Parent Involvement: The Benefit of Parents and Their Children’s Spending Time Together
Isaiah McLaughlin
Longwood University
SOCL-345-01/02
Dr. Pederson
November 20, 2021
Abstract
The issue with parent involvement is simply about how much time parents spend with their children on a daily while still having to deal with other responsibilities. Being a parent is not an easy task to deal with because of the number of responsibilities that come with this role in life such as dealing with finance, employment, and taking care of their loved ones. According to research, poverty can also be a negative for parents to struggle with being involved in their children’s life because they have focused more on living conditions for the family (Ansari et al., 2016). The quantitative and qualitative findings would show that white parents spend less time on these activities than black parents. The purpose of focusing on parent involvement is to simply show the reader that without having the proper parenting skills while spending time with the child in their early childhood could lead to severe problems in the future. This study is more like a cross-sectional survey where the data would be coming from two different head starts school systems with children ages three through five. These studies were developed by Longwood university college students in which purpose was to see how much time the parents and their children would spend on completing the five fun activities together. The overall data we received back from handing out 51 copies of the fun activities survey questionnaire was a small portion of only 11 participants that completed the data.
Parent Involvement: The Benefit of Parents and Their Children’s Spending Time Together
Parent involvement means a parent is being engaged in the child’s academic life. The primary source for this paper would be a focus on how parents have been involved in their children’s lives through education. Parents show more interest in their child’s education in lower grades from Head Start to elementary school (Namok et al., 2016). This statement could be true because maybe after elementary school years the parent may feel like the child should be more responsible and be able to handle the workload by themselves. There was an act passed in 2001 with the approval from President George Bush known as “NO Child Left Behind” (Namok et al., 2016). This act simply means that all children would not have to worry about being left behind by their peers if their work ethic was good enough for them to pass on to the next grade level. According to the US Department of education, they noticed that children from grades levels K-12 show that parents are more involved in their children’s education which leads them to become more successful in life. (Namok et al., 2016).
According to research, parent involvement in students’ learning has been recognized to help improve the child’s education which would allow their academic performance and engagement to increase based on the interaction of the parent (Oswald et al., 2018). This could also be seen to help increase parenting skills on not just focusing on their child’s academic performance but building a relationship together while having fun. Some additional information from the article mentions the different types of activities from school that basically would require parents to be more involved. These activities would be parent-teacher communication, attending school events, and volunteering at the school. They can be other ways that cause a parent to lack the skills they need when trying to be more involved in a child’s life. The comparison of parental involvement could be related to the different characteristics of a family such as financial stability, parents’ educational attainment, parents’ mental health, healthcare, and living conditions (Oswald et al., 2018). In this article there is a survey known as “National Household Education” the purpose of the survey helps keep track of how much time a parent is, “involve in a school meeting, learning activities at home, learning activities from the community, and parent helping their child with homework assignment” (Oswald et al., 2018).
Other ways to show how parent involvement is considered to be a positive or negative attribute with a relationship between a parent in their child would be a head start. After reviewing this article, which mentions that the “head start program was originally established in 1965 by President Johnson’s war on poverty, and the goal for the program was to help children that come from low-income household stability (Ansari et al., 2016). This type of school program is beneficial for the child in their family which allows the parents to improve their “parenting skills, knowledge, and understanding of the educational and developmental needs” (Ansari et al., 20160). Head start programs are an ideal platform to help parents develop certain skills to engage in their children’s education. The purpose of these head starts programs focused more on the children’s outcomes rather than those of the parents.
Literature Review
Parent involvement is frequently viewed as a means for schools to improve the achievement of underperforming students. Previous parent participation research has likewise concentrated on connections with student success, with less attention paid to social and emotional areas of children’s development (El Nokali et al., 2010). The main concept explained is education, behavior problems, and activities. The main point for discussing parents’ involvement in children’s educational lives starts at an early childhood stage. According to the previous statement, a head start is defined as “ a federal program for low-income preschool children aged three to five years old. Its aim is to prepare children for success in school through an early learning program” (Linwood, 2018).
