Poster #86 - Parent Discontent with Schools: Predictors and Response to a School-based Intervention

• In Event: Poster Session 18

Abstract

Extant literature demonstrates that 10-15% of elementary school children are rejected by peers and at risk for long-term school maladjustment and mental health difficulties. The negative experiences that peer-rejected children have at school undermine parent perceptions that the child’s teacher and school care about their well-being, fostering feelings of discontent (Baker, 2006; Santiago et al., 2016). Additionally, parents often feel blamed and judged for their child’s difficulties at school, increasing their discontent and distrust, and leading to low levels of involvement at school. This further puts their children at risk for negative experiences and school outcomes, perpetuating the cycle of poor child-school-family interactions (Conduct Problems Prevention Research Group, 2000; Henderson & Mapp, 2002).

This study was designed to understand parent discontent with their child’s school in a sample of children struggling with peer rejection and poor social adjustment at school. It had two main aims: one was to determine child and family characteristics that predicted parent discontent with the school; the other was to examine whether an intervention that significantly improved child peer acceptance, social skills, and student-teacher relationships at school reduced levels of parent discontent, and whether this effect was mediated by school-based intervention improvements in child social skills, peer acceptance, or student-teacher closeness.

224 peer-rejected students in grades 1-4 (57% White, 17% Black, 20% Latinx, 5% multiracial; 68% male, Mage = 8.1 years) were identified using sociometric nominations and randomized to an intervention or control group. Pearson correlations indicated that families that were racial minorities (r = 0.17; p = 0.01), and had less-educated mothers (r = 0.14, p = 0.04) had higher levels of discontent with the school than those who were white or had mothers with higher education. Conversely, families in which the child was receiving supportive services via an Individualized Education Plan had lower levels of discontent with the school (r = -0.14, p = 0.04).

Multilevel path analyses (controlling for sex, grade, and baseline scores, with nesting in schools) revealed that intervention significantly reduced parent discontent for children in grades 3 and 4, ES = .42, p = .04. Mediation analyses showed that the intervention effect on parent discontent was indirect, significantly mediated by improvements in student-teacher relationships β = .06, SE = 0.03, 95% CI [.009, .133], and peer acceptance, β = 0.03, SE = 0.02, 95% CI [0.001, 0.01].

Social skills training programs that improve the school adjustment of peer-rejected children can have secondary benefits for at-risk families, as evidenced in this study by reducing parent discontent with the school. Given that many parents of rejected children have strained school relationships themselves, it is important to understand characteristics of those most likely to experience discontent, as well as potential cross-context benefits of social skills training. Future research should explore additional strategies that demonstrate the enhanced family benefits of school-based interventions.

Authors

• Becca Slotkin, Pennsylvania State University, University Park
  Presenting Author

• Karen L Bierman, Pennsylvania State University, University Park