Stability and Variability in Family Involvement Across the Preschool-Kindergarten Transition

• In Event: 18.042 - Home Learning Activities and Family Engagement Across Preschool and Kindergarten

Abstract

It is well recognized that family involvement across both home and school is important to the development of young children (McWayne, Hampton, Fantuzzo, Cohen, & Sekino, 2004). However, most researchers have examined family involvement at one point in time as a predictor of children’s subsequent outcomes. Studies have yet to consider the extent to which this level of involvement remains stable across time and context, and how variability may differentially explain children’s developmental gains.
To address these limitations, the present study will (a) examine the extent to which family involvement remains stable from preschool to kindergarten; (b) examine the contextual factors that may promote or hinder this relative level of involvement; and (c) evaluate the effect of stability (or change) on children’s academic and social-emotional gains.
Data from the present study were drawn from Early Learning Ohio (ELO), a comprehensive project investigating the classroom ecology and its relation to children’s learning from preschool to third grade. ELO draws data from a large public-school district identified as one of the largest within the state. Approximately 250 caregivers completed the Family Involvement Questionnaire (FIQ; Fantuzzo, Tighe, & Childs, 2000) in the spring of children’s preschool year. Caregivers reported on school-based involvement, home-school conferencing, and home-based involvement. Demographic information was also obtained during this time. All families were followed during the kindergarten year. Approximately half of the children in the study were male, and the majority were identified as either White/Caucasian (60%) or Black/African-American (30%). Furthermore, approximately 25% of the caregivers had a two-year degree or higher.
Preliminary results revealed that families of preschool children engage more in home-school conferencing and home-based involvement than they do in school-based involvement. Findings also suggest that child- and family-level factors relate differentially both to overall and specific aspects of family involvement. Overall family involvement was negatively related to household income (r = -0.15, p = 0.03). Families’ socioeconomic status, as indexed by household income and maternal education, was negatively associated with school-based involvement (r = -0.30, p < 0.001; r = -0.17, p = 0.01 respectively). Families of children with a developmental disability were less likely to engage in school-based involvement than families of children without a disability (r = -0.14, p = 0.03). The stability of family involvement across the kindergarten year and the impact on children’s educational outcomes will be further explored.
Findings from the current study suggest that specific aspects of family involvement are more likely to occur than others during preschool and that characteristics of both the family and child influence these practices. Additional aims of this study are to understand whether families’ level of involvement is maintained across the kindergarten year and the extent to which specific contextual factors either remain or emerge as influential to this process. Findings may help educational policymakers and practitioners understand the practices that are most important to promote across this critical developmental period.

Authors

• Maureen Myrtil, The Ohio State University - Columbus

• Laura M. Justice, The Ohio State University

• Kelly Purtell, The Ohio State University

• Jessica Logan, The Ohio State University - Columbus

• Tzu-Jung Lin, The Ohio State University