A Look Into Parents Involvement and Finances
Chloe Hilliard
Longwood University
SOCL 345
Dr. Pederson
November 27, 2024
Abstract
This paper explores the challenges and barriers that may come along for parents with children from three to five year olds enrolled in HeadStart. HeadStart is an educational program designed for low income families for infant, toddler, and preschool aged children. These barriers can include things like financial stress, education level accomplished, socioeconomic status, and lack of parent involvement. A survey was designed as mixed methods and was able to collect qualitative and quantitative data from counties surrounding Farmville, Virginia. The purpose of this survey was to identify and measure the amount of parental involvement and the parental needs of these HeadStart parents. The results of the parental needs assessment survey was that parent’s felt like they were involved in their child’s education regardless of the financial barriers that may occur. Financial stress was overall not a barrier for most parents that were involved within their child’s education. The findings from Bempechat (1992), Smith (2006), and Chavkin (1996) the research explored showed that low income parents face more challenges compared to middle and upper class. Early intervention and effective parenting styles were found to be the best way to be involved within a child’s education (Ogg, Kromrey, and Sundman-Wheat, 2014). According to Henrich and Gadaire (2014), it is important and essential for a child’s education for the parent’s to be involved within the educational system.
Keywords: Parent involvement, Survey research, HeadStart, Barriers, Financial, Education
Introduction
This study uses a parental needs assessment survey in order to explore what parents are struggling with and how these barriers could be resolved. The focus of my research relies on two main themes: parental involvement and financial stress. The questions within the survey asked allow parents to be open and honest about how involved they feel in their child’s education regardless of financial stress. This data is important to gather so parents can be more involved within their child’s education because it may impact a child’s academic performance, social skills, and emotional development.
Within this research it is explained the emphasis on how important it is for parents to be involved within their child’s education. This involvement can lead to greater academic success for the child. Financial stress is important to research when it comes to HeadStart due to the nature of the program and the selective group this program was created for. Parent’s are able to express through the survey if there is anything else that would help them deal with different life stressors. Through this expression this could potentially enhance parental involvement in education.
Literature Review
Parents Income and Class Level
Bempechat (1992), Smith (2006), and Chavkin (1996) all agree amongst one another that low income parents face different challenges that create barriers for the parent’s involvement within their child’s schooling (Bempechat,1992). work argues that upper and middle class parents are organizing children’s events within their education, which in turn creates complications for lower income parents to be involved with their child’s education. This is due to the more opportunities that upper and middle class parents are given. Smith’s (2006) mixed method methodology is used to highlight key points of the financial struggles and limitations that come along with being a lower income parent. The article highlights that these parents are working extra hard to be a part of their children’s education and pushing past their own struggles for their children. Chavkin (1996) explores the ideas of what are the parents’ attitudes and feelings towards the inability of involvement due to system barriers for example, work schedules or not attending school events. (Chavkin, 1996.). All research from these researchers points to schools needing to have more inclusiveness in a supportive school and support system at home. Within Bempechat (1992) work the research could have explored different ethnicities and races rather than lower income parents as a generalized whole population. Smith (2006) and Chavkin (1996) were able to focus on why these parents were not able to be involved, the feelings that came along with their sacrifices, and how this affected the children. Smith (2006) could have demonstrated more of a diverse group within the study to create more generalizability within the research that was conducted. Chavkin (1996) addressed system issues but did not provide an explanation how these issues could be solved internally within the school system and how parents could help. In order for Bempechat’s (1992) research to fully deep dive into parents’ income and the effect on parents’ involvement the research could have explored different cultures which would have created more depth to the findings.
HeadStart
Henrich and Gadaire (2014) research within Headstart highlights that parental involvement within the school is how the program is maintained and ran effectively. The involvement allows for children to benefit more while being educated. Henrich and Gadaire’s (2014) main argument is that involving the parent’s within the school will benefit the child’s educational development and parental skills (Henrich & Gadaire, 2008). In similar research, Ansari and Gershoff (2015) conducted a study that relates parents’ involvement within the program will increase their child’s emotional and cognitive development. The key finding was that there needs to be events created to involve parents and children to foster these types of behaviors (Ansari & Gershoff, 2015). Supportive environments within the school system is something that all of these researchers agreed on. As well as the importance for parent involvement affects a child’s educational, cognitive, and emotional development. The researchers did disagree on some points throughout their studies. Henrich and Gadaire (2008) were able to focus on direct strategies that would help this type of involvement and lead to good results. Ansari and Gershoff (2015) did not give direct strategies; they studied parent involvement as a whole. They highlighted how involvement in school affected parenting quality. Something that Henrich and Gadaire (2008) could have done differently would be including different types of parenting styles within their research. If different parenting styles were included then this would create more answers to the questions of parental involvement. Ansari and Gershoff (2015) should have included different cultures and social classes to create more diversity within their study which in turn would make their research more viable.
