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The influence of parental involvement practices on student self-regulation. Joan M. T. Walker Long Island University and Christa L. Green, Kathleen V. Hoover-Dempsey & Howard M. Sandler Vanderbilt University.
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The influence of parental involvement practices on student self-regulation Joan M. T. Walker Long Island University and Christa L. Green, Kathleen V. Hoover-Dempsey & Howard M. Sandler Vanderbilt University This research was supported by OERI Grant # R305T010673, “The Social Context of Parental Involvement: A Path to Enhanced Achievement”
Parental involvement Student learning and development • Across cultures,parenting practices are vehicles for child socialization • Families have similar goals (Cole, 1996; Maccoby, 1992; Rogoff, 1990): • Providing shelter, food, a safe environment • Teaching skills, attitudes, values needed for productive adult life. • Within context of education, parenting practices are important resources for children’s school success(Grolnick & Ryan, 1989; Hoover-Dempsey et al., 2001)
Parental involvement in homework • Provides a useful context in which to observe parental influence on child learning • Common valued activity generalizable across U.S. families • Narrow-band activity accessible to empirical examination
How are parents involved in homework? • Simultaneous efforts to help the child arrange the environment, manage time; monitoring of attention, motivation, and emotional responses to homework (Xu & Corno, 1998) • Two categories of involvement practices (Hoover-Dempsey et al., 2001): • General efforts to create a supportive context • Establishing structures, providing oversight; reinforcing and encouraging • Cognitive involvement in homework tasks • Explicit teaching, creating a ‘fit’ between homework tasks and student skill level; helping child understand how skills relate to achievement • 4 major mechanisms (Martinez-Pons, 1996) • Modeling, Encouragement, Facilitation, and Rewarding
Autonomy support (encouragement of independent problem-solving); Structure (clear, consistent guidelines and expectations). Mother-child relationship quality and involvement routines Emotional and cognitive support Self-regulation, school grades and achievement (Grolnick & Ryan, 1989). Children’s beliefs that they were responsible for their success or failure(Grolnick & Ryan, 1989). Self-regulation (e.g., planning before acting, working toward goals; Brody, Flor & Gibson, 1999) Persistence at difficult learning tasks; Fewer ability attributions(Hokoda & Fincham, 1995) Self-monitoring and metacognitive talk(Stright et al., 2001) What child outcomes do parent involvement practices influence?
How does the relation between parent involvement and child self-regulation operate? • Social Learning (Bandura, 1986): Internalization of external activity • Children bring an external product (parent behavior) into the internal plane (child behavior) • Sociocultural (Rogoff, 1990): Appropriation from shared activity • Shared activities are transformed and used by individuals according to their understanding and involvement • Interaction with skilled adults assists children in internalizing important skills and understandings: • Adaptation to new situations, structuring of problem-solving efforts, and assumption of responsibility for problem-solving.
Mediator Child perceptions of parent mechanisms Academic self-efficacy Strategy use Modeling Reinforcement Intrinsic motivation Social self-efficacy Instruction Encouragement Parental InvolvementMechanisms Student Self-Regulation Hoover-Dempsey & Sandler (1995, 2005) Model of Parental Influence on Student Outcomes Modeling Modeling Reinforcement Reinforcement Instruction Instruction Encouragement Encouragement Parental InvolvementMechanisms
Our research questions Across 2 studies we asked: • Are parental involvement mechanisms perceived differently by parents and children? • Examined parents’ self-reported practices and children’s perceptions of those practices • Do involvement mechanisms appear to influence child self-regulation directly or indirectly? • Tested for mediation of parent involvement influence via child’s perceptions of the parent’s practices
Expectations • Are parental involvement mechanisms perceived differently by parents and children? • Mechanisms will be perceived by parents and children as independent but inter-related constructs • Parent self-reports and student perceptions will be positively related at modest levels • Do involvement mechanisms appear to influence child self-regulation directly or indirectly? • Influence of mechanisms will be mediated by child perceptions of the parent’s practices
Conditions for mediation Student perceptions of involvement mechanism Parental Involvement Mechanisms Parental Involvement Mechanism Student self-regulation
Study 1: Participants and Procedures • 6 elementary and 2 middle schools in public Metropolitan school system in mid-South of U.S. • 421 dyads: one parent for each 4th-6th grade student (response rate = 33%) • 50% of students and 76% of parents were female • Majority of parents had some college, worked full-time; average income $30K/year • 38% African-American, 37% White, 15% Hispanic, 6% Asian • 89% completed questionnaires in English; 11% completed parallel Spanish questionnaires.
Parent Mechanisms Questionnaire assessing use of involvement mechanisms (based on Martinez-Pons, 1996;28 items rated on a 6-point scale (1 = not at all true, 6 = completely true; a = .93) Modeling,5 items (a = .80) “We show this child that we like to learn new things.” Encouragement,5 items (a = .83) “We encourage this child to keep trying when things get difficult.” Reinforcement,5 items (a = .89) “We show this child we like it when s/he explains what s/he thinks to the teacher.” Instruction,13 items (a = .87) “We teach this child how to check his or her work.”
