Good Writer 64 | - ✏ Freelance Writer
Oct 09, 2014 | #1
Parents vs Students Performance and Behavior
1. Research Title
The Effects of Parental Involvement on Student's Academic Performance and Behavior
The primary research question that will guide the proposed research is how does interaction between parents and students affect the academic performance of students.
2. Statement of the Problem and Brief Description of It
The purpose of the proposed research is to raise awareness of the importance of parental involvement in student education. The significance of the proposed research is that in today's culture, students are influenced by a variety of forces, some of which result in negative learning outcomes. By investigating the effects that parental involvement on the performance of students, it will be possible not only to determine the real impact that parents can have on the learning outcomes of their students, but also whether such involvement can overcome other factors such as socioeconomic status and negative support from peers that can result in negative behavioral outcomes.3. Review of the Literature
Brown, Dyer, McBridge, Sungjin & Ying (2009) investigated the effects of early parenting practices in relation to educational involvement and student achievement. The data for the study was drawn from a subset of a large dataset collected to examine income dynamics. The data for this investigation was from 390 children who were between the ages of 2 and 5 years old. Based on the analysis of the data, the researchers concluded that both mothers and fathers have an impact on student achievement. However, the specific impacts of the involvement of mothers and fathers were different. The involvement of fathers in early child development was found to positively impact later involvement in school, but to actually negatively impact achievement. In contrast, the involvement of mothers was found to positively impact achievement in school. From a methodological standpoint, the strength of this study was that it used a relatively large dataset for a statistical study of children that contained data about the involvement of both mothers and fathers. However, the findings of the study indicate that more research is needed about the role of parents and their impact on the achievement of children in school.
Kim & Neff (2010) investigated the effects of parental influence on alcohol use by adolescents. The idea behind the research was that parental monitoring would positively impact the use of alcohol by adolescents, and improve the behavior of students because of reduced alcohol consumption. The researchers used data from nearly 4,800 10th graders to examine the effects of parental involvement, peer groups, and exposure to alcohol on educational outcomes and behavior. The findings of the data analysis showed that peer influence was somewhat stronger than parental involvement with regards to alcohol consumption by adolescents. However, parental involvement did reduce the consumption of alcohol by adolescents. For the purposes of the proposed research, the findings of this study are important because the researchers noted that alcohol consumption by adolescents is associated with negative educational outcomes. The strength of this study is that a large sample of adolescents was used, and a variety of influencing factors were investigated as opposed to only examining the variables of parental involvement and peer group influences. However, this study was very narrow in the fact that it only involved data from 10th graders, which may suggest that parental involvement of students at different age groups has differing impacts on their behaviors and educational outcomes.
Rather than investigating the impact of parental involvement on alcohol consumption, Skinner, Haggerty & Catalano (2009) investigated the impact of parental influence and peer group influence on the decision of teenagers to smoke. However, rather than examining the issue for teenagers in general, the researchers also investigated whether there was a difference based on the race of the teenagers. The reason for including race as an important variable was because of research indicating that Blacks are more likely to smoke than Whites. The investigation included data from 331 families with children in grades 8 through 10. The results of the study suggested no racial differences in smoking. However, the data also suggested that increased parental involvement and clear guidelines about smoking reduced smoking behavior among the teenagers. In addition, the teenagers in the sample were more likely to smoke if their parents smoke. The strength of this study was that it included variables for parental behavior, including clear guidelines about smoking and smoking behaviors. However, an important weakness of the study is that specific guidelines on the part of parents about smoking, such as whether consequences would be faced or whether smoking is simply "bad" and should be avoided were not included. This shows that more research with specific actions and involvement from parents is needed.
Darling, Kleiman & LaRocque (2011) examined the effects of parental involvement on students and their educational outcomes. Based on the data and research that were reviewed, the researchers explained that ethnic background is important because African-American, Native American, and Hispanic students had lower educational accomplishments as compared to students of other ethnic backgrounds because of lower levels of involvement by their parents in the educational process. The researchers also noted that there were social and economic reasons for the lack of parental involvement in school activities and homework. Parents from lower economic backgrounds who had to work and had little time to be with their children were less involved in educational activities. Furthermore, parents who did not speak English and who had lower levels of educational attainment were also less likely to be involved in the school activities and homework of their children as compared to native speaking parents and those parents with higher levels of educational attainment. The strength of this study is that it showed that there are many factors that can effect whether parents are involved in the educational activities of their children. However, the study does leave questions about how these variables may work together to impact the actual educational outcomes of students.
Based on the findings of the literature that has been reviewed, the hypothesis to be tested in the proposed research is that increased parental involvement in the educational activities of children positively impacts their achievement in school. This hypothesis is based on the literature that has shown that parental involvement positively impacts student achievement in school, as well as their overall behavior with regards to alcohol consumption and smoking. Furthermore, while peer involvement has been shown to be important in the decision-making of students, parental involvement was shown in the literature to have at least some effect to reduce negative behaviors and outcomes and to increase positive behaviors and outcomes.
4. Research Questions
Based on the literature that has been reviewed, three research questions have been formulated to guide the investigation. The first research question is how does parent/student interaction benefit the academic performance of the students? This research has been formulated to allow for an examination of the ways in which parental involvement with students impacts performance in school. It is important to note that student performance may not necessary be about grades, but may also be related to behavior in the classroom, such as engaging with the lessons and not being disruptive toward the teacher or other students.
The second research question that has been formulated for this study is how does socioeconomic status affect the academic performance of the student? The literature that was reviewed suggested that socioeconomic status does indeed have an impact on the involvement of parents in student educational activities. However, little information was provided about the actual impact that socioeconomic status has on actual student performance. By addressing this research question, the findings of the proposed research will help to fill an important gap that seems to exist within the academic literature.
The third research question that has been formulated for the research is how does negative peer support impact student academic performance? The literature that has been reviewed has suggested that peer influence can be stronger than the influence of parents. However, little information was provided about the direct association between negative peer support and actual educational outcomes. The proposed research will help to fill this gap by showing whether negative peer support does negatively influence student academic performance, especially in relation to the involvement of parents that might counteract the negative support of peers.
Overall, this study will add to the existing literature on the top of parent involvement and student academic performance by specifically relating the variables of parental involvement, peer support, and socioeconomic status to student educational outcomes. By examining these variables together in a single study, it will be possible to determine the importance that the variables play in impacting student performance.
References
LaRocque, M., Kleiman, I., & Darling, S. M. (2011). Parental Involvement: The Missing Link in School Achievement. Preventing School Failure, 55(3), 115-122. doi:10.1080/10459880903472876
McBride, B. A., Dyer, W., Ying, L., Brown, G. L., & Sungjin, H. (2009). The Differential Impact of Early Father and Mother Involvement on Later Student Achievement. Journal Of Educational Psychology, 101(2), 498-508. doi:10.1037/a0014238
Kim, Y., & Neff, J. (2010). Direct and Indirect Effects of Parental Influence Upon Adolescent Alcohol Use: A Structural Equation Modeling Analysis. Journal Of Child & Adolescent
Substance Abuse, 19(3), 244-260. doi:10.1080/1067828X.2010.488963
Skinner, M. L., Haggerty, K. P., & Catalano, R. F. (2009). Parental and peer influences on teen smoking: Are White and Black families different?. Nicotine & Tobacco Research, 11(5), 558-563. doi:10.1093/ntr/ntp034