Abstract
The benefits of parental involvement are thought to be important throughout youth’s K-12 careers (Robinson & Harris, 2014). There is clear evidence that policy makers believe that parent involvement is a major factor in positive academic outcomes” (Robinson & Harris, 2014 p. 3). The purpose of this research was to measure the amount of parental activity with their child’s education. The surveys were used to show the amount of involvement parents contributed during 30-minute fun activities. The participants are families in three rural central Virginia counties, who have low socioeconomic status (SES). The data that was collected and analyzed for this study was a mixed methods study and was both qualitative and quantitative. The qualitative data came from open ended questions at the beginning of the survey where parents wrote their own response in the blank provided. The quantitative data came from closed ended questions. The theme for this study was the measurement of the hours the parent worked and the amount of time the parents spend with their child a day. The results showed that there was not a relationship between the number of hours worked with the amount of time parents got to spend with their children. Qualitative data showed that parents and their families had a lot of fun completing these activities. Many families also stated that they learned from completing the activities, while some families even talked about how it was nice to spend time with their child because they normally do not get to spend much time together.
Introduction
The research problem for this study is, that parents in rural areas with low socioeconomic status (SES) are not involved with their children’s education. If parents are not helping their children with their education, then the child is less likely to succeed in school and less likely to further their education, such as college. There have not been many studies done on this topic. In 2014 Robinson and Harris completed a study about parental involvement in their children’s education. Their findings showed “research continues to communicate that families provide the child’s most important learning environment” (Robinson & Harris, 2014 p 220). The deficiencies of the study were “learning environment yet remains unclear about how exactly parents can contribute to the academic success of their children.” (Robinson & Harris, 2014 p 220). Robinson and Harris’s research shows that parental involvement in children’s education is important, but there is little research on what kind of involvement or how the parent can get involved with their child’s education.
The significance of this study is important because it will help children who come from families with low SES in rural areas and help get them a chance to further their education. This, in turn, may help them further their chances to go to college and get a good paying job. The purpose of this study is to see if the prepared, quick, 30-minute fun activities will get the parents more involved with their child’s academic life. The hypothesis for this study is, If parents in rural areas with low socioeconomic status are more involved in their child’s education, then their child will do better and go farther in their education.
Literature Review
Defining Parental Involvement
The benefits of parental involvement are thought to be important throughout youth’s K-12 careers (Robinson & Harris, 2014). Some theorist and practitioners define parental involvement as home-school partnerships; parental participation; and parents as partners (Lloyd-Smith & Baron, 2010). “There is clear evidence that policy makers believe that parent involvement is a major factor in positive academic outcomes” (Robinson & Harris, 2014 p. 3). Epstein (2011) found that “Teachers would like parents to assist, guide, and influence their children to do their schoolwork” (Epstein, 2011 pg. 3).
Parental Involvement
Parental involvement is seen as an important strategy for the advancement of the quality of education. The ultimate objective of this is to expand the social and cognitive capacities of pupils (Driessen, Smit, & Sleegers, 2005). Research conducted over the last 30 years has made it very clear that the greatest impact on a child’s educational attainment is focused in the home, rather than the classroom (Harris & Goodall, 2012). There are many ways that parents can take part in benefitting their child’s education both inside and outside of the classroom. Reading aloud to children benefits the development of language and literacy (Isaacs, 2012).
Socioeconomic Status and Parental Involvement
“Parenting is a mediating variable between SES and children’s outcomes” (Tramonte et al. 2013 pg. 400). Social class can have an impact on parent’s involvement with their child’s education. “Social class is measured by both parents’ educational attainment and family income” (Robinson & Harris, 2014. pg. 7). There are drastic differences in achievement by social class and by race (Robinson & Harris, 2014). There are many reasons why parents might not be able to help their child with their education or homework such as employment, work schedules, and lack of work (Moore, 2016).
Data and Methods
Study Design and Sample
The type of research used for this study was evaluation research. The participants for this study were families in three rural southern Virginia counties whose children were enrolled in Head Start programs. Head Start is a nationally, federally funded program, for low economic families, giving their preschool children, ages zero to six years old, access to development services that all other children are eligible for. Surveys were sent out to 86 families, and there was a response rate of 51 percent (44 surveys).