Student perceptions Questionnaire assessing student perceptions of the parent’s use of involvement mechanisms; 47 items rated on a 4-point scale (1 = not at all true for me, 4 = very true for me; a = .92) Preceded by stem, “The person in my family who usually helps me with my homework…” Modeling, 14 items (a = .70) “…likes to learn new things.” Encouragement, 5 items (a = .69) “…encourages me to keep trying when I don’t feel like doing my schoolwork.” Reinforcement, 13 items (a = .87) “…shows me s/he likes it when I explain what I think to the teacher.” Instruction, 15 items (a = .81) “…teaches me how to check my homework as I go along.”
Student self-regulation Self-report questionnaire; 19 items rated on a 4-point scale (1 = not at all true for me, 4 = very true for me; a = .84) Intrinsic motivation to learn(4 items, a = .67; Stipek & Gralinski, 1996) “I want to learn new things.” Strategy use(7 items, a = .64; Stipek & Gralinski, 1996) “I go back over things I don’t understand.” Academic self-efficacy(4 items, a = .65; Roeser et al., 1996) “I can do even the hardest homework if I try.” Social self-efficacy for relating to teachers(4 items, a = .65; Ryan & Patrick, 2001) “I find it easy to go and talk with my teachers.”
Results • Are parental involvement mechanisms perceived differently by parents and children? Factor analyses with promax rotation Parents: 4 clear factors emerged • some overlap between instruction and reinforcement Children: No clear factors Correlations between parent reports and children’s perceptions of the parent’s behavior: Modeling, r = .14, p < .01 Encouragement, r = .16, p < .01 Reinforcement, r = .16, p < .01 Instruction, r = .16, p < .01
Modeling Encouragement Modeling Encouragement Reinforcement Reinforcement Modeling .67** -- Modeling .59** -- Reinforcement .70** .75** -- Reinforcement .82** .61** -- Instruction .61** .72** .70** Instruction .76** .71** .74** Correlations among mechanisms Parent self-reported use of mechanisms Child perceptions of parent mechanisms
Student perceptions of involvement mechanisms Parental Involvement Mechanisms Student self-regulation Do involvement mechanisms influence self-regulation directly or indirectly? Student perceptions of involvement mechanisms • = .59; t = 14.99, p < .000 b = .20; t = 4.23, p < .000 b = .58, t = 14.56, p < .000 Parental Involvement Mechanisms • = .21; t = 4.48, p < .000 b = .08; t = 1.98, p < .05
Study 1: Conclusions • Parents and children appear to experience the parent’s involvement as a complex, co-occurring set of mechanisms • Parent and child reports are not interchangeable • Influence of parent involvement mechanisms appears to be mediated by children’s perceptions of the parent’s practices
Study 2: Participants and Procedures • 5 elementary and 4 middle schools in public Metropolitan school system in mid-South of U.S. • 358 dyads: one parent for each 4th-6th grade student (response rate = 22%) • Females: 48% of students and 83% of parents • Majority of parents had some college, 21% had a bachelor’s degree; 37% worked full-time, 43% worked part-time; average income $30-40K/year • 28% African-American, 57% White, 7% Hispanic, 4% Asian • 89% completed questionnaires in English; 11% completed parallel Spanish questionnaires.
Study 2: Measures • Scales modified based on Study 1 results • Balanced number of items per subscale; made items more parallel Parent use of involvement mechanisms (a = .97) Student perceptions of mechanisms (a = .95) Student self-regulation (a = .86)
Study 2: Results • Are involvement mechanisms perceived differently by parents and children? Factor analyses with promax rotation Parents: 4 clear factors emerged Children: no discernable patterns emerged Correlations between parent reports and children’s perceptions of the parent’s behavior: Modeling, r = .22, p < .01 Reinforcement, r = .16, p < .01 Instruction, r = .17, p < .01 Encouragement, r = .14, p < .01
Modeling Encouragement Modeling Encouragement Reinforcement Reinforcement Modeling .54** -- Modeling .47** -- Reinforcement .59** .57** -- Reinforcement .68** .52** -- Instruction .50** .44** .55** Instruction .72** .56** .75** Correlations among mechanisms Encouragement Modeling Reinforcement Modeling .54** -- Reinforcement .59** .57** -- Instruction .50** .44** .55** Parent self-reported use of mechanisms Parent self-reported use of mechanisms Child perceptions of parent mechanisms Child perceptions of parent mechanisms
Student perceptions of involvement mechanisms Parental Involvement Mechanisms Student self-regulation Study 2: Mediation Student perceptions of involvement mechanisms b = .69, t = 17.84, p < .000 b = .12, t = 2.26, p < .05 b = .69, t = 17.54, p < .000 Parental Involvement Mechanisms b = .19, t = 3.65, p < .05 b = -.01, t = .30, p = .76
Conclusions and implications • Parent and child perceptions of involvement mechanisms are substantially different. • Investigations of parental influence on child development and learning should include child perceptions of parents’ practices (Steinberg et al., 1989). • Parental involvement appears to be influential via children’s attention, perceptions and processes. • Suggests that child self-regulation develops through a process of co-construction • Child invitations to involvement • More investigations of children’s experiences during parental involvement activities (e.g., Xu, 2006)
Next steps • Developmental trends in children’s ability to attend to, perceive, or process the parent’s actions • Child and family characteristics as moderators? • Triangulation of methods • Parent and child interviews • Naturalistic observation of parent-child interactions • Structured observation plus prompted recall • Multiple indicators of child performance • Teacher ratings, child achievement data