Research Final Paper
Brandon Thaxton
Longwood University
Abstract
Our research project for the semester started with a statement of what we wanted to find and determine. My hypothesis regarding my research was if more interactive activities are sent home, I expect stronger relationships between parents and their child. In three rural counties in Virginia, activities were sent home to eighty-six low income families to conduct research. To help incentivize the parents to complete our survey, the last activity sent home had a $5 gift card attached to it in appreciation for their cooperation. Before sending anything home with the children, consent was obtained by going through the Institutional Review Board. The survey sent home had questions regarding multiple activities, such as Noodle Necklace Activity and Animal Dice Activity. Quantitative and qualitative questions were asked, with a scale provided underneath where each family can circle the appropriate number. Data was collected through these open ended questions and found many themes such as the effectiveness of the activities and the overall conclusion that they would change nothing about the activities. After receiving the surveys back from the parents of Head Start, there was no correlation between activity duration and satisfaction of relationship between parent and child.
Introduction
The topic of my research was to design an activity that could help bridge the relationship gap between low income families and their children. There is limited research done on how to improve parental involvement and encourage them to stay involved. My research question was “Do activities sent home through the Head Start program strengthen parent-child relationships?” It is hypothesized that with the involvement of programs with low income families such as Head Start, sent home activities could improve relationships between parent and child. Some of the greatest differences between high achieving and low achieving students can be the differences in their home life and how much parental involvement they have. This study was designed around a mixed-method survey that would be sent home to all parents after the completion of the activities. A mix of quantitative and qualitative questions were asked to the 44 families, collecting data regarding the experience of each family. The purpose of these questions was to analyze the responses and measure for increases in relationship within the low SES families.
Literature Review
Much of what we know about parent involvement with their child’s education comes from the research we have observed over the last decade. Current research suggests that parental involvement is an influential factor in a child’s development and success in school. Engaging families in the education of their children is increasingly viewed as important, with research finding that children achieve more when schools and families work together (Donna, 2008). When it comes to involving school programs with parents, the question of “Do activities sent home through Head Start programs strengthen parent-child relationships?” arises. This literature review will investigate the relationship between parental involvement and children’s learning competence, while synthesizing the findings of other scholarly articles.
Definition of Parent Involvement
Parent involvement is seen as an effective strategy to ensure student success, as evidenced by several correlational studies, with the overarching benefit of parent involvement being increased in academic performance (Bower, 2011). Across the country, majority of the school improvement plans begin with increasing parent involvement with their children in elementary schools. Teachers are asked to communicate with parents to help motivate students and encourage parents to become more involved in the school and their students’ educations (Epstein & Dauber, 2009). The benefits of parent involvement are not seen only in the classroom; the current literature also emphasizes other positive effects. For example, “parent involvement also increases social capital, or networks designed to leverage resources. As social networks are increased, students are able to access additional support such as extensions beyond the school (Bower, 2011).” As current research shows there is increased academic success with more involved parents at home, it has become identified as a strategy to bridge the achievement gap. In the early 2000’s, school’s made efforts to include the parents by initiating communications about the school curriculum and student performance. Nancy (2008) stated that, “Most schools provided parents with information designed to promote learning at home and on topics related to child-rearing issues.” Nancy found that parents were more likely to attend events that featured some interaction with the students’ teachers. A major reason for lack of parent attendance and parent involvement has also been because schools do not include parents in very much decision making. Despite all reasons researchers have found, Nancy (2008) states “Lack of time on the part of parents was most often named as the greatest barrier impeding parent involvement.” Schools can offer all the PTA meetings and fundraisers that they want, but parent involvement will not increase until the time they have is available.
Head Start Program/Barriers
Head Start is a federally funded comprehensive early intervention program for low-income families and their young children. Since its inception in 1964 as part of the President Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty, Head Start has been known as the earliest national two-generation model of service delivery in the early childhood and family support fields (Parker, Piotrkowski, 2000). Most of the current information about parents’ participation in their children’s educational experiences is found in the elementary school literature. The positive and long-term impact of early childhood intervention on children’s success in school has been well documented (Baker, 2000). Although much success has occurred from this program, anecdotal evidence suggests there may be characteristics of programs that hinder the involvement of parents. “These include how programs handle parent-teacher communication, differences in language between home and school, and parent efficacy in involvement (Parker, 2000).” Many socioeconomic factors hindered parent’s ability to be involved, such as income level and the need to work more hours to provide for their child. “Because academic disparities associated with SES are increasing in many societies, there is strong motivation to develop and implement training programs that can narrow these achievement gaps (Neville, 2013).” According to Chang (2009), “Results from Head Start programs revealed that mothers who participated in parenting classes or socialization meetings provided more linguistic and cognitive stimulation at home.” While low SES families often have concerns with the effectiveness of Head Start, African American families in particular benefited from attending these meetings and displayed fewer parental detachment behaviors. “Analyses were conducted to establish differences between children and families who participate in low versus high number of activities (Seguin, 2010).” Qualitative analyses of the interviews revealed that changes in family composition, such as having a baby or getting divorced, also were perceived barriers. “Because this study was conducted in rural Head Start programs, the findings cannot easily be generalized to urban settings, where there may be different barriers to participation (Parker, 2000).” The federal mandate for parent involvement in Head Start has created another barrier, it is now in conflict with federal and state requirements that low-income mothers with young children work outside the home. “Thus, Head Start must review its parent involvement program if it is to keep its two-generation focus and impact (Parker, 2000).” In order for our nation to continually see improvements with low SES families and parent involvement, Head Start programs must find the right amount and kinds of activities to offer families, while doing so in the free time of hard working parents.