Procedure
In order to ensure that the participants in the survey were anonymous and the surveys were fair, every student that took part in creating the survey had to get certified by the Institutional Review Board (IRB). The university sent 86 packets, containing five quick activities, to the Head Start center. The employees at Head Start then sent the activities home with the students. Along with the activities was a pen and paper survey for parents to fill out. In order to encourage a completed response from the parents, a five-dollar gift card was attached to the survey.
Quantitative Measures
The dependent variable for this study was the number of hours the parents get to spend with their children each day. This information is used to measure the amount of involvement from the parents during these activities. The independent variable is the number of hours parents work in a week. This variable will help give a better understanding of the amount of parental involvement in low socioeconomic rural areas.
The quantitative measures for the independent variable was the question: During a typical week, how many hours do you work? At the end of the question there was a blank for the participant to write the number of hours worked. The dependent variable quantitative question used in the survey was: During a typical day, how many hours do you get to spend interacting with your child/children? The respondents were given a list of numbers ranging from zero to ten and were told to circle the number that corresponds with the number of hours they spend with their child. This data was used to measure the amount of parental involvement with their children in low income areas and see if socioeconomic status plays a part in the amount of involvement parents have with their children’s education.
Qualitative Measures
The qualitative data was collected from the open-ended questions on the first page of the survey given to the participants. Participants were to write their own responses based on the questions provided. One of the questions used for the qualitative data was, how involved were you with your child’s activity? For the answer, there was space provided for the participant to write their response. The other question was Do you think that being provided with pre-planned activities increased the amount of fun time you got to spend with your family after school? Please explain. At the end of the question, there was room for the participant to write a brief response.
Analysis
Quantitative Analysis
The Statistical Packages for Social Sciences (SSPS) issue 25 was used to examine the survey responses. Descriptive responses were used.
Qualitative Analysis
Open ended questions were used to find themes related to family involvement.
Qualitative Findings
The responses were coded using open-ended coding. In the responses there were many recurring topics. One recurring topic was the amount of fun the families had completing the activities. Another was how these activities helped parents get to spend some quality time with their children. Many of the respondents even talked about the convenience of the activities coming prepared, while others discussed and liked what skills their family learned from completing these activities.
The amount of fun the families had completing the activities was frequently brought up in the written responses from the parents. One of the respondents wrote how much fun their family had with the box game. Respondent 2 stated, “box game was fun for the whole family.” Some of the parents even wrote about the amount of fun that they had assembling some of the activities. Respondent 13 said, “it was fun putting rice in the balloons with my son, and using markers to put the faces on.” Other families had fun completing the activities in general and spending time with their children. Respondent 18 said, “the animal dice activity was very fun, it was interesting for me to see all the animals he identified.” Some families even talked about the fun that they had completing the activities. Respondent 9 said, “we had fun learning together.”
Another topic that was frequently commented on was how these activities helped parents spend time with their children, because they are typically too busy. One of the respondents talked about how they have a busy life and do not have much free time to spend with their child. The response from respondent 8 was, “most of the time we got other stuff to do so not able to do to much together.” Respondent 11 also talked about how they do not normally have a lot of free time as well. Respondent 11’s quote was “yes: it was something that we made time for we don’t always get the chance.” Respondent 10 talked about how hard it was to find time when you are a busy parent with more than one child. Their quote was “yes, because being a busy mom of two its hard to come home and try and think of something to do.”
Many respondents talked about how happy they were and the convenience of the activities coming prepared. This made more time for them to focus on completing the activities instead of the preparation. Respondents 3 and 7 talked about how there was little or nothing to prepare. Respondent 3 states, “It took all of the planning and prepping out of the equation.” Respondent 7’s response was, “It was very helpful. Everything was already there so all we needed to do was enjoy the activity.” Other respondents wrote about how they had more time to enjoy the activity because there was nothing to prepare. Respondent 4’wrote, “yes it took less time to prepare the activity more time to play.” Some enjoyed the benefits of the activities coming prepared for completely different reasons, they did not have transportation and could not get to a store to buy supplies, if needed. Respondent 13 stated, “yes, because I didn’t have to look for things or go to the store to buy supplies. I don’t have transportation.”
Many of the respondents talked about skills that they learned from completing the activities together. They enjoyed learning turn taking skills and working as a team to complete the activities. Respondent 1 said, “we learn to do teamwork.” Respondent 4 wrote, “she learn to take turns.”, while Respondent 16 said “we gained that we can work together and have fun.” Some families talked about how they enjoyed spending quality time with their families completing these activities. Respondent 19 wrote, “my family gained quality time and it helped my child understand things about his feeling and what to be thankful for.” Two families even learned from the activities that they can have fun learning. Respondent 5 said, “we learned that we can learn and have fun at the same time.”, while Respondent 9’s family happily wrote, “we had fun learning together.”
