Comparing Family Involvement to the Level of Education in the Household
Faith McNulty
Department of Sociology, Longwood University
SOCL 365, Social Research and Program Evaluation
Dr. Pederson
November 29, 2022
Abstract
Parental involvement is instrumental in the success of a child’s education and development, but parents finding the time to spend with their children is not easy for them. The purpose of this study is to examine how involved a family is with the activities provided by varying education levels in the household. The participants are families with children between the ages of three and five at Head Start Preschools in the surrounding area as well as families from the Andy Taylor Center. The data was collected using a mixed methods survey with qualitative data on family involvement and quantitative data focused on the highest level of education in the household. The themes that formed from this study were family bonding, teamwork among parents and their children, and the ability to learn. The primary statistical results showed that eight people had an education level higher than a high school degree. This study shows that families with higher education levels have higher levels of parental involvement.
Introduction
Studies have been done to examine the level of parental involvement within a household, with these studies the level of education has been seen to play a role in involvement. Vinopal and Grechenson (2016) have stated that with a higher education level there is a higher rate of involvement in the family. Even though they have found that higher education leads to higher involvement they have only used quantitative data and have not investigated qualitative data. Previous studies have also shown the level of involvement in a family, but they rarely show ways to get families involved with each other. With this study, we used Family Fun Time Activities that were sent out once a day for a week with clear instructions on how to use them. These activities were created by another class at Longwood University, the activities are made to be done by three to five year old’s and help them with fine motor skills, as well as encouraging family involvement. The end goal was to send out a survey at the end of the week to evaluate how involved families were with the activities. This study examines both the quantitative and qualitative findings within families with children of the ages three and five. The purpose of this study is to show that families who have a higher level of education are more likely to have higher levels of family involvement and family bonding.
Literature Review
The level of parental involvement in a child’s life can differ in every family for several reasons. For this literature review, I am looking at how a parent’s gender and how socioeconomic status affects the amount of parental involvement with their children. According to Epstein (2010), parental involvement can be broken down into six categories: parenting, communicating, volunteering, learning at home, decision-making, and collaborating with the community. The view of parent involvement can be different for instance, Jezierski and Wall (2017) showed that in 2013-2015 parents should stay away from helping their children with homework and leave that to the teachers. This contradicts Epstein’s fifth type of involvement in learning at home where she says, “Provide information and ideas to families about how to help students at home with homework and other curriculum-related activities, decisions, and planning” (Epstein, 2010).
Along with Epstein (2010) outlining the six types of involvement, she also says what outcomes should be expected with each type. Type one is parenting, the students should be able to be respectful of the people around them, especially their parents and people of authority (Epstein, 2010). This is important to emphasize because with parental involvement the children should learn from people who are educated and of authority. Type four, learning at home, is highly important because it gives parents time to help their children with the work provided by the schools, also it allows teachers to focus on other aspects of schoolwork that need to be addressed in the school setting (Epstein, 2010).
According to the work of Vinopal and Grechenson (2016) and Guryan et al. (2008), the level of education a person has correlates to the level of parental involvement, the higher the education the high level of parental involvement. These studies go on to discuss how the higher the education level the higher the person’s socioeconomic status (Vinopal & Gershenson, 2016; Guryan et al., 2008). Guryan et al., (2008) say that parents with a high education level are more likely to hire a nanny due to their socioeconomic status they are in but still spend more time with their child. Frank et al. (1992) also agree that educational attainment is a factor of socioeconomic status, but they also say a person’s income and occupation play a role in their socioeconomic status. Even though educational attainment is important, mothers on average spend more time with their children regardless of their education level (Vinopal & Gershenson, 2016).
In the Rimm-Kaufman and Zhang (2017) study, it is shown that fathers most often only speak with their child’s school if the school contacts them first. Although this is true, this research was done through interviews with the teachers and parents which can lead to bias (Rimm-Kaufman & Zhang, 2017). Mothers are often more involved with school-related activities and spend more time with their children on work and non-workdays (McBride & Rane, 1998: Rimm-Kaufman & Zhang, 2016). Fathers have higher levels of interactions with their sons than they do with their daughters (Gryczkowski & Mercer, 2010). Even though there are more father-son interactions the level of supervision for daughters is much higher and stricter (Gryczkowski & Mercer, 2010).
In summary, many factors play a role in the level of parental involvement in a child’s life. Some of the most important which are highlighted in the literature above are socioeconomic status and gender. The literature shows that mothers are often more involved with their children on a day-to-day basis with mothers spending 15 more hours a week interacting with their children than fathers do (Guryan et al., 2008). Most of the literature found that socioeconomic status is a factor of parent involvement, specifically the level of educational attainment. With a higher level of education, parents spend more time with their children. This is important but as highlighted earlier there are other aspects of measuring a person’s socioeconomic status. Since there is an abundance of research on gender and parent involvement this study will focus on the level of parental involvement based on the level of education in the family unit.
Data and Methodology
Instrument
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 close-ended questions. Items on the survey were designed to evaluate SMART objectives of 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 the activities, family involvement, and completion of the activities. Hard copies of the questionnaire were delivered to Head Start and the Andy Taylor Center.
Sample
The non-probability sample for the study was based on 100 children (ages three to five years old). Seventy-eight children attended Head Start in three counties. Head Start is a federally subsidized preschool for families with economic needs. Twenty-one children attended 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 outstanding questionnaires. This resulted in 16 questionnaires being returned. Overall, there was a 16.2% response rate.
