The Affect of Family Fun Time Activities on Parental Involvement
Sean Eason
Longwood University
SOCL 320-01: Social Research and Program Evaluation
Dr. JoEllen Pederson
Abstract
Parental involvement is key to academic success for children’s education. With a lack of parental involvement, students struggle with their academic achievement. There is a lack of literature regarding the effectiveness of good parental involvement among the youth and their educational success. Another issue is that some parents do not see the importance of parental involvement in regards of their child’s education (Hornby and Lafaele). The purpose of this study is to gather data and analyze the effectiveness of Family Fun Time activities on parental involvement. The effectiveness of these activities on encouraging parental involvement was analyzed. This research was done using a survey at Longwood University. This was a take home survey with a couple of short answer questions and mainly comprised of multiple-choice questions. This is a mixed-methods study. The data that was collected were the 11 responses on the surveys sent home. The qualitative data that was found are three themes: spending time together, creativity, and having fun. The quantitative data that was found are as follows. The majority of the respondents agreed heavily on the fact that Family Fun Time activities encouraged the family to spend time together. 60% of the respondents stated that these activities highly encouraged the family to spend time together. The practical implication of this study is to find the effectiveness of take-home activities on parental involvement with children’s education.
Introduction
The research problem for this study is, “Will Family Fun Time Activities encourage parental involvement?”. Previous studies have addressed the concern of how important parental involvement is on children’s academic success. It is found that there are many common barriers that weaken the ability for parents to get involved with their child’s education (Hornby and Lafaele). One being long work hours. Many parents with young children work strenuous jobs that have long hours each day. These long hours of work get in the way of the ability to be engaged with the child’s school and school work. Another study has found that parents work longer hours especially if they are lower on in socioeconomic status (Wilder, 2013). High expectations on the child’s academic performance and homework assistance has the strongest relationship to the academic achievement of the child (Wilder, 2013). Students with higher expectations from parents have found to outperform other children in their class as well (Fan and Chen, 2001). A deficiency was found in these previous studies. being their sample sizes being low. A low sample size is not very representative of the population of study. The significance of this study is very important. If parental involvement can be positively correlated with children’s academic success, schools can integrate more parental involvement encouraging activities. This will help the children’s education. The purpose of this study is to see if Family Fun Time activities encourage parental involvement.
Literature Review
Parental Involvement
Many schools have been working on improvement plans regarding academic achievement of students (Castro and Exposito-Casas, 2015). Parental involvement has been under the spotlight of schools due to the research that parental involvement has a significant impact on student success (Castro and Exposito-Casas, 2015). In general, the idea of student academic success relating to higher parental involvement has educators believing that parental involvement is essential for students (Fan and Chan, 2001). “Community members and agency professionals, along with educators, developed and implemented programs to both support families and engage them in their children’s education.” (Smith, 2006, p. 43). As seen, promoting parental involvement has been an important factor among schools. This has been pushed heavily to attempt to help students succeed academically (Smith, 2006). “The study found that the development and implementation of intentional parental involvement strategies positively influenced the level of parental involvement.” (Smith, 20016, p.43). Pushing for parental involvement via intentional parental involvement strategies has resulted in higher rates of involvement. Forms of parental involvement have been researched to identify the effects they have on student academic success.
Types of Parental Involvement
Parental involvement can vary from homework assistance to the parent having high expectations of academic success of child (Wilder, 2013). “Through moderator analysis, it was revealed that parental aspiration/expectation for children’s education achievement has the strongest relationship, whereas parental home supervision has the weakest relationship, with students’ academic achievement.” (Fan and Chen, 2001, p. 1). It has been found that varying types of parental involvement have varying consequences. As explained by Fan and Chen (2001), parental expectation of high academic achievement for child has the strongest affect towards academic success. They found that students who have the motivation from high expectation from parents tend to succeed academically (Fan and Chen, 2001). Fen and Chen (2001) also found that parental home supervision has the weakest relationship to child academic success. Home supervision consists of homework assistance and making sure the child does their work. This showed little to no relation to academic success of the student (Fen and Chen, 2001). “Authoritative parenting style is characterized by parents who develop and maintain close, warm relationships with their children while at the same time establishing structure and guidelines that are enforced as necessary.” (Shute, Hansen, Underwood, Razzouk, 2011, p.1). Parenting styles are also important factors for student success.
Barriers to Parental Involvement
Although schools are pushing for more parental involvement (PI) within their community, there are many barriers that make parental involvement difficult for some families (Hornby, 2011). Socioeconomic status, parent-teacher relations, and family traditions all have an effect on how well parental involvement may be (Hornby, 2011). For example, families dealing with lower socioeconomic status will have less time at home due to long hours at work. A lack of parental involvement has shown to have negative affects on student success (Wilder, 2013). “It is proposed that the gap between rhetoric and reality in PI has come about because of the influence of factors at the parent and family, child, parent–teacher and societal levels which act as barriers to the development of effective PI.” (Hornby and Lafaele, 2011, p. 1). These barriers have been identified to be causing issues with effective parental involvement. Some parents do not see the significance in parental involvement with their child’s education (Hornby and Lafaele). This is due to traditional beliefs of the parent or how they were raised. Another barrier that has been identified is the parent’s current life agenda (Hornby and Lafaele, 2011). All of these barriers are studied to help educational institutions develop more effective parental involvement programs (Hornby and Lafaele, 2011).