Parenting Styles
Ogg, Kromrey, and Sundman-Wheat (2014) research highlighted from a randomized control trial to examine the impact of different parenting strategies and engagement had on children. Barnard (2004) was able to focus on how a parent’s early involvement in a child’s education can lead to success within the child. Korfmacher et al. (2008) focused on how engagement is different from participation. The study argues that emotion is the quality of interactions and participation is the quantity of interactions (Korfmacher et al., 2008). All of the researchers and studies agree that parent involvement early on can make a tremendous impact on children’s education. For Ogg, Kromrey, and Sundman-Wheat (2014) research they could have expanded who their sample size was demographically and culturally to gain different perspectives from different types of parents. Although they were able to explain how different parenting styles can impact a child’s education. Barnard (2004) could have used a longitudinal study method in order to truly measure the long term success of those students from early to later education. Korfmacher and the colleagues (2008) could have examined what different barriers and challenges parents that are possible in parent’s lives can hinder their ability to show up for their children. Korfmacher (2008) was able to explain how parents are able to engage with their children and are able to help their children educationally early on.
Data and Methods
Instrument
A research collaborative at Longwood University created an online survey questionnaire in Qualtrics. The questionnaire included an informed consent question and open-ended and closed-ended items. 15 close-ended items cover parental needs, including resources, demographics, time, comfort, finances, and mental health needs. The questionnaire included 3 open-ended items: “What are some things you enjoy doing most with your child?”,“How do you deal with stress?”,“Is there anything else you would like to share with us about your needs as a parent?”. The questionnaire had an estimated completion time of 10 minutes. This survey is designed to examine if parents’ and guardians’ are involved in their children’s education and what is needed for their involvement within education. The survey contains close-ended and open-ended questions. The mixture of questions is to collect the qualitative data on the possible parental barriers. The quantitative data is used to determine the parental involvement. The close-ended questions are measured on a scale of 0-10 or with a yes,sometimes, or no. The open-ended questions allow for the parents’ or guardians’ to express their barriers and challenges.
Sample
This sample is for parents’ and guardians of Head Start children from the ages of three to five who reside in the seven counties in Central Virginia. There are roughly 119 families in the sample population. The Head Start headquarters contacted the Head Start county teachers via email with the online survey. Teachers were able to pass along the survey to the families of their classrooms and were emailed at least three times during the collection time of data. This method led to 25 surveys submitted. The response rate was approximately 25 percent. No incentives were offered to the families to complete this survey.
Quantitative Analysis
Quantitative Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics. The dependent variable of interest was “How involved do you feel in your child’s education on a scale of 0-10?”. The answer attributes can be rated on a scale of 0-10. The independent variable of interest was “Does financial stress prevent you from being involved in your child’s education?”. The answer attributes are yes, no, or complicated. The dataset will contain 25 observations. In order to examine the close-ended questions, frequencies and means, descriptive statistics will be used to provide an in-depth understanding of parental involvement based on various family structures.
Qualitative Analysis
Qualitative analysis was based on the open-ended items. Thematic coding was used to analyze parent responses. Through the open-ended questions on the survey the parents’ and guardians’ are able to give their own personal experiences that involve their struggles and successes of involvement. While following the principles of chapters 10 and 13 to examine the responses. Thematic analysis will be a useful tool when examining this survey information by finding themes that overlap within the survey response.
Findings
Quantitative Findings
The dependent variable is related to parental involvement. This question states “How involved do you feel in your child’s education on a scale of 1-10?” (0=Not at all, 10= Extremely involved – Click and drag the slider below.) This question is examining how involved parents feel. The independent variable is related to financial stress. This question states, “Does financial stress prevent you from being involved in your child’s education?” The answers available for this question were yes, sometimes, and no. This question is examining how financial stress affects parents’ involvement. This table below represents how involved parent’s feel with their child’s education. Considering the mean is high this means that parent’s do feel involved within their child’s education.
Table 1
Involvement in Child’s Education
| Parent Involvement | Mean | Standard Deviation |
| Involvement | 8.8 | 2.0 |
Table 2 below represents how stressed parents were due to finances. The count for yes, sometimes was 6. The count for yes, often was 1. The count for no was 13. This shows that more parents do not feel like financial stress is preventing them from being involved in their child’s education compared to finances placing barriers.
