Abstract
From the research that was conducted you see surveys that were made by two classes for Dr. Pederson. The surveys were handed out to the kids at the Steps and Head Start organizations. The kids were supposed to bring home activities for them and their parents to work on with one another. After the activities are completed, parents had to fill out a survey and let us know what they thought about the activity and if it helped them and their children. The main premise of these activities was to see the development of the children from beginning to end.
Introduction
Throughout this semester we have been developing surveys for the Family Fun Time Activities. The surveys were created to see the improvement of parents and their involvement with their children. The surveys and activities were handed out at STEPS and Head Start to the children to bring home to their parents. For the activity that my group had to do surveys for we focused on the Emotional Flipbook.
Literature Review
The themes that are being searched for in this study are Parent Involvement, race, and socioeconomic status. These themes play some of the biggest roles in the low numbers of parents’ involvement of working with their children. Parent involvement in general has its issues because how parents raise their children affects their ability to learn and interact with others. The race is the final one and that plays a big role in parents’ involvement in their children due to cultural differences.
The article “Parent Involvement in Homework: A research synthesis,” focuses on the actual amount that parents focus on their children when it comes to their schoolwork. One of the reasons that could be associated with low parent involvement in homework is that the parent might not understand the material their child is learning, so they don’t put the time and effort into helping the child learn what they’re going over. As time goes on the educational field has changed so much, so what parents might have learned during their time in school could become irrelevant, which leads to them refusing to help their kids with school (Patall et al.,2008).
The article about African American families goes over how in communities where the income is low a lot of the students tend to drop out. When the parents don’t spend much time with their children and helping, children may make decisions that will impact their lives significantly. When it comes to race it can tie into socioeconomic status since in areas where there is a lack of income the tends to also be where families of color and culture live. Socioeconomics shows that depending on where you are from, location can have a major impact on how a person will develop. This article compared the level of disparity between low-income and minority families and found a direct correlation (Bodovski, 2010).
In the article written by Amato and Fowler titled Parenting Practice, Child Adjustment, and Family Diversity, the authors go over how different diversified families parent their children. The way that parents get involved in their children’s education is related to parent involvement in other areas. When parents are more absent from their children’s lives or don’t give them enough attention their children will start to fall behind causing major issues with their education. As time goes on the kids will fail courses and leading to them either being held back or failing out. Areas laws are not enforced tend to have kids who behave irrationally which can lead to lowered success (Amato and Fowler, 2002). This article connects well to the previous one because it has a strong focus on different diversities of families and how each manages parenting in their households and communities.
Manning’s article focuses on what’s reported to the parents of the school children. It looks at the socioeconomic environments and goes over how the children learn in the local education systems. The way that the kids learn shows how much they are retaining from their teachers and the materials. (Manning and Manning, 1984) Within the article by Lorenzo-Blanco, Bares, and Delva, the cultures of the people who arrive in the country as immigrants and how their involvement is affected by their families are outlined. It discusses how they are typically more associated with each other’s lives. The families also use different parenting strategies which allows them to keep better relations with their families (Lorenso-Blanco et., 2008).
The article by authors Deslandes and Bertrand discusses how due to involvement from parents in the school system, parents are able to help their children with their schoolwork. By there being an increase in parent involvement in groups (such as the parent-teacher association) the success rate of the student is able to flourish. Also, by there being help from parents it allows them to have healthier and stronger relationships together (Deslandes and Bertrand, 2005).
The Article by Neymotin about it goes over how when parents take the initiative to be a part of their children’s education there are greater chances of being a success in the kid’s academic life. When parents do not insert the effort that leads to the kids struggling to understand what is going on because their parents cannot help them with their work. In less-off areas, parents tend to have to work more so it leads to the children not being able to get help from their parents because they spend more time working to make ends meet. Based on the different income areas children who have more involvement with their parents will have great chances of doing well, others who don’t might have a greater struggle in school (Neymotin, 2014).
A Survey questionnaire was created by the 50 members of the Social Research and Program Evaluation team at Longwood University. The survey asked both open and closed-ended questions. Items on the survey were designed to evaluate SMART objectives of the five activities that were completed the previous week by Head Start and Andy Taylor Center families. Items were included that also addressed demographic information, enjoyment of activities, family involvement, and completion of the activities. Hard copies of the questionnaire were delivered to Head Start and Andy Taylor Center.
