Parent involvement and children's transition to school in Asian American and European American families.
Sy, Susan Rogala
2002
Abstract
This dissertation addresses three key issues in child and family development during children's transition to school: (1) individual variation in children's achievement and adjustment trajectories as they enter formal schooling; (2) the relationship between family influences and children's early achievement, and (3) the role of ethnicity in child and family experiences during the transition to school. A literature review and two empirical studies address these issues. Both empirical studies examined data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study---Kindergarten Cohort (ECLS-K), a nationally representative dataset of 23,000 kindergarten children who were followed through first grade. The target sample for the empirical studies included only Asian American and European American families. The first study focused on children's parents. Structural equation modeling examined the predictive relationships among Asian American (N = 537) and European American (N = 12,630) parents' beliefs, expectations, education, and involvement across multiple contexts. Results illustrated that Asian American parents' beliefs and education predicted several aspects of parent involvement, and one type of home involvement (literacy activities) predicted all types of involvement in non-home contexts (e.g., school participation, museum and library visits). European American parents' beliefs, education, <italic>and</italic> expectations predicted most aspects of parent involvement across contexts, with home and non-home involvement practices being highly related. Between-group analyses illustrated very few ethnic group differences in these structural relationships. In the second study, latent growth curve modeling examined Asian American (N = 309) and European American (N = 7,857) parents' beliefs, expectations, education, and involvement as predictors of children's reading and math achievement trajectories. Results showed that few parent factors strongly predicted children's rate of increase in achievement over time, but parent education positively predicted children's initial kindergarten achievement status. However, children's initial achievement upon kindergarten entry predicted parents' school participation and engagement in educational activities (library, museum visits) during the school year, and these relationships were significantly stronger in the Asian American sample. The literature review and two empirical studies highlight the multidimensional nature of parent involvement and the complexity of the relationships among ethnicity, parent beliefs and behaviors, and children's achievement during an important early developmental transition.Subjects
Asian-american Children European-american Families Parent Involvement School Transition
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