Head start is where some children begin their education which should prepare them for the basic learning skills they will need to achieve before going to elementary school. As result, the Head Start Program is an excellent place to start strengthening parents’ parenting skills; nevertheless, much of the research on the Head Start Program has focused on children’s results rather than parents’ (Ansari et al., 2016). Research shows that a child’s education level would allow them to have a better chance of achieving remarkable success through academics (El Nokali et al.,2010). In addition to increasing academic achievement, parent involvement can increase life successes. Research shows that if parents are optimistic while showing more involvement in their children* education, it led them into having a better chance of being successful in life (Hirano et al., 2016).
Research shows behavior problems that a child can develop within the school system. This can be determined on or not parents are more likely to be less involved in their child’s life by causing them to have social issues in the classroom (McCormick et al., 2013). There is a theory that fewer parenting skills may lead a child to develop some behavioral issues because he or she is not receiving a lot of attention at home (McCormick et al., 2013).
This could lead to children having social problems as well such as not interacting with their peers, lack of reading comprehension, and not being able to follow directions (Pratt et al., 1970). Some children may still have an excellent academic trait despite not having that interaction from their parents at home it could be a behavioral issue. This recent longitudinal study on parent involvement in a nationally representative sample of first, third, and fifth graders discovered that the lack of involvement from their parents did not necessarily cause them to fail academically but managed to decrease in problem behaviors (McCormick et al., 2013). Another form of a behavior problem that can cause a child to struggle is the parent spanking them which they believe will help change the situation (Ansari et al., 2016). Nonparental care usually can cause a child to have some behavioral issues such as struggling with self-regulation and displaying more behavior problems than their classmate (Pratt et al., 1970).
Research shows that parents who are involved in extra activities or programs for the school monitor their children’s schoolwork and daily activities as well as communicate with teachers about homework assignments (Olmstead, 2013). This could lead to a lack of support for the parents not being involved with the child for insists, they do not help with homework, not getting involved in-school field trips, and any sport/academic programs (Olmstead, 2013). Parents need to be more involved in their child’s life no matter what the outcome may be because that support will motivate anyone to want to keep striving for the best in life (Hirano et al., 2016).
The overall meaning of the paper was to show how parent involvement is extremely important in a child’s life. Children usually will become more successful in life by simply having the support and love they should be receiving each day from their parents or caretaker. That is why I chose to talk about these three specific key concepts which are education, behavior problems, and activities/programs.
Data and Method
A survey questionnaire was created by the 40 members of the Social Research and Program Evaluation team at Longwood University. The survey contained both open-ended and close-ended questions. Items on the survey were designed to evaluate SMART objectives of each of five activities that were completed the previous week by Head Start families. Beyond the objectives of the activities, participants were asked about their experiences with Head Start, take-home activities, and demographic information about their households.
Quantitative Findings
The quantitative data from my dependent variable question was “How much time did you spend on the project?” The data indicate that one respondent spends less than or equal to ten minutes, three respondents spend eleven to twenty minutes, four respondents spend twenty-one to thirty minutes, and three respondents spend more than thirty minutes. The overall meaning of this dataset would indicate how much time parents are spending with their children while completing each fun activity. The positive correlation from this dataset should show that the more time parents spend on completing the fun activities with their children it would simply show how much they were involved.
The dependent variable is “how much time spend on the project?” which shows more respondents spend twenty-one to thirty minutes on each activity.
The quantitative data from the independent variable question was “what is your race/ethnicity?” the answer choices were Latino/Hispanic, White (Non-Latino), Black or African American, Asian, Pacific Islander, Native American, Middle Eastern, Multiracial, Other, and Prefer not to answer. The overall meaning for this dataset simply identified the race of the parents and how many of the respondents were of a particular race through this project on parent involvement. From the demographic information, the data shows six respondents were Black or African American and four respondents were White (Non-Latino).
The independent variable is “what is your race/ethnicity?” The data shows that more respondents were Black or African American.
The bivariable analysis from both my dependent and independent variables correlates towards each other basic off parent involvement. The chart below will show how much time the parent spent on each fun activity and it will show which race of the parent spends the most time with their child.
The data shows that white parents spend less time with their children than black parents.
The purpose of this project was to see how much effort parents are involved in their children’s lives. The activities display exactly how parents spend most of their time being engaged in all the fun activities, and it was very interesting that black parents spend more time with their children than white parents.
