Poster #44 - Black Parental Stress and Parental Involvement in Early Elementary School

• In Event: Poster Session 09

Abstract

Introduction
Black parents in under-resourced schools are often blamed for their children’s poor academic outcomes, with racial inequities in academic success attributed to lack of parental involvement (Wang et al., 2014). Black parents’ behaviors are regularly misinterpreted as confrontational and uninformed (Allen & White-Smith, 2018). Furthermore, Black parents demonstrate distinct involvement strategies that are overlooked due to the focus on White, middle-class families (Pattillo & Lareau, 2013). Moreover, experiences of racism create major challenges characterized as primary sources of stress for Black families (Murry et al., 2016). The characteristics of a school appear to buffer the race-related stress Black parents experience. Black parents often seek out Black teachers knowing that they will be more caring towards them and their children (Gist et al., 2018; Ladson-Billings, 2009). However, little is known about how these stressors influence parental academic involvement. Additionally, no culturally appropriate measure exists that reflect the distinct involvement strategies Black parents utilize. The current study aims to investigate how stress impacts academic involvement for Black parents and to examine whether characteristics of a school moderate the relation between stress and parental involvement.

Hypothesis
We predicted that stressful life events would be associated with lower levels of parental involvement but that this relation would be attenuated when children attended schools with a higher proportion of Black teachers and staff and higher levels of racial equity.

Methods
Participants in this sample are part of a multi wave longitudinal research study consisting of Latinx and Black families. Data were collected when children were in kindergarten and first grade. Parent involvement was assessed using the Parent-Teacher Involvement Questionnaire (Kohl et al., 2000), and barriers to parental involvement in school were assessed using questions from the ECLS-K. A culturally-anchored parent involvement measure was created and derived from the Afrocentric Home Environment Inventory (Caughy et al., 2002) and the Cultural Socialization subscale of the Parent Ethnic Racial Socialization scale (Hughes, 2006). Parent literacy involvement was assessed using the Home Literacy Environment Inventory (Farver et al., 2006). The Schedule of Racist events (Landrine & Klonoff, 1996) was used to report the frequency of parent’s discriminatory experiences, and the Stressful Life Events self-report questionnaire (Sarason et al., 1978) was used to assess general life stress. School racial equity and ethnic composition of target children’s school teachers and staff were based on data extracted from the Texas Education Agency.

Results
Bivariate correlations indicated that Black parents’ frequency of racist experiences within the Recent Past Year scale and Recent Lifetime scale at W3 was positively associated with cultural parental involvement practices at W4. Furthermore, Black parents’ Stressful Live Events at W4 were negatively associated with the quality of Black parents’ relationship with their child’s teacher. The results demonstrate that a higher proportion of Black staff were positively associated with Stressful Live Events and endorsement of their child’s school at W4. Lastly, high levels of school racial equity were positively associated with Black parent’s endorsement of their child’s school at W4. Results of bivariate correlations are displayed in Table 1.

Author

• KeLa Allen, University of Georgia
  Presenting Author