The affect of level of education attainment on family involvement
Jacob Smidt
Longwood University
Abstract
This study examines the role of how education attainment by parents affects family involvement. Activities, referred to as Family Fun Time Activities in this study, were given out to children at the Andy Taylor Center and Head Start. After these activities were completed, 99 surveys were then handed to the children to take home for the parents to complete. A total of 16 surveys were returned. This analysis shows a correlation between the level of education attained and family involvement. The satisfaction of family involvement was recorded on a 0 to 10 scale with 10 equaling the highest satisfaction. A major finding in this study is that the majority of the parents that completed the activities had attained a high school education. The main finding of this study shows that in households where the highest level of education attained is some college education is where family involvement satisfaction was recorded to be the highest, with a 9.75 mean. It is concluded that parents with some college education reported higher family involvement.
Introduction
The research problem being reviewed in this study is the level of family involvement in families with younger children. Family involvement amongst young children is important in many areas of life for the child. The parent-child relationship through activities amongst elementary and middle school children is important for higher levels of family involvement satisfaction. One example, children with higher inattentive abilities have parents that feel their child’s inattentiveness is their responsibility. Such as parents believing that their child’s schoolwork is also their responsibility. With this comes the concept that parents’ involvement is strong with the idea of sharing the responsibility with their child (Ogg 2020). Another close example of family involvement in a child’s life is through the teacher’s point of view. Teachers overall believe that parent involvement should be prevalent. Although, there are high levels of perception from parents that indicate that parents are being alienated from their child’s work due to their awareness of not being the “experts” in their child’s education (Linek 1997). With overlap from Ogg, Rogers, and Volpe in 2020, it can be proven that when parents are accepted into their children’s curriculum as co-learners and teachers themselves, family involvement satisfaction can positively increase. These studies purposes do not find relationships between demographics and family involvement. The purpose of this study is to use data to identify what level of education attained by a parent reports higher levels of family involvement.
Literature Review
In Epstein’s model framework (1995), there are six types of involvement for families to practice that may possibly be beneficial. One of these types is the learning at home practice that can help build and reinforce the parent-child relationship and the involvement for the child (Epstein 1995). With collaboration with the learning at home type of involvement, Davies (1991) provides three different approaches on how to begin a type of learning at home involvement through: Providing success for all children; Serving the whole child; and sharing responsibility. In another study where a school was finding ways to better include parents in the school environment and student’s education was through inclusiveness and welcoming them as critical role models in their children’s development (Lewis 1995). When combing the different research articles and with the idea of sharing responsibility, the academic and social aspect will overlap with the family and the school environment. This will also develop a partnership between the school and the parents as there will need to be a clearer form of communication than just the regurgitated hear-say from the child.
Into the middle school years, a major disconnect can happen between the child and the parents. Here, a disconnect also indirectly begins to sever between the parents and their involvement with their child’s education. Looking back into Epstein’s model, another type of parent involvement is simply communication (Epstein 1995). This type of communication can be a parent-teacher conference or the child’s work being sent home with comments and review. Kyzar and Jimerson (2018) finds that adolescent socialization, learning, and development can positively be affected by school-family engagement with faculty that want to transcend the students’ potentials. Although, it is found that teachers believe their coworkers to be not as involved. Obviously, this proves to be inconsistent due to those same coworkers reporting the same things. Also, the teachers believe their students’ parents to not be as interested in their child’s education when it is the opposite (Dauber & Epstein 1991). This article’s findings did not seem to go deeper with the research once it was found that parents want to be involved just as much as the teachers want them to be involved. Where these two articles can converge is once the parents show their interest in the child’s education, then improvements of family involvement can be a possible result.
With family involvement, it can become difficult with where a parent should start to become more involved. Through Epstein’s model, the decision-making step is what will help parents be guided into the school environment and their children’s education (Epstein 1995). Merriman (2008) concludes that parents are getting more involved due to their concern for their student. With the inclusion of parents on the decision-making process for education, a solution will be found more easily. Although, in Merriman’s (2008) research, it is solely focusing on college and university students rather than elementary and middle school students that need family involvement earlier in rather than waiting once they are adults to worry.
In conclusion, there is evidence and research that proves the benefits of family involvement. Research from Merriman (2008) shows how parents are getting involved but not until the later stages of their children’s lives. Using Epstein’s model to further include parents, such as communication, is beneficial as it breaks down the invisible barrier between parents and teachers. Once the barrier is broken, parents and teachers can finally realize that what either party wants is the same as the other. When looking at Dauber and Epstein’s (1991), their findings of parents wanting to be a part of the school environment more can be further studied once the parents are finally placed in those environments. Once parents find themselves sharing the responsibility of their child’s schoolwork and education, the higher the satisfaction of family involvement is (Ogg 2020). These articles gave a starting basis for further research to be conducted. Now, more demographic variables, such as level of education attained by parent or household annual income, can be researched to present how different levels of family involvement occurs due to differences in demographics.
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 closed-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 Andy Taylor Center.
Sample
The nonprobability sample for this study was based on 99 children (ages three to five years old). Seventy-nine children attended Head Start in three counties. Head Start is a federally funded subsidized preschool for families with economic need. 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 fifteen Questionnaires being returned. Overall, there was a 15 % 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 choices for this item were on a scale from 0 to 10. Zero was equal to “not at all” and 10 was equal to “a great amount”. The independent variable for this study was education attainment. 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 answers given 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 you family enjoy most about these activities? Why?”, “What did you child learn from these activities?”, and “What recommendations would you suggest to make these activities better?”. To answer the research question, “Do the Family Fun Time Activities improve family involvement and how does the parent’s education attainment affect family involvement?”, inductive open coding was used to determine reoccurring themes in the respondents’ responses.