Data and Methods
To measure quantitatively, our survey includes questions such as “How long did it take you and your child/children to complete the activity”? Each family will be able to respond by choosing the multiple choice options listed for the duration of time it took them. Another question asked is “On a scale from 0-10, how much assistance did your child/children require for this activity”? A scale will be provided beneath the question where each family can circle the appropriate number of how much assistance they provided. After receiving the survey’s back, our overall compliance rate was __51%_.
To measure qualitatively, open ended questions were asked in the beginning of the survey. The first qualitative question is “What was your favorite activity and why”? Under each open ended question is a space provided where they can provide feedback on their experience during the activity. Another qualitative question asked is “Please explain what your family gained from these activities. How will you use what you gained in the future”? These questions provided an adequate amount of data and qualitative feedback on our activities.
Quantitative Findings
Using the surveys returned from the parents at Head Start, we are able to compare thirty- five different responses and how they vary. Close ended questions were asked and distributed to the school to collect our quantitative data. During our comparison of qualitative findings, we operated based off of nineteen survey responses as we did not have as much data as we do currently. Now having thirty-five survey responses, the correlation between the duration it took to complete the activity and the relationship improvement with their child was looked at. The tables below show the independent variable, dependent variable, and bivariate analysis of the mean.
The independent variable for my comparison is “How long did it take you and your child/children to complete the activity?” This survey question has four answer choices, ranging from ‘0-10 minutes’, ‘to longer than 30 minutes’. Based upon survey results, the majority of parents and their child spent 21 or more minutes on their activity. Coming in a close second, 45.7% of respondents took less than 20 minutes to finish the activity with their child. This question was asked to see which activities took the parent and their child longest, and to see if the duration of time correlated to overall relationship improvement with their child.
Table 1
Time it took to complete the activity
Duration (minutes) Count %
0-20 16 45.7
21 or more 19 54.3
Total 35 100
Note. The questions asked each respondent to mark how much time each activity took.
The dependent variable used to measure my quantitative findings is “On a scale from 0-10, how much did this activity help to improve you and your child’s/children’s relationship?’ The answer choices for this question is a scale ranging from 0 = Not at all, 10 = Very much. This dependent variable is used to help find if the activities sent home through Head Start had an impact on the parent-child relationship. Based upon the survey results, 91.4% of parents saw an increase in the relationship with their child greater than 5. Only three parents reported that after the activities, the relationship with their child did not improve greater than a 5.
Table 2
Relationship with child
Range Count %
0-5 3 8.6
6-10 32 91.4
Total 35 100
The bivariate analysis of questions v14 and v18, which compared the time spent on activity to relationship improvement, came back with a very even mean. Out of the 35 respondents, the highest response count of 10 had a mean of 8.50. Seven respondents saw an improvement with a median of 8.86. Coming in at 9.22 as the highest mean, nine respondents fell in that category after seeing an improvement of the relationship with their child.
Table 3
Bivariate Analysis correlating time of activity to relationship improvement
Group Count Mean
1 7 8.86
2 9 7.78
3 10 8.50
4 9 9.22
Total 35 8.57
Note. The mean response with the highest amount of respondents was 8.50.
Based on the overall bivariate analysis, no correlation was found between the amount of time spent on the activity and relationship improvement with child. While the overall majority of respondents did see a relationship improvement with their child, it did not come back correlated to the activity duration. Between the four responses, the median remained between seven and nine, thus concluding no clear correlation.
Qualitative Findings
After sending activities home with children ages 3-5 in the Head Start program, the surveys were returned from the parents of the children several weeks later. Based on the responses received, three common themes seemed to reoccur throughout the different families. The first common theme was that the activities sent home increased the amount of “fun time” between the parent and child. Of the first nineteen returned surveys, only two reported that they did not experience an increase. For example, respondent #3 stated that “Yes absolutely! It took all of the planning and prepping out of the equation.” Some of the struggles with a low income family can be having the resources and time to bond with your child, and it is evident that the activities sent home alleviated some of that stress.
