Reducing Homework Stress by Increasing Adoption of Need-Supportive Practices: Effects of an Intervention with Parents

• In Event: The Quality of Parental Involvement in Children’s Schooling: Considering Measures and Outcomes

Abstract

Homework is widely recognized as a source of stress for both parents and children, but the underlying mechanisms are unclear. The negative affect and stress experienced during homework can lead students to put less effort into their assignments, disengage, and/or procrastinate. Thus, there is an urgent need to better understand what leads to homework stress and what can be done to reduce it. This study explored whether frustration of the basic psychological needs of competence, autonomy and relatedness (Ryan & Deci, 2020) is the main source of homework stress and whether satisfying these needs reduces stress and leads to more positive outcomes.

Study 2 evaluated the effectiveness of a brief (4-session) training intervention aimed at reducing parent and child homework stress by improving parental adoption of need-supportive practices. One-hundred and eighteen parents (103 mothers, 14 fathers, 1 unknown) were invited to participate. Fifty-five agreed (trained group) and the remaining 63 served as the control group (untrained group). Four 2 (groups: trained vs. untrained) x 2 (times: before vs. after training) ANOVAs were run for parent and child reported adoption of need-supportive practices and parental and child homework stress as dependent measures (see Figure 2).
Two studies were conducted. In Study 1, associations between parental and child need frustration, homework stress and parental adoption of need-thwarting practices were examined. Participants included 171 parent-child dyads composed of a parent (27 fathers) and a child (45% 4th graders, 55% 5th graders; 80 boys) attending one of three public primary Italian schools. We hypothesized that the more parents experience homework as need-frustrating (e.g., they feel unable to provide help, incompetent, given no choice and detached from their child), the more they will adopt need-thwarting practices (e.g., yelling, using controlling language, imposing guilt and/or shame) and feel homework stress, and in turn, the more the child will experience need frustration and homework stress. To test the hypothesized model, we conducted a path analysis with bootstrapping, using AMOS 21. As predicted and shown in Figure 1, parental need frustration was positively associated with parental homework stress and with parental adoption of need-thwarting practices as perceived by the child. Parental homework stress and adoption of need-thwarting practices were also positively associated with child need frustration, which in turn was associated with child stress. The model displayed good fit: χ² / df= ,1.486ns; NFI=.96; CFI=.98; TLI=.94; RMSEA=.05.

The results show an increase in parental use of need-supportive practices over time, as reported by children and parents in the intervention group. This suggests that the intervention succeeded in increasing parental use of need-supportive practices. Most importantly, the results confirm that parental and child homework stress decreased over time in the trained group.

The results of the two studies highlight the importance of identifying and coping with need frustration as a source of homework stress and parental adoption of need-thwarting practices. Results also showed that a brief parent intervention aimed at fostering need-supportive practices and generating a favorable learning climate could reduce homework stress in both parents and their children.

Authors

• Idit Katz, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
  Presenting Author

• Angelica Moè, University of Padova
  Non-Presenting Author

• Rinat Cohen, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
  Non-Presenting Author

• Marianna Alesi, University of Palermo
  Non-Presenting Author