Poster #27 - Parent-School Engagement among Culturally Diverse Families of Children with Disabilities During the Kindergarten Transition

• In Event: Poster Session 20

Abstract

The transition to kindergarten can be a time of significant adjustment for children and their families due to changes to the physical environment, relationships, routines, and expectations (Rimm-Kaufman & Pianta, 2000). Families of children with disabilities simultaneously navigate this normative adjustment while also experiencing significant changes to the special education system that provides services to their children. It is important to support and strengthen these families' parent-school relationships. Families of color of children with disabilities tend to be less likely to receive family-centered supports (Jarquin, et al., 2011; Magana et al., 2012), and limited work captures how cultural experiences like perceived discrimination may inform such parents’ engagement. Guided by ecological and parenting frameworks (Belsky, 1984; Bronfenbrenner, 2006; Hoover-Dempsey & Sandler, 1995; Taraban & Shaw, 2018), the present study examined the relative contribution of contextual factors (parent income, education), parents’ psychosocial wellbeing (stress, self-efficacy), parents’ strengths and resources (coping, coparenting communication), children’s characteristics (effortful control, social competence, school engagement), and cultural stressors (perceived discrimination) on parent-school engagement in a sample of culturally diverse families. In addition, the study examined whether parent wellbeing buffered the effect of cultural stressors on parent-school engagement.

Data were from a study of parents (N = 120) of children transitioning to kindergarten with individualized educational plans (IEPs) in a large, diverse school district in a metropolitan area in the Northeast. Parents had an average age of 34.56 years (SD =8.93) and identified as Latinx or Hispanic (46%), Black (23%), White (21%), or Asian (10%). Parents reported on their psychosocial well-being (parenting stress and self-efficacy), parent coping resources (co-parenting communication, parent emotion regulation), their children’s social-emotional characteristics (effortful control, school engagement, social competence), and their cultural experiences (perceived discrimination). Parents also reported on their engagement with their children’s school using a measure that captured the quality of the parent-teacher relationship, parents’ participation at the school, parents’ positive endorsement of their child’s school, and parent-teacher contact.

Parents of children with disabilities who reported higher school engagement tended to have higher SES (r = .510, p < .001), fewer psychosocial wellbeing risks (r = -.308, p < .001) lower perceived discrimination (r = -.446, p < .001), and their children tended to be rated as higher in social-emotional skills (r = .523, p < .001). The relative contribution of composite predictors on parent-school engagement was assessed using hierarchical regression analyses. Predictors included SES (i.e., income, education), child characteristics, parent wellbeing, parent coping, and cultural experiences (perceived discrimination). Parent-school engagement was significantly predicted by SES (β = .400, p < .001) and child characteristic (β = .417, p < .001). A parent well-being*discrimination interaction emerged, such that parents’ wellbeing may have buffered the negative effect of perceived discrimination on parents’ school engagement. Parents who reported lower overall wellbeing were most susceptible to the experience of discrimination (β = -.192, p = .015) on their engagement with their children’s school. Discussion will highlight implications for intervention efforts to support parents’ wellbeing, especially those that address the stressors (e.g., discrimination) faced by many parents of color of children with disabilities.

Authors

• Catherine R Gaspar, Teachers College, Columbia University
  Presenting Author

• Laudan B Jahromi, Teachers College Columbia University