Influence of Home-Based Parental Involvement and Informal Social Control on the Academic Outcomes of Diverse Adolescents

• In Event: Poster Session 04
  In Poster Session: PS 04 Topic - Education, Schooling

Abstract

Parental educational involvement contributes to youth’s school achievement during elementary and secondary school (Christian et al., 1998; Singh et al., 1995). Parent educational involvement incorporates parents assisting their children with homework, discussing school-related matters, and engaging their children in intellectual activities (Pomerantz et al., 2007). Outside of parental educational involvement, neighborhood characteristics also impact adolescents’ academic achievement (Ainsworth, 2002). Among these neighborhood characteristics is informal social control, which refers to actions taken by residents to control inappropriate behaviors (Warner, 2014). Limited evidence suggests that informal social control is positively associated with academic achievement for Latino (Macartney, 2012) and African American (Witherspoon et al., 2009) youth.

Of interest is whether the relation between parent involvement and student academic outcomes differs depending on the neighborhood context, especially for families of color. In this study, we examine the association between parent educational involvement, informal social control, and grades, and test if the relation between involvement and grades varies across neighborhoods with differing levels of informal social control. We hypothesized that (1) parent educational involvement and informal social control would both have positive associations with academic achievement, and (2) the positive association between parent educational involvement and grades would be stronger for adolescents in neighborhoods with high informal social control.

Data came from a larger study of families of color in Northeastern US. The 139 participating adolescents (68 African American, 71 Hispanic) were between 11-17 years old (Mage=13.42, SD =1.93). Parent educational involvement was measured using a scale of how involved the parent was at home and at school, and a scale which specifically measured how parents provided structure for doing homework and other educational work. Informal social control was measured using the collective efficacy scale (Sampson et al., 1997), and grades were self-reported by the participants.

Regression results from Model 1 had no significant predictors. Model 2 showed that the involvement variables and informal social control did not significantly relate to grades (Table 1). However, the interaction terms in Model 3 showed that the interaction between informal social control and parent homework structure, was significantly associated with grades (b=.41, SEb=.2, p <.05). Examining the simple slopes at 1 standard deviation above and below the mean in informal social control showed relations in opposite directions, but neither were statistically significant. A Johnson-Neyman plot (Figure 1) showed that, although the relationship between home structure and grades changes from negative to positive as informal social control increases, the relation is not significant across the range of data.

These results did not support the hypothesis that there would be individual benefits of parental educational involvement and informal social control for adolescents. It partially supported the hypothesis that the relation between involvement and grades would be stronger for adolescents in neighborhoods with high social control–as it was more positive for these adolescents—but did not significantly predict grades at any level of informal social control. To better understand the relation between these variables, future studies should use larger samples and more aspects of parent educational involvement.

Authors

• Nandrea Burrell, Florida State Univeristy
  Presenting Author

• Colleen M Ganley, Florida State Univeristy
  Non-Presenting Author

• Dawn Paula Witherspoon, Pennsylvania State University, University Park
  Non-Presenting Author

• Emily M. May, Brown University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Mayra Y Bamaca, University of California-Merced
  Non-Presenting Author