Table 2
Financial Stress
| Finances | Count |
| Yes | 2 |
| Sometimes | 6 |
| No | 13 |
| Other | Missing |
N=25
The dependent and independent variables were related by the level of involvement regardless of barriers. Even though most of the respondents said that they sometimes felt like financial stress prevented them from participating in their child’s education. More than half of the respondents felt like they were involved in their child’s education. To summarize these findings, regardless of the stressors placed on parents most felt like they were able to be a part of their child’s education.
Table 3
Mean of parent involvement by financial stress
| Financial Stress | Mean |
| Yes | 7.5 |
| Sometimes | 9.5 |
| No | 8.8 |
Table 3 shows the comparison between respondents’ parent involvement in their child’s education and financial stress affecting their involvement in their child’s education. This table is showing that financial stress is impacting the parents’ involvement with their child’s education. Parent’s responded “Yes” 7.5, “Sometimes” 9.5, and “No” 8.8.
Qualitative Findings
In the survey that was conducted for the parents or guardians of children three to five in HeadStart there were recurring themes and codes. There are three open ended questions that are designed to collect qualitative data that ask about mental health and involvement with children. There are three themes that came out from asking these questions: physical activity, communication, and no not at this time.
When the question was asked about what parents enjoyed doing with their children the recurring theme was physical activity. Many parents made a point to mention that they interact with their children and enjoy doing so. For example, respondent six “playing outdoors and coloring”. Respondent fourteen stated “horseback riding”. I chose the theme of physical activity due to the overwhelming response in many activities dealing with physical activities. Rather it was minimal activity or running and dancing the answers still surrounded movement within the child.
The question that asked about how parents deal with stress the theme that was recurring was communication with others and alone time. When the respondents answered with communication, respondent four stated “talk with family and friends” or respondent twenty six “therapy”. When respondents six and twenty one replied with the theme alone time, this included answers like “take a walk” or “take a deep breath and pray”. Both of these themes show that the parents of these children are attempting to deal with their stress in the only way they know possible. The themes of communication with others and alone time were fitting because of the emotions of the parents through their responses in the survey.
The question that asked about is there anything that the parent would like to share with us the theme was no not at this time. The parents all answered with some form of no. This theme is fitting because none of the parents were able to provide us with any more information that was not asked on the survey.
Conclusion
This research explored the relationship between parental involvement in education and financial stress as a barrier for involvement. These two themes were explored through a parental needs assessment for HeadStart parents. Evidence from the survey suggests that financial stress is not impacting parental involvement. Parents with children enrolled in HeadStart generally felt involved with their child’s education. Financial stress for HeadStart parents was not a determining barrier for lack of parental involvement as originally thought. This may be due to the supportive services, community, and family focused manner of HeadStart. Parent’s may feel as if their financial stress does not impact their involvement because they feel seen and heard by the HeadStart community. Staff and other parent’s may provide encouragement and advocacy for the parent’s to be involved within their child’s education regardless of circumstances.
Limitations of the parental needs assessment was the low response rate of surveys. Students from Longwood University in Sociology 345 Social Research and Program Evaluation, attempted to make face to face contact with parents. Although this did gain more surveys the response rate remained on the lower side.
Through conducting the parental needs assessment for HeadStart parents we discovered many interesting findings. Parents do not feel like financial stress is a barrier for educational involvement. Parent’s felt like they were involved in their child’s education and were comfortable with communicating with teachers and helping with education. Accommodations were provided to parents and they felt like they were sufficient. Overall, this was a very informative research study that was conducted and broadened my knowledge of parental involvement.
References
Ansari, A., & Gershoff, E. (2016). Parent involvement in Head Start and children’s development: Indirect effects through parenting. Developmental Psychology, 52(1), 22-34.
Barnard, W. M. (2004). Parent involvement in elementary school and educational attainment. The Journal of Educational Research, 98(4), 195-206.
Bempchat, J. (1992). The role of parental involvement in children’s academic involvement. Educational Research Quarterly, 16(1), 1-10. Link
Chavkin, N. F. (1996). Low-income parents’ attitudes toward parent involvement in education. The School Community Journal, 6(2), 91-108.
Henrich, C. C., & Gadaire, D. M. (2014). Head Start and parent involvement. Early Childhood Education Journal, 42(3), 203-210.
Korfmacher, J., Green, B., Staerkel, F., Peterson, C., Cook, G., Roggman, L., & Faldowski, R. A. (2008). Parent involvement in early childhood home visiting. Child & Youth Care Forum, 37(4), 171-196.
Smith, J. G. (2014). Parental involvement in education among low-income families: A case study. Journal of Education and Learning, 3(1), 25-38.Steps Head Start. (n.d.). Home. Retrieved November 18, 2024, from https://www.stepsheadstart.com