Transitions in Patterns of Mothers’ Educational Involvement Behaviors and Links to Adolescents’ Educational Attainment

• In Event: Poster Session 12
  In Poster Session: PS 12 Topic - Education, Schooling

Abstract

Guided by Stage-Environment Fit Theory, this longitudinal study examined 1) changes in the patterns of mothers’ educational involvement between 7th and 11th grade; and 2) the links between 11th grade involvement patterns and youths’ educational attainment two years after high school. Stage-Environment Fit theory posits that as youth navigate adolescence, parents modify their educational involvement to respond youth’s growing developmental need for self-determination (Eccles et al., 1993). Indeed, parents’ home-based and school-based involvement decrease while educational discussions leveraging youths’ burgeoning decision-making skills increase (academic socialization; Bhargava & Witherspoon, 2015). However, existing studies often ignore whether different patterns of involvement behaviors exist and change longitudinally. Additionally, the links between patterns of parental involvement behaviors and educational attainment has yet to be tested in late adolescence. As such, we predicted that changes in mothers’ involvement patterns will more likely entail pattern transitions to lower levels of involvement or higher levels of academic socialization. We also expected that 11th grade educational involvement patterns will predict variations in youths’ educational attainment two years after high school.

We used data from 1,121 mothers and target adolescents (50% female; 65% African-American, 35% European-American; Mage=12.3 years). We probed mothers’ school communication (α’s=.65-.73), school volunteering (α’s=.76-.79), homework help (α’s=.76-.80), and educational discussions (α’s=.81-.82). Youths’ also reported their educational attainment two years after high school. We conducted manual three-step latent transition analyses, including covariates for adolescent gender, race/ethnicity, family socioeconomic status, parental marital status, and 7th grade GPA (Nylund-Gibson et al., 2014).

We found varying patterns of mothers’ educational involvement in 7th and 11th grades (Figure 1). In 7th grade, we found six patterns, including Less Involved, Non-Homework Help (11%), Less Involved Overall (23%), High Homework Help (40%), High Academic Socialization (8%), High Academic Socialization, Low Homework Help (5%), and High Academic Socialization and Homework Help patterns (13%). In 11th grade, we found six involvement patterns: Less Involved, Moderate Academic Socialization (42%), Less Involved, Non-School Communication (21%), High School Communication, Non-School Volunteering (10%), High School Communication (8%), High School Volunteering (9%), and High School Involvement patterns (11%).

As predicted, we found that mothers in most 7th grade involvement patterns were more likely to transition to the Less Involved, Moderate Academic Socialization or the Less Involved, Non-School Communication patterns in 11th grade (Table 1A). However, mothers in the High Academic Socialization and Homework Help pattern in 7th grade were more likely to transition to the High School Involvement pattern in 11th grade. As expected, mothers’ 11th grade involvement patterns predicted youths’ educational attainment (Table 1B). Youth in the High School Involvement (M=6.28, SE=.28) pattern completed more education than those in other patterns (M’s=4.42-5.91, SE’s=.27-.51), whereas youths in the High School Communication, Non-School Volunteering pattern had the lowest level of education (M=4.42, SE=.51).

The current study further clarifies longitudinal patterns and changes in mothers’ educational involvement across adolescence. Although parents may increasingly focus on academic socialization in adolescence, the benefits of school-based involvement on youths’ educational attainment should not be discounted. Future directions include examining differences in associations across adolescent gender and race/ethnicity.

Author

• Nestor Tulagan, University of California - Irvine
  Presenting Author