Parent Social Networks: A Resource to Shape Parent Responsibility

• In Event: Parents and Communities

Abstract

Family-school partnerships are difficult to initiate/sustain in ways that actually promote student learning. Parent involvement has been studied extensively, and evidence supports its importance for school improvement. However, limitations exist in research and practice. The concept advanced in this study is parent responsibility. This study was designed to test the relationship between parent social networks and parent responsibility.

Findings reveal a positive, statistically significant relationship between parent networks and parent responsibility. Results from the mediation analysis suggest that parent social networks have at least a partial mediation effect on the relationship between SES and parent responsibility. By encouraging networks among parents, schools may have the ability to potentially strengthen parent responsibility and to lessen the negative effects of poverty.

Authors

• Katherine A. Curry, Oklahoma State University

• Curt M. Adams, University of Oklahoma