Quantitative Analysis
Quantitative analysis of the returned surveys was based on the close-ended questions. 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 choice for this item were 0-10, zero being not at all and ten being a great amount. For this study, the independent variable is socioeconomic status based on education level. 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 choice for this item 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 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?”, “What recommendations would you suggest for making these activities better?” To answer the research question, “How do family fun time activities affect family involvement specifically I am interested in how education level affects family involvement?”, inductive open coding was used to determine reoccurring themes in the respondents’ responses.
Quantitative Findings
The dependent variable is a self-ranked level of family involvement with the family throughout the activity. This is asked on a 0 (not at all) to 10 (a great amount) scale. The independent variable is the highest level of education in the household. Respondents answered, “less than High School”, “High School”, “Some College”, “College degree or higher”, and “Prefer not to answer”. The hypothesis is if the respondents have a higher level of education then there will be a higher level of family involvement in these activities.
The analysis for my dependent variable from the surveys provided to the parents who participated in the family fun time activities shows that most of the participants had a high level of involvement in the activity. Figure 1 shows that eight of the participants showed a great amount of parental involvement. Two participants stated that the level of involvement was a nine with one person at an eight, and three of the participants were at a level seven with one participant at a level six. It is also important to note that one participant choose not to answer this question.
The analysis of my independent variable shows that most of the participants have some college education or higher. Figure 2 shows that seven participants’ highest level of education was high school, with four having some college education, and four having a college education or higher. It is important to note that one of the participants choose not to answer this question.
When the independent and dependent variables are compared it shows that with a higher level of education there are higher levels of family involvement, this is shown in Figure 3. When calculating the mean of involvement levels of participants that some college and college degrees or higher these findings are 9.75 and 8.33. When the highest level of education was high school the mean was 8.17. So, this shows that with a higher level of education there is a higher amount of family involvement.
In summary, the participants enjoyed the activities that were provided to them, and most of the participants had high levels of involvement. With 16 surveys but only 15 participants who answered the questions, the majority had a higher level of education which as shown in Figure 3 corresponds to a higher level of family involvement.
Qualitative Findings
The results from the open-ended questions on our survey contain three main themes that correlate to family involvement. These themes are family bonding, teamwork among parents and their children, and learning. The theme of family bonding is important to our research because we are assessing the level of parental involvement with their children and family bonding is a great example of that. Ten out of the 16 surveys received had an example of family bonding. Respondent three said, “Our family really enjoyed how simple the activities were and how much our child enjoyed them, even completing some with siblings.” This helps show that everyone in the family was able to participate in the Family Fun Time Activities, respondent five also mentions this by saying “It’s fun when you want to do something fun and enjoyable for kids and family.” This helps show that even with the Family Fun Time Activities being geared toward younger children everyone in the family can find enjoyment in doing the activities as a group.
Along with being able to do as a family respondent one says, “a free convenient activity to do as a family”, this helps show that the activities provided were simple enough to complete without putting added stress on the parents. Out of the five activities that were given the finger friends and the pizza party were two that the parents mentioned several times, Respondent seven mentions the pizza survey by saying “We enjoyed putting all different shapes together on the pizza survey” this was an activity that they were able to together and everyone enjoyed it. Respondent 15 speaks about the finger friends by saying “Yes, we enjoyed the finger friends the most. Spending time together doing something educational is always fun.” The theme of family bond is visible in this response, but so are the other two which are teamwork among parents and their children and learning.
The second theme that correlates to family involvement is teamwork among parents and their children, seven out of the 16 surveys received mentioned teamwork. Respondent two mentions working together by saying “I enjoyed watching [child’s name] complete these activities while I assisted her”. Respondent two was able to have fun with the activities and help the child complete them. This also is connected to the first theme of family bond and there are several instances where respondents spoke on both themes. One example of this was from respondent seven stating “We enjoyed putting all different shaped together on the pizza survey” this can be seen as family bonding but also teamwork among parents and children because they worked together to complete the activity. Respondent 12 also speaks on working together as a family by saying “Yes and my family and son enjoyed doing the little thing we was doing together”. Many people who took the surveys had a response like this.
With learning being the third theme that is present in these surveys 9 out of the 16 surveys spoke on how their child learned throughout these activities. Learning how to cut and glue was brought up in several survey responses. Respondent two says “learning how to cut and glue and how to trace better”, respondent one also speaks about cutting but says “practicing cutting with scissors”. Other than learning to cut, and glue respondents stated that their children also learned skills that they can use in their daily life with respondent 16 saying “My son learned different techniques from the activity that he can apply to real life, Thanks!” Respondent one says “listening to and following instructions” this is a skill that the child will be able to take with them as they grow older.
In summary, the three main themes that are seen in the surveys that were received are family bonding, teamwork among parents and their children, and learning. From what has been stated previously is it clear to see that these themes contribute to family involvement. The parents were able to see a difference in how much the children participated in the activities and if the children learned any new skills.
Conclusion
With this study that has been conducted it can be shown that the level of education does affect the level of parental involvement within the family. Families that have college experience responded that their level of parental involvement was higher than families where the highest educational level was a high school degree. This is important to society because it shows that the level of education does correlate to the amount of time spent with children. With these findings, I feel that there needs to be more information on families where the educational level is higher such as a doctorate since the survey only said college or higher it did not elaborate further. Would the highest educational attainment lead to a higher level of involvement, would it stay the same, or would it decrease? Also, there needs to be studies on why it is the case that families with a lower educational level have lower levels of parental involvement. Does it have to do with the job schedule of the parent or is it because parents with higher education are able to space out their time better.
References
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