Poster #74 - Examining Parents’ School Expectations, Depression, and School Climate on the Writing Skills of Parentally-Bereaved Children

• In Event: 2-055 - Poster Session 06
  In Poster Session: PS 06 Section - Education, Schooling

Integrative Statement

According to Bronfenbrenner’s (1994) Ecological Systems theory, a child’s development is influenced through the microsystem’s environmental interactions (e.g., family, school settings), and chronosystem events (e.g., a parent’s death). Evidence suggests that parents experience psychological maladjustment after a co-parent’s death, and maladjustment, in turn, predicts child academic outcomes (Berg, Rostila, Saarela, & Hjern, 2014; Magnusson & Stattin, 2006; Shen et al., 2016). Few studies have examined these and other potential influences (i.e., parental expectations and school climate) of academic outcomes within samples of parentally-bereaved children. Additionally, writing process skills are indicative of academic success, yet they are understudied in elementary school children (Conley, 2005; Jenkins, Johnson & Hileman, 2004; Zabala, Minnici, McMurrer, & Briggs, 2008). In a nationally representative sample of parentally-bereaved children, the current study examines longitudinal associations between parents’ depressive symptoms, parents’ school expectations, and school climate on children’s 5th grade writing skills. Children with a deceased parent (N=86; 74.4% fathers, n=64) were drawn from the public use Early Child Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten (ECLS-K) dataset. Fourty-four percent (n=37) of parents remained widowed and 26.2% (n=22) were married. When the study began, children (M=68.67 months, SD=4.71; 52.3% females, n=45) attended kindergarten (84.9% public, n=73). Mothers (Mage=33.39 years, SD=8.73; 51.2% White, n=43) and fathers (Mage= 37.05 years, SD=10.37; 27.8% White, n=22) worked 35+ hours/week (Mothers=45.9%, n=39; Fathers=44.0%, n=37). Parents rated their Expectations (e.g. Important for child to know letters?) from 1= Essential to 5=Not important (α= .71), and their Depression (e.g. How often you felt sad) from 1=Never to 4=Most of the time (α= .86; mean scores per item= 3.41 to 3.76). Children’s 3rd grade teachers rated school climate (e.g. School staff have school spirit) from 1=Strongly disagree to 5= Strongly Agree (α= .61). Children’s 5th grade teachers rated children’s writing skills (e.g. Child makes outline before writing) from 1=Almost everyday to 5=Never or hardly ever (α= .84). Data for a Confirmatory Factor Analysis, χ2(179, N=86) =194.186, RMSEA= .032, CFI= .978, TLI= .972, and predictive model, including each latent construct predicting Children’s Writing Skills, χ2(182, N=86) =196.004, RMSEA= .030, CFI= .980, TLI= .975, fit both models well (Schreiber et al., 2006). Researchers used maximum likelihood method of scale setting and set latent variance to 1. Figures 1 and 2 include standardized estimates and covariates. Parent Expectations had a significant positive relationship with Children’s Writing Skills (β=.443, p<.01; higher expectations predicted greater writing skills). However, Parent Depression had a significant negative relationship (β=-.353, p<.05; greater depression predicted poorer writing skills). Research supports this, as mental health issues of surviving parents may disrupt parenting (Chidley, Khademi, Meany, & Doucett, 2014; Sandler, Tein, Cham, Wolchik, & Ayers, 2016; Yopp, Park, Edwards, Deal, & Rosenstein, 2015). School Climate was not a significant predictor (β=.260, p=.117), possibly because educators may have difficulty conversing with and supporting grieving students (Nadworny, 2015). This study confirms the importance of parents’ education expectations for grieving children. Further examination of school climate is needed within this population to bridge the gap between grieving students’ needs and educators’ knowledge, promoting children’s academic success.

Authors

• Erin Donohue, University of Connecticut
  Presenting Author

• Linda Citlali Halgunseth, UConn
  Non-Presenting Author