More respondents such as #7 also agreed by stating “Yes! It was very helpful. Everything was already there so all we needed to do was enjoy the activity with him.” The responses came back with a clear consensus that the activity provided an opportunity for the parents and children to bond and have “fun time”. With many parents struggling to find time for games with their child, it was nice to see a common theme that 89% of the parents who returned surveys enjoyed the time they received with the activity and their child. Like many others, respondent #6 agreed by stating “Yes, my child had more fun helping me put the activities together instead of just playing a game that is already put together.” This helped bring out another point of the common theme, that it was not just the activity that was fun, and rather it was the process of assembling and working as a team with your child.
The second common theme among returned surveys was that parents would not change anything about the activities sent home. Out of 19 returned surveys from the parents at Head Start, 13 stated that they would not change a thing. Respondent #7 answered that “I think they all did an excellent job. Thank you!” Although the activities did receive five statements of things they would change, they were all small corrections and nothing negative. Of the dissenting, respondent #3 stated “Make the funnel tip just a smidge bigger so the rice goes into the balloon a little better. Everything else was great!” The reasons for change were of minor concern, and nothing that affected the activity negatively.
Among the other few dissenting opinions, feedback for possible activities in the future were recommended. Respondent #6 stated “I like each activity, I would like more activities about learning to write and how to hold a pencil correctly.” The respondent overall agreed with the common theme that nothing should be changed, and instead gave possible ideas for next year’s activity her specific child may enjoy. Our goal for these activities were to bring a fun assignment home that the parent and child can work on together, where her child may do activities such as learning to hold pencils in the classroom.
The final theme found among the returned surveys from Head Start was the overall favorite activity out of the five sent home. Nineteen surveys were returned, and eleven came to the conclusion they enjoyed the animal dice activity the most. The stress ball activity did receive a number of votes, but it was not the overall theme. When asked which activity was their favorite, respondent #4 stated “Animal dice activity because my daughter had the most fun with it, didn’t want to stop playing with it.” No sooner than the very next returned survey, respondent #5 agreed by stating “Our favorite activity was the animal dice. It was easy to make, not too messy and our child enjoyed playing with it.”
Of the few that chose other activities, the animal dice was often included as a co-favorite. Respondent #1 included both activities by stating “animal dice activity and stress ball balloon activity. Cause he likes making animal noises.” Respondent #7 was also in agreement by stating “We liked the dice and balloon activity the best. Those two activities kept his attention the most. He love throwing the dice to see which animal pop up.” All other activities ranged from 1-3 votes as it being their favorite, with animal dice being the overall common theme of favorite activity.
The overall summary of the findings from returned surveys was the activity did in fact allow for more “fun time” with their child, overall they would not change anything about the activities, and the animal dice activity was the favorite. It was rewarding to see a positive consensus coming from these parents who have children involved within the Head Start program.
Conclusion
The overall findings of the study help us see the benefit in increasing parent involvement with children, especially in low income families. The mixed method questions helped us develop our quantitative and qualitative data, which showed that the amount of “fun time” children and parents received increased from these activities sent home. No correlation was found in the duration it took to complete the activity and the outcome of their relationship however. Regardless of completing it under twenty minutes or over, families still saw an improvement with the relationship between them and their child. Several limitations were faced when conducting the study, such as only having a 51% compliance rate with parents completing and returning the surveys to provide data. Only 44 surveys were returned out of the initial 80+ that were sent home. Another limitation was the time frame allotted to complete the study, further evaluations could have been made if we had twelve months to complete it. Only a short window of time was available to send out surveys to the families of Head Start and collect them to analyze data. Further research must be completed to find out additional ways we can increase relationships and parent involvement with children in low SES families.
Works Cited
Bower, H. (2011). Can the Epstein Model of Parental Involvement Work in a High-Minority, High Poverty Elementary School, 15, 2.
Chang, Park, Sung. (2009). Parental Involvement, Parenting Behaviors, and Children’s Cognitive Development in Low-Income and Minority Families.
Donna, B. (2008) Parents’ Involvement in Their Children’s Education. Family Matters, 79.
Nancy, C. (2008). Parent Involvement in Children’s Education: Efforts by Public Elementary Schools. National Center for Education Statistics Statistical Analysis Report.
Neville, H. (2013). Family-based Training Program Improves Brain Function, Cognition, and Behavior in Lower Socioeconomic Status Preschoolers.
Parker, Piotrkowski, Baker, Sklar, Clark, Peay. (2000). Understanding barriers to parent involvement in Head Start: a research-community partnership.
Seguin, D. (2010). Extracurricular activity and parental involvement predict positive outcomes in elementary school children, Early Child Development and Care, 180:4.