Qualitative Findings
The five fun activities from this dataset were dino buddie, painted leaf pressings, beaded clothespin butterfly, fall-themed scavenger hunt, and astronaut pudding. Our goal was to see how parent involvement from each of these five activities would show the relationships between parents and their children on how much time they spend together from the activities, and would it cause them to build a bond while having a fun time. The result we received back from the survey was only a small portion of only ll out of 51 surveys were returned from Head start. The overall themes were happiness, family engagement, and fun.
The theme of happiness appeared in three out of eleven responders’ reactions while completing the fun activities. This information would also be successful for the researchers knowing that the overall meaning for parent involvement was accomplished between the parents and their children. I would be using the response from three different responders just to see how happiness played an important role in the fun activities. The response for respondent 3 said “The family time we spend together. So happy doing the activities.” Respondent 5 said, “We love the arts, crafts, and the scavenger hunt.” Respondent 6 said, “Being together and helping each other.” The overall meaning from all three of these respondence would be happy is formed by simply just spending time together with your loved ones while completing fun activities together.
The theme of family engagement would appear in nine out of eleven responders’ reactions while completing the fun activities. This information would be also successful for the researchers knowing that the overall meaning for parent involvement was accomplished between the parents and their children. This would be shown as a positive correlation knowing that point of this dataset was to see how much-involved parents spend time in their children’s lives. I would be using the response from three different responders just to see how family engagement played an important role in the fun activities. The response for responder number two said “Spending time together and learning new things.” Respondent 1 said “We did each activity at least twice. I loved the organization’s detailed instruction and the materials being included.” Respondent 9 said “The interaction with our child and the fact that the rest of the family was interested in participating as well.” The overall meaning from all these responses from the responders simply demonstrates how the fun activities allowed other families besides the children’s parents to help participants and become more engaged.
The theme of fun would appear in two out of eleven responder reactions while completing the fun activities. This information would also be successful for the researchers knowing that the overall meaning for parent involvement was accomplished between the parents and their children. The reaction from the fun activities would be more beneficial between the parents and their children’s knowing that they had a great time. The response from respondent 4 said “It brought a lot of fun and laughter for our family. My kids were able to learn a lot.” The response from respondent 10 said “Having fun.” The overall meaning from these responses was simply basic off the reaction of the fun activities and what type of mood both the parents and their children’s showed throughout them while still having a great time learning from these activities
Conclusion
The purpose of this entire project was on parent involvement and basic on the reading above it should show how important it is for parents to interact with their children. Even though being a parent is not an easy task to deal with especially when he or she has to multitask in life frequently such as cooking, paying bills, employees, and supporting the family. The social norms for every family may be different, but a majority of the human race have the same mentality when it comes to their loved ones which are to help provide while surviving in adjusting to life. There is nothing more beneficial than to support a child which is needed from their parent why because it would encourage the child to improve on their skills while not being ashamed of making mistakes in life because the child would have the support they need from the parent.
Parent involvement can also have some structural problems when it comes to teaching the child how to control their behavior in a classroom by starting at home. The reason that most children may struggle in a classroom with peers in their age group is that they are simply not used to being in that situation. This would lead a child to have behavioral issues in a classroom such as being timid, not engaging in fun activities, and lack of verbal skills among their peers. Children with household problems tend to have a more difficult time and school which could be caused them not to perform well in academics because of the lack of parenting skills being used at home.
The overall result of the project was 11 respondents out of 51 completed the fun activities surveys which was a small portion to input data. The majority of the respondents had a great time with the fun activities and most of the reactions that these families said about the activities were having fun, family engagement, and happiness/joy. The goal for this project was simply to find out how much time and effort parents would spend with their children while building a bond together and having fun completing the fun activities. The data turn out to be a positive impact why because all 11 respondents were simply satisfied with the fun activities and had multiple family members join in on the fun as well.
Reference
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Linwood, A. (2018). Head Start Programs. Gate Encyclopedia of Children’s Health; Infancy through Adolescence. Retrieved October 4, 2021
McCormick, M. P., Cappella, E., O’Connor, E. E., & McClowry, S. G. (2013). Parent involvement, emotional support, and behavior problems. Elementary School Journal, 114(2).
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