Overall, it seems that all of the families enjoyed the activities. Each family took something away from these activities, whether it be the amount of fun that they had completing the activity. Some families even gained quality time with their children, because they do not normally get the chance to do so. Others even enjoyed the convenience of the activities coming prepared so there is more time for them to spend with their child. Some families even learned from completing the activities and can use these skills that they have learned for the rest of their lives.
Quantitative Data
The data for this section was gathered from the quantitative section of the surveys. Out of the 86 surveys sent to parents whose children are enrolled in HeadStart programs, there was a response rate of 35 surveys.
The independent variable for this project was, the question During a typical week, how many hours do you work? Only 28 respondents gave a response to the question. The responses were grouped into ten-hour intervals. 14.3% percent of parents work between zero and ten hours a week. 7.1% work between 11and 20 hours a week. 21.4% of parents work between 21 and 30 hours a week. 57.1% of parents said that they work between 31 and 56 hours each week.
Table 1
Number of Hours the Parents Work Each Week
Hours
Time (in hours) Count %
0 – 10 4 14.3
11 – 20 2 7.1
21 – 30 6 21.4
31 – 56 16 57.1
Total 28 100
The dependent variable for the project was the question, During a typical day, how many hours do get to spend with your child/children. Only 33 surveys had a response to this question. The median was four to seven hours. Three respondents, for a total of 9.1% stated that they got to spend an average of zero to three hours with their child per day. 22 respondents, for a total of 66.7% stated that they got to spend four to seven hours a day with their child. Eight respondents for a total of 24.2%, responded that they get to spend between eight to ten or more hours a day with their child.
Table 2
Hours a Day that Parents get to Spend with their Child
Hours
Time (in hours) Count %
0 – 3 3 9.1
4 – 7 22 66.7
8 – 10 8 24.2
Total 33 100
A bivariate of both, the independent and the dependent variable shows the correlation between the independent and dependent variable. Parents who worked between zero and 10 hours a day spend an average of five hours a day with their children. Parents who work between 11 and 20 hours a day spend an average of seven hours and 15 minutes a day with their children. Parents who work between 21 and 30 hours a day spend an average of six hours a day with their child. Parents who work 31 to 56 hours a day spend an average of five hours a day with their children.
Table 3
Average Hours a Day Parents Spend with their Children Compared to Hours they Work
Average
Hours Count Mean (in hours)
0 – 10 4 5
11 – 20 2 7.250
21 – 30 6 6
31 – 56 15 4.933
Total 27 5.352
Some of the key findings was the number of hours parents spend with their kids compared to the number of hours they work. Parents who worked more hours in a week, typically had less time spent with their children. While parents who did not work as much, had more time to spend with their kids. The median for the dependent variable was between four and seven hours, the median for the independent variable was between 31 hours and 56 hours. The average time for all the parents, regardless of how many hours they worked was about five hours.
Conclusion
After all the surveys were received, they were analyzed using mixed methods study. After analyzing both the quantitative and qualitative data, results showed there to be no correlation between the number of hours that parents work in a week and the number of hours that the parents spend interacting with their children each day. The average number of hours parents spend interacting with their children was five hours and 20 minutes a day. Parents who worked around 40 hours per week spent just under five hours a day with their children. This was very similar to parents who worked half of that time in a week. Parents who worked ten to twenty hours a week spent about seven hours a day with their children. This amount of time is very similar to parents who work twice the number of hours a week. It was positive to see that parents were able to spend some good quality time with their children every day.
The benefits of parental involvement are thought to be important throughout youth’s K-12 careers (Robinson & Harris, 2014). “There is clear evidence that policy makers believe that parent involvement is a major factor in positive academic outcomes” (Robinson & Harris, 2014 p. 3). The significance of this study is important because it will help children who come from families with low SES in rural areas and help get them a chance to further their education. This, in turn, may help them further their chances to go to college and get a good paying job. Overall, the responses from the surveys were very encouraging. The only issue from the study was, due to the surveys being anonymous, you can answer them anyway that you choose, to make yourself look better. Children are the future of America and their success is important to society. Strong educated children, with family support and involvement, can become great leaders in all areas.
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