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Parent Involvement in School: English Speaking versus Spanish Speaking Families

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 January 2013

Sang Min Lee ,
Antoinette Thorn ,
Susana Contreras Bloomdahl ,
Jung Hee Ha ,
Suk Kyung Nam  and
Jayoung Lee
Sang Min Lee*
Affiliation:
Korea University (South Korea)
Antoinette Thorn
Affiliation:
Rogers Public Schools (US)
Susana Contreras Bloomdahl
Affiliation:
Murray State University (US)
Jung Hee Ha
Affiliation:
Hanyang Cyber University (South Korea)
Suk Kyung Nam
Affiliation:
Kyungnam University (South Korea)
Jayoung Lee
Affiliation:
Seoul Cyber University (South Korea)
*
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Dr. Sang Min Lee. Department of Education, College of Education, Korea University, Anam-dong, Seongbuk-gu, Seoul (South Korea). E-mail: leesang@korea.ac.kr
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Abstract

The purpose of the present study was to explore the relationships between three predictor variables (attitude toward school, parent-child communication, and school commitment action) and the criterion variable (parent involvement) in a representative sample and to examine if these relationships were consistent across three groups (English speaking Caucasian family, English speaking Latino family, and Spanish speaking Latino families). Using a national database (N = 9.841), multi-group SEM analyses were conducted to investigate the relationship between three predictor variables and the criterion variable in three family groups. While all three predictor variables significantly predicted parent involvement in English speaking Caucasian and Latino families, only two variables (parent-child communication and school commitment actions), significantly predicted parent involvement in Spanish speaking Latino families. The results of this study suggest that when administrators, teachers and counselors in school strive to share specific school-related information with Latino families, Spanish speaking families are more likely to become involved with schools.

El objetivo de este estudio fue evaluar las relaciones entre tres variables predictoras (actitud hacia la escuela, comunicación padres-hijos, y acciones de compromiso escolar) y una variable criterio (implicación de los padres) para examinar si esas relaciones eran consistentes en una muestra representativa de tres grupos (familias angloparlantes caucásicas, familias angloparlantes latinas, y familias hispanoparlantes latinas). Mediante una base de datos nacional (N = 9,841) y análisis multigrupo (SEM) se evaluó la relación entre las tres variables predictoras y la variable criterio en los tres tipos de familias. Los resultados indicaron que las variables predictoras eran un indicativo de la implicación de los padres en las familias angloparlantes caucásicas, y latinas, sólo dos de esas variables (comunicación padres-hijos y acciones de compromiso escolar) predecían la implicación de los padres en las familias hispanoparlantes. Asimismo, sugieren que cuando administradores, profesores y consejeros de la escuela se esfuerzan en compartir información específicamente relacionada con la escuela con familias latinas, los hispanohablantes muestran una mayor probabilidad a implicarse en todo el proceso educativo de sus hijos.

Keywords

parent involvementattitude toward schoolparent-child communicationand school commitment actionimplicación parentalactitud hacia la escuelacomunicación paterno-filialacciones de compromiso con la escuela
Type
Research Article
Information
The Spanish Journal of Psychology , Volume 15 , Issue 2 , July 2012 , pp. 582 - 591
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

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