Findings
Quantitative Findings
My dependent variable is, “How involved was your family throughout the activity?”. It is coded on a zero to ten scale. The mean of the dependent variable is an 8.0. The standard deviation is 2.35. My independent variable is, “What is the highest degree of education anyone in your household has completed?”. Out of the fifteen surveys collected, only one respondent did not provide an answer for their level of education attained. Seven respondents had attained a high school degree, four respondents had attained some college education, and three respondents had attained a college degree or higher. In the bar graph below, these statistics are represented. The mean of respondents’ family involvement in activities that had attained a high school education is 7.33. The mean of respondents’ family involvement in activities that had attained some college education is 9.75. The mean of respondents’ family involvement in activities that had attained a college degree or higher is 6.33. It is important to note that out of the fifteen returned surveys that thirteen out of fifteen surveys were collected from Head Start and two out of fifteen of the surveys were collected by the Andy Taylor Center. There is a higher response rate recorded for parents who have attained a high school education. Also found in this data, the parents who have attained some college level education have higher satisfaction with family involvement.
Qualitative Findings
Family fun time activities contains three main themes of simplicity of activities, time spent together, and following instructions. Simplicity of activities is an important theme for family fun time activities because it allows the families to enjoy the activities sooner rather than later. Out of the sixteen surveys received four of them contained examples of the simplicity of the activities. Respondent one states that the activities had, “Easy to follow instructions”. Respondent one is stating the easy instructions make the experience more enjoyable instead of too complex. Respondent 3 states, “Our family really enjoyed how simple the activities were and how much our child enjoyed them.” Respondent three is stating how the simplicity of the activity helped the child enjoy the activities more. Respondent six in a more negative perception states, “Make some of the activities harder”. Respondent six is explaining that the activities were too easy and simple and wanting more of a challenge for their child.
Time spent together is an essential theme to family fun activities because it helps families stronger bonds. Out of the sixteen surveys received five of them contained references to time spent together as a family. Respondent eight states, “Seeing her helping me with the activities and having a good time.”. Respondent eight is stating what the family enjoyed most about the activities. Respondent ten when talking about what was liked most about the activities states that, “Doing them together. [Child] says she loves doing things with mom and dad.”. Respondent ten is saying their child got to do what they enjoy most because of the activities. Respondent twelve states, “Yes and my family and son enjoyed doing the little thing we was doing together.”. Respondent twelve is stating that the family enjoys doing small activities together.
Following instructions is a crucial theme to family fun time activities because the instructions are what makes the activity enjoyable when done correctly. Out of the sixteen surveys nine of them contained a reference to the child following instructions. Respondent one states, “Listening to and following instructions”, in reference to what their child has learned. Respondent one is stating that with the help of these activities their child has learned to listen and follow instructions. Respondent five states, “It can be a learning skill but fun for the kids”. Respondent five is stating that their child is finding enjoyment through the instructions and learning new skills. Respondent eight states, “Seeing her helping me with the activities and having a good time”. Respondent eight is stating that because of the instructions their child was able to actually partake in the entirety of the activity.
The three themes in these surveys are simplicity of activities, time spent together, and following instructions. The simplicity of activities theme is about how the activities being simple and not complex increase the enjoyment of them. However, one respondent did state that they had hoped for the activities to be more difficult. The time spent together theme is about the activities providing something that the whole family can enjoy together. The last theme of following instructions served the purpose of giving the children the ability to learn life skills and be able to enjoy every aspect of the activity.
Conclusion
This study was used to discover the relationship between the level of education attained by a parent and family involvement. This study found that households with at least one parent attaining some college education had reported higher levels of family involvement. Simplicity of activities, time spent together, and following instructions were the three main themes discovered in this study. Out of the three themes, the simplicity of the activity became the most prominent theme found. Overall, a major quantitative finding was that family involvement had a recorded mean of 8.0 on the specific activity studied. The data collected in this study answered the question, “Do the Family Fun Time Activities improve family involvement and how does the parent’s education attainment affect family involvement?”. A substantial qualitative finding shows that the family fun activities resulted in high reports of family involvement and found that some college education represented higher satisfaction with family involvement. In reference to Dauber and Epstein’s (1991) finding of parents wanting to be a larger part of their child’s education, these family fun activities provided an initial first step into their education. Parents were reporting high levels of family involvement while their child was learning new skills and identifying shapes and colors. Further research on the topic can prove if these findings are reliable with a larger sample size.
References
Dauber, S., & Epstein, J. (1991). Parents’ Attitudes and Practices of Involvement in Inner-City Elementary and Middle Schools. Shibboleth authentication request. Retrieved September 26, 2022, from https://web-s-ebscohostcom.proxy.longwood.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=2&sid=3c530878-9a5e-494a9c8d-4f2a62d28ee9%40redis
Davies, D. (1991). Schools Reaching out: Family, School, and Community Partnerships for Student Success. Shibboleth authentication request. Retrieved September 26, 2022, from https://login.proxy.longwood.edu/login?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.jstor.org%2Fstable %2F20404409
Epstein, J. l. (1995). School Family Community Partnerships: Caring for the children we share. Kappan Classic. Retrieved September 26, 2022, from https://jreadingclass.files.wordpress.com/2014/08/school-family-communitypartnerships.pdf
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Ogg, J. A., Rogers, M. A., & Volpe, R. J. (2020). Child adhd symptoms and parent involvement in education. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 29(12), 3586–3595. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-020-01834-x