences in amount of time spend with their children depending on maternal employment status, although differences were most pronounced for of preschoolers and in non-child-centered time. Parents may interact with their child differently, and may in particular be involved in their child's education differently, depending on employment of mother outside home. Involvement in education likely to be very important for school-age children. We have very little knowledge about how relationships between and adolescents are influenced by amount of time mother spends at work outside home, and how that may influence critical transition of child from elementary to high school. This article examines two questions: First, does maternal employment status make a difference in how are involved with their eighth-grade adolescent child, and, if so, how? Second, in what ways does parent involvement intervene in relationship between maternal employment and mathematics achievement of adolescent child? A better understanding of ways in which maternal employment makes a difference in parent-child relationships, and of which relationships are important for child's academic development, will allow us to evaluate how needs of families are changing. Parent involvement in a child's education known to make a difference in child's achievement (Epstein, 1991; Fehrmann, Keith, & Reimers, 1987; Lareau, 1989; Muller, 1993a; Stevenson & Baker, 1987). Yet results of those studies suggest that there are many different ways for to be involved with their child. And may become involved differently depending on resources available to them (Baker & Stevenson, 1986; Lareau, 1989; Muller, 1993a). Lareau and Muller each suggested that not all forms of parent involvement have same consequences for child. Moreover, children of different ages may need different kinds of involvement from parents. As students get older, a style of managing school career increasingly important. As Baker and Stevenson (1986) stated, parents must...help [their child] move skillfully through [school] organization (p. 157). This may mean reaching out to school or developing strategies from home. To study parent involvement in education to identify one aspect of process by which family background makes a difference in a child's academic success. Coleman (1988) suggested that family background is analytically separable into at least three different components: financial capital, human capital, and social (p. S109). Financial capital may be measured by family income or wealth, human capital best measured by level of parents' education, and social capital has to do with relations among actors, in this case among and children. …

Effect of Family Structure on Parental Involvement: Perspectives of Principals and Traditional, Dual-Income, and Single Parents

This study examined children's school needs, the school's response to those needs, and present and desirable forms of parental involvement from the perspectives of traditional, dual-income, and single parents. Parents from each family type and principals shared their opinions in 48 in-depth interviews. Respondents agreed that children from all families need a quality education in a safe environment. While respondents disagreed on specific forms that parental involvement should take, they agreed that it is the principal's responsibility to provide an open climate and interactive communication for meaningful involvement to occur.

The Influences of School and Home Factors on the Career Development of Secondary School Students

ABSTRACT This study examined the level of career maturity of 324 secondary school students and the impact of career guidance and parental involvement on the career development of these students. The results showed that students who had been exposed to some form of career guidance in school scored higher on the Career Attitude Scale. Those who had received home support in the form of parental involvement in career planning and availability of career role models also showed a higher level of career maturity in terms of career planfulness and work orientation. Although career attitude was found to mature with age, there was no significant sex differences in the career development of these students. Such findings highlighted the importance of career guidance in school and home support in enhancing the career maturity of our students.

An evaluation of two methods of parental involvement in treating obese children

Parents of overweight children elected one of two procedures for structuring their involvement in their child's behavioral weight loss program. As in previous operationalizations of parental involvement, one choice allowed parents to engage in their own weight loss effort. These parents followed a program parallel to their child's. In addition, they monitored and earned rewards for the same behaviors. Alternatively, parents could choose a helper role. The parents' change efforts focused on improving their skills as a helper. Monitoring and contracting for rewards were based upon performance of helping behaviors. Both forms of parental involvement were equally successful in producing weight loss among children during treatment and were superior to a waiting list control. The two procedures also yielded equivalent results at year follow-up. Degree of parental and child weight loss during treatment were related, but follow-up findings were less clear. A relationship between age of the child and type of parental involvement was also suggested.

Understanding the United States Supreme Court's Position on Parental Consent Requirements: In Defense of Danforth and Bellotti. A Response to Crutchfield

Federal and state courts in the United States are in the process of making policy decisions about questions like the following: Should minors have the legal right to make their own family planning decisions? May states legislate parental consent requirements or some other form of parental involvement? Although some of Cruthfields passages are tortuous and although his argument is cloudy it is clear that he favors fewer rights for minors and more rights for parents than the courts have allotted. It is also clear that he objects to the decisions by the United States Supreme Court (henceforth the Court) in Danforth and Bellotti although he approves of some of the commentary in the decisions. Because the Court is likely to be the final arbiter of policy disputes about minors family planning rights I will confine my remarks to Crutchfields comments about the Court especially as they pertain to minors abortion rights. (excerpt)

MATEMATIČKA ANKSIOZNOST I POSTIGNUĆE NA RANOM OSNOVNOŠKOLSKOM UZRASTU: KAKO RODITELJI (NE) MOGU DA POMOGNU?

Cilj istraživanja je ispitivanje relacija različitih formi uključenosti roditelja u učenje matematike deteta sa matematičkom anksioznošću i matematičkim postignućem dece ranog osnovnoškolskog uzrasta. Uzorak je činilo 176 učenika (52.3% dečaka), koji pohađaju III i IV razred osnovne škole na teritoriji Srbije, prosečne starosti 9.26 godina, kao i oba roditelja svakog deteta. Primenjena su dva instrumenta – Modifikovana skraćena skala matematičke anksioznosti (sa facetama anksioznosti pri učenju i pri evaluaciji znanja) koju su popunjavala deca, kao i Skala roditeljske uključenosti (sa facetama Pozitivna iskustva, Pomaganje, Očekivanja i Opažene teškoće), koju su popunjavali roditelji. Matematičko postignuće operacionalizovano je kao prosek zaključnih ocena iz matematike sa polugodišta i kraja prethodne školske godine. Rezultati ukazuju na značajan negativan doprinos opaženih teškoća od strane majke i oca matematičkom postignuću deteta, kao i na negativne doprinose pozitivnih iskustava majke matematičkoj anksioznosti pri učenju i pri evaluaciji znanja kod deteta. Očekivanja oca negativno doprinose samo detetovoj anksioznosti pri evaluaciji matematičkog znanja. Rezultati ovog istraživanja pružaju potvrdu nalazima prethodnih istraživanja, ali i praktične implikacije u kontekstu podučavanja deteta od strane roditelja u domenu matematike.