The non-probability sample for this study was based on 100 children (ages three to five). Seventy-nine children attended head start in three counties. Head Start is a federally subsidized preschool for families with economic needs. Twenty-one children attend the Andy Taylor Center which is located on a college campus, and families apply and pay for their children to attend. Attached to the questionnaire was a children’s book to incentivize families to return the survey. Guardians of the children were asked to complete the survey and return it to the preschool the next day. Teachers sent a reminder home with children to return any outstanding questionnaires. This resulted in ____ questionnaires being returned. Overall, there was a ____ % response rate.
In conclusion, these articles help explain the reason why parents and their children have trouble interacting together. The themes that were selected are the best to help prove the reason why the family fun time activities will help parents be more involved in their kids’ lives. These articles help us understand the connection between parents’ involvement with their children and their schooling. When it comes to these family fun time activities hopefully will help bridge the between the parents and their children
Quantitative Analysis
Quantitative analysis of the returned surveys is based on the close-ended question. For this study, the dependent variable is family involvement. The item from the questionnaire that was used to operationalize this was “How involved was your family throughout the activity?” The answer choices for this item were Scale 0-10; 0 = not at all, 10 = a great amount. For this study, the independent variable is family income. The item from the questionnaire that was used to operationalize this was “What is your annual household income?” The answer choices for this item were. Less than $10,000, 2. $10,000 – $30,999, 3. $31,000 – $50,999, 4. $51,000 – 70,999, 5. $71,000 – $90,999, 6. $91,000 or more, and 7. Prefer not to answer. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze these variables.
Qualitative Analysis
Qualitative Analysis of the returned surveys was based on open-ended questions. The open-ended questions on the survey were” What did your family enjoy most about these activities? Why?”, “What did your child learn from these activities?”, and “What recommendations would you suggest to make these activities better?” To answer the research question, how will family Fun time activities influence family involvement, inductive open coding was used to determine reoccurring themes in the respondent’s responses.
With the quantitative findings, we found from looking a the completed surveys that there was a 16 out of 20 success rate. For the annual income, you see 4 people answered #1 which is less than $10,000. For #2 which is $10,000 – $30,999 4 people answered it. With #3 $31,000 – $50,999 you see 2 people answered. For number #4 which is $51,000 – 70,999, you see 1 person answered, and finally for number 7 which is preferred not to answer 5 people chose to answer it.
References
Patall, E. A., Cooper, H., & Robinson, J. C. (2008). Parent Involvement in Homework: A Research Synthesis. Review of Educational Research, 78(4), 1039–1101. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40071154.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/25702254
Bodovski, K. (2010). Parental practices and educational achievement: social class, race, and <italic>habitus</italic>. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 31(2), 139–156.
Manning, M. M., & Manning, G. L. (1984). Early Readers and Nonreaders from Low Socioeconomic Environments: What Their Parents Report. The Reading Teacher, 38(1), 32–34. http://www.jstor.org/stable/20198671
HILL, N. E., JEFFRIES, J. R., & Murray, K. P. (2017). New Tools for Old Problems: Inequality and Educational Opportunity for Ethnic Minority Youth and Parents. The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 674, 113–133. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26582265
Andra, M. L., & Thomas, A. M. (1998). The Influence of Parenting Stress and Socioeconomic Disadvantage on Therapy Attendance Among Parents and Their Behavior Disordered Preschool Children. Education and Treatment of Children, 21(2), 195–208. http://www.jstor.org/stable/42899529
Lorenzo-Blanco, E. I., Bares, C. B., & Delva, J. (2013). Parenting, Family Processes, Relationships, and Parental Support in Multiracial and Multiethnic Families: An Exploratory Study of Youth Perceptions. Family Relations, 62(1), 125–139. http://www.jstor.org/stable/23326031
Hummer, R. A., & Hamilton, E. R. (2010). Race and ethnicity in fragile families. The Future of Children, 20(2), 113–131.
Deslandes, R., & Bertrand, R. (2005). The motivation of Parent Involvement in Secondary-Level Schooling. The Journal of Educational Research, 98(3), 164–175. http://www.jstor.org/stable/27548074
Amato, P. R., & Fowler, F. (2002). Parenting Practices, Child Adjustment, and Family Diversity. Journal of Marriage and Family, 64(3), 703–716.http://www.jstor.org/stable/3599936
Neymotin, F. (2014). How parental involvement affects childhood behavioral outcomes. Journal of Family and Economic Issues, 35(4), 433–451. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10834-013-9383-y