Conclusion
An increase of effective parental involvement has shown positive affects on student academic success (Jeynes, 2007; Fan and Chen, 2001). “The positive effects of parental involvement hold for both White and minority children.” (Jeynes, 2007, p.1). Parental involvement, no matter the ethnicity, has shown positive outcomes on students. Academic success for students has been identified to correlate with at home parent involvement (Reynolds, 1992). Higher levels of parental involvement in school correlates with academic achievement of students (Reynolds, 1992). As seen, parental involvement is positively correlated with overall student success. There are barriers that must be taken into consideration to develop effective parental involvement. Lastly, the promotion of intentional parental involvement strategies have shown higher levels of involvement which positively influences student academic achievement (Hornby, 2011).
Data and Methodology
Instrument
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.
Sample
The non-probability sample for this study was based on the 51 children (ages three to five) who attend Head Start in two rural counties in Virginia. After activities were sent home with children for five days, the questionnaire was sent home with all 51 students. 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 Head Start teacher the following school day. 11 questionnaires were returned the next school day. Teachers then sent a reminder home with children to return any outstanding questionnaires. This resulted in 0 more questionnaires being returned. Overall, there was a 22% response rate.
Quantitative Analysis
Quantitative analysis of the returned surveys is based on the close-ended questions. For this study the dependent variable is parent involvement. The item from the questionnaire that was used to operationalize this was “Did the Astronaut Pudding Activity encourage your family to spend time together?”. The answer choices for this item were a scale from 0 to 10, 0 meaning not at all, 10 meaning a great amount. The independent variable for this study is highest education obtained. The item from the questionnaire that was used to operationalize this was “What is the highest degree of education anyone in your household has completed?”. The answer choices for this question were less than high school, high school, some college, college degree or higher, and prefer not to answer. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze these variables.
Qualitative Analysis
Qualitative analysis of the returned surveys is based on the open-ended questions. The open-ended questions on the survey were “What did your family enjoy most about these activities?”, “What recommendations would you suggest to make these activities better?”, and “What are your favorite ways to spend time with your child?”. To answer the research question, “Will family fun activities promote more parental involvement?”, inductive open coding was used to determine reoccurring themes in the participant’s responses.
Findings
Quantitative Findings
The independent variable of this study is highest degree of education in the household. The answers to the question that measures this variable are as follows: 1. Less than High School, 2. High School, 3. Some College, 4. College degree or higher, and 5. Prefer not to answer. This question had a total of 11 responses and no respondents stated less than high school or prefer not to answer as their answer. 45% of the respondents stated that the highest degree of education in the household is college degree or higher. 36% of the respondents stated that the highest degree of education in their household was some college. 18% of the respondents stated that the highest degree of education in their household is High School. Table 1 displays the descriptive statistics for this variable.
Table 1. Highest Degree of Education
| Highest Degree of Education | Mean |
| High School | 10 |
| Some College | 9 |
| College Degree or Higher | 9 |
The dependent variable of this study is level of encouragement for the family to spend time together. This question, that measures the level of this variable, had a scale from 0 to 10, 0 being not at all and 10 being a great amount. This question had 10 responses. The average response was 9.2, claiming that the activity encouraged their family to spend time together greatly. The standard deviation is 1.23. The mode is 10. The median response was 10, which shows a good number of respondents answered with 10. 60% of the respondents selected 10, 20% selected 9, and 20% selected 7. Table 2 displays the descriptive statistics.
Table 2
Encouragement
| Mean | Median | Mode | S.D | |
| Level of Encouragement | 9.2 | 10 | 10 | 1.23 |
Using a bivariate analysis, the independent variable and dependent variable are found to be related. Respondents who stated their highest education in their household being High School also answered 10, as their average answer, on the scale of how much they felt the activity encouraged their family to spend time together. Respondents who stated their highest degree of education in their household is some college, averaged an answer of 9 on the scale of how much the activity encouraged their family to spend time together. Respondents who stated their highest education in their household is a college degree or higher averaged an answer of 9 on the scale of activity encouragement. From previous studies, it is found that a lack of parental involvement leads to barriers of academic achievement (Wilder, 2013). In this study, it was found that no matter how high the highest level of education in the house is, this activity encouraged the family to spend time together greatly. This agrees with the previous research. People with a lower education level tend to work long hours outside of the house, leading to less parental involvement. As found, no matter the level of education, this activity encouraged parental involvement greatly. A higher level of parental involvement inside and outside of school correlates positively with student academic success (Reynolds, 1992).
