About this srcd poster session

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Panel information
Panel 8. Education, Schooling

Abstract

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Parent involvement in children’s education is largely viewed in connection to school contexts, where parents engage in activities such as volunteering or teacher communication to be considered an “involved” parent (Bower & Griffin, 2011). School involvement has been equated with the value parents place on their children’s education; parents who display school-centric involvement behaviors are often viewed as more dedicated and placing higher value on their children’s education (Puccioni, 2018). However, school-centric involvement does not offer a complete picture of parents’ engagement in their children’s learning, especially for BIPOC parents (Gonzalez & Gable, 2017), who may participate in different ways that account for factors such as life circumstances (Carvalheiro et al., 2023). Similarly, scholars (Hoover-Dempsey & Sandler, 1997) suggest a more nuanced conceptualization of involvement, where factors such as parents’ cognitions (e.g., beliefs, knowledge) about involvement or their contextual resources (e.g., time, energy) available for involvement uniquely shape their participation (Gale et al., 2024).
Like cognitive and contextual resources (CCR), parents’ educational values (EV) have been suggested to play a part in their involvement (Fan & Chen, 2001), although relatively little is known on the role of EV in the involvement process, especially for BIPOC parents. Insight into these relationships can shift one-dimensional perspectives of involvement and promote a strengths-based view of BIPOC families’ participation. Using explanatory research sequential design, the present mixed methods study explored relationships between parents’ involvement, EV, and CCR and examined EV as a moderator in the relationship between involvement and CCR.
Participants included 53 BIPOC preschool parents from a northeastern city. Using the Parent Choice of Involvement Activities Measure (Walker et al., 2005), participants reported on aspects of their educational involvement behaviors in home and school-based educational activities. Parents completed the Beliefs in the Utility of Education Scale (Fuligni et al., 2005) to assess EV. Eight participants also completed in-depth follow-up interviews to further explore topics. The broader sample was stratified to select interviewees.
Pearson correlations found that parents’ EV were significantly and positively associated with home-based educational activities (r(51)=.43, p<.01) and school-based educational activities (r(51)=.44, p<.001), as well as a CCR, involvement beliefs, (r(51)=.28, p<.01). Hierarchical regressions (Table 1) revealed that parents’ EV (β=.32, p=.02) and CCR (β=.38, p=.02) each significantly predicted home-based involvement activities; an interaction between CCR and EV suggested the protective nature of EV on parents’ home-based involvement activities, (R2=.327, (F(1,48)=5.827, p=<.001) and was further probed using simple slopes (Figure 1). Interviews were analyzed with thematic analysis (Braun & Clark, 2006) and elaborated on the distinct ways parents engaged with their children. Overall, parents placed strong value in education (e.g.,“I want my kids to continue their education…to me, education is very important”), which motivated their home-involvement. Parents were heavily involved at home and described involvement that extended beyond traditional, school-centric behaviors, including informal activities such as grocery shopping together, neighborhood walks, and positive role modeling. Findings indicate that EV play an important role in involvement and offer a strengths-based perspective by evidencing how EV shape BIPOC parents’ home involvement.

Author information

Author	Role
Catherine R. Gaspar, University of Wisconsin-Madison	Presenting author
Laudan B. Jahromi, Teachers College, Columbia University	Non-presenting author

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