How Communication Moderates Parents’ Barriers to School Engagement and Satisfaction with School Contact and Support

• In Event: Building Bridges and Breaking Barriers in Early Education Pedagogical Practice and Family-School Partnerships

Abstract

Research has demonstrated that the quality of preschool education significantly impacts children's academic outcomes and overall development (Bassok et al., 2018; Pianta et al., 2016). Family engagement, going beyond classroom involvement, like having meaningful communication and active collaboration between families and schools, has a greater impact on a child's educational outcomes than occasional participation in school events or parent-teacher conferences (Hummel et al., 2023, Kim & Sheridan, 2015; Murray et al., 2015). Thus, it is often suggested that effective communication between parents and teachers is key to building strong partnerships that promote children’s learning (Fantuzzo et al., 2000; Murray et al., 2015). Parent participation is largely due to how families perceive their school environment; however, low-income families may express satisfaction with their current program not necessarily because it meets all their needs, but because of factors like affordability, location, and convenience (Bassok et al., 2018; Fantuzzo et al., 2006; McWayne et al., 2004). Nevertheless, external factors, such as parents’ time constraints, lack of socioeconomic resources, and language barriers can hinder these partnerships from being fully effective (Baker et al., 2016; Fantuzzo et al., 2000; Li et al., 2021).
Given the demographics of the population of this study, we utilized Bronfenbrenner's bioecological model (Bronfenbrenner & Morris, 2006) and the cultural microsystems model (Vélez-Agosto et al., 2017) to understand how relational aspects of the mesosystem intertwine in an urban preschool context among low-income families, and how culture operates within all levels of the system.
The present study examined the relationship between parents’ perceived barriers to school engagement and their satisfaction with school contact and support and whether quality of parent-teacher communication moderates the relationship after accounting for demographic covariates, such as parent ethnicity, language, educational attainment, and gender. We hypothesized that parent-teacher communication will moderate the relationship between parents’ report of barriers to school engagement and their satisfaction with school contact and support; that is, when communication quality scores are high, the negative relationship between parents’ reported barriers and satisfaction will be weaker, whereas when communication quality scores are low, the negative relationship between parents’ reported barriers and satisfaction will be stronger.
Data was drawn from three surveys related to family-school interaction, completed by 308 families from 40 Boston Head Start classrooms. The study assessed three parent-reported variables: parents’ barriers to school engagement (resource barriers, cultural and relational barriers, and program and context barriers), quality of parent-teacher communication, and perceived school contact and support. Several regression analyses were used to investigate whether communication quality moderates the relationship between each barrier factor to classroom engagement and parental satisfaction.
Results indicate communication quality positively predicts parent satisfaction ratings, and every barrier factor are not significant predictors of parent satisfaction when regressed simultaneously. Countering the initial hypothesis, the interaction between communication quality and each barrier factors were not statistically significant, possible reasons will be discussed. Additionally, further analyses will be conducted to determine the effect of the combined barrier factors on parents’ satisfaction with school contact and support.

Authors

• Karla Carino, Tufts University

• Christine M. McWayne, Tufts University