Table 3
Mean encouragement by highest degree of education
| Highest Degree of Education | Mean |
| High School | 10 |
| Some College | 9 |
| College Degree or Higher | 9 |
Qualitative Findings
The short answer sections of the eleven surveys were coded into common themes. Through coding, three common themes were identified. The three themes are spending time together, having fun, and creativity. These three themes were coded due to the interest of if the Family Fun Time activities promoted parental involvement. The short answer questions allowed for the respondents to explain what type of activities they like to do with their child and why. They also got the chance to explain what their favorite part of the activities was as well. The two questions used for this analysis are as follows: 1. What did your family enjoy most about these activities? 2. What are your favorite ways to spend time with your child?
The theme “spending time together” appeared in five of the eleven surveys. For example, respondent 1 stated, “Life is so busy. These activities made it so easy and stress free to do something together!”. This was the answer to the question 1, identified above. This quote explains how parents just want to spend time together with their family. Activities promoting parents to be involved with their child seems to be wanted. Respondent 3 stated, “The family time we spent together.” This was their answer to question 1, identified above. Parents seem to enjoy the aspect of spending time with their family. This is essential for promoting parental involvement through take-home activities. Respondent 9 stated, “The interaction with our child and the fact that the rest of the family was interested in participating as well.” This was their answer to question 1, identified above. As seen, the respondents seem to enjoy interacting with their child with activities and getting the family involved as well.
The theme “having fun” appeared in three of the eleven surveys. For example, respondent 2 stated, “Doing fun activities.”. This was the respondents answer to question 2, identified above. This shows how parents enjoy being involved with any activity that is fun for the child. Respondent 4 stated, “It brought a lot of fun and laughter for our family.”. This was their answer to question 1, identified above. Anything that brings happiness and entertainment to the family seems to be the most enjoyable for parents. Respondent 10 stated “Having fun!” as their answer to question 1, identified above. This again, proves that the respondents seem to share the same opinion when asked what the best part of the activities was. Having fun seems to be important when creating activities that encourage parental involvement.
The theme “creativity” appeared in three out of the eleven surveys. Respondent 5 stated, “we love the arts and crafts.”. This was their answer to question 1. The aspect of letting your child be creative is loved by parents. Respondent 8 stated, “Making up our own stories and drawing a picture about it.”. This was their answer to question 2. Creativity promoting activities seem to be a commonly used activity that parents do with their child. Respondent 1 stated “Arts and crafts.”. This was their answer to question 2. Overall, parents seem to favor creative activities when it comes to spending time with their child.
Encouraging parental involvement relies on spending time together, having fun, and creativity. As shown by the qualitative analysis, these themes have been common throughout the responses. In order to encourage parental involvement with sent home activities, there must be creativity and fun included. Parental involvement has been shown to positively correlate with student success (Reynolds, 1992). These family fun time activities have shown that parents enjoyed spending time with their children and being involved in their education. The promotion of parental involvement strategies has shown to increase parental involvement (Hornby, 2011). With these findings, encouraging family involvement can be done through activities that encourage creativity and having fun with parent’s children.
Conclusion
The main point of this study was to see how effective Family Fun time activities were on encouraging parental involvement with their children’s education. This study was also done to examine the past research on the topic and to see how important parental involvement really is on education of the child. It was found that these activities did in fact encourage parental involvement with the children’s education. The respondents claimed that there was great encouragement and that their child enjoyed the activities. Limitations in this study includes a small sample size, Headstart not running, and the Covid-19 pandemic. With the sample size being low, there is a small representation to the population of study. Headstart not running has made parents unable to send their children to the education enriching activities and programs provided for the children. Covid-19 has put these programs to a hiatus which led to a lower response rate in general. It is greatly recommended for schools to encourage parental involvement to their students’ families. Early education is a vital part of the development of children. With a more effective program that encourages more parents to be engaged in their children’s learning, there will be greater academic achievement throughout the educational systems.
References
S. Wilder (2014) Effects of parental involvement on academic achievement: a meta-synthesis, Educational Review, 66:3, 377-397, DOI: 10.1080/00131911.2013.780009
Garry Hornby & Rayleen Lafaele (2011) Barriers to parental involvement in education: an explanatory model, Educational Review, 63:1, 37-52, DOI: 10.1080/00131911.2010.488049
Smith, J. G. (2006). Parental Involvement in Education Among Low-Income Families: A Case Study. School Community Journal, 16(1), 43-56.
Fan, X., & Chen, M. (2001). Parental involvement and students’ academic achievement: A meta-analysis. Educational psychology review, 13(1), 1-22.
Jeynes, W. H. (2007). The relationship between parental involvement and urban secondary school student academic achievement: A meta-analysis. Urban education, 42(1), 82-110.
Reynolds, A. J. (1992). Comparing measures of parental involvement and their effects on academic achievement. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 7(3), 441-462.
Castro, M., Expósito-Casas, E., López-Martín, E., Lizasoain, L., Navarro-Asencio, E., & Gaviria, J. L. (2015). Parental involvement on student academic achievement: A meta-analysis. Educational research review, 14, 33-46.
Shute, V. J., Hansen, E. G., Underwood, J. S., & Razzouk, R. (2011). A review of the relationship between parental involvement and secondary school students’ academic achievement. Education Research International, 2011.