Explaining home education: Parents' accounts of their decisions to teach their own children

This paper analyzes the reasons that parents choose to teach their children at home. From data collected over 18 months of qualitative research in a state in the southeast, three broad explanations for choosing home schooling emerged. First, the parents believe that home education will strengthen their families. Second, many home-schooling parents (particularly those who are fundamentalist Christians) believe that schools teach values and beliefs that directly contradict those they want their children to learn. Third, many of the parents believe that only they, as parents, understand their children's unique educational needs well enough to effectively teach them. The failure of educational policy makers to consider the extraeducational issues raised by home-schooling parents is then discussed.     

美国家庭学校教育的特点及其启示

在美国,家庭学校教育是一种以家庭为基础、孩子为受教育者、家长为主要教育者的自由教育形式。美国家庭学校教育自产生以来发展迅速,有其特有的优势,并对世界各国的教育都产生了深远的影响。阐述美国家庭学校教育的内涵、形成及特点,旨在对我国的教育产生积极影响。     

An overview of parent training and counselling with the parents of children with mental disabilities and autism in Turkey

Parents are significant contributors to the development of their children. They are the primary caretakers, managers, behavior models, disciplinarians, and agents of socialization and change for their children. It is accepted that parents can be trained as effective teachers of their children with disabilities. In Turkey, there are very limited opportunities, services, schools, parent education and support services for children with disabilities and their parents. Therefore, we have been carrying out studies to contribute to the understanding of the parents, specifically, on how a child with a disability affects their life and how they can be trained to become co-teachers and co-therapists. These studies are reviewed here.     

A Comparison of the Common Reasons for Choosing home-schooling in the UK and China for 5-10 Year old children

<正>As the developing of the world education standard,a growing number of people begin to focus on how to cultivate children in the best way.Under that circumstance,a new type of education becomes one of the most current topics for the educators.That is called home-schooling.Petrie(1993)defined that home schooling or home education means study at home teaching by their parents instead of going     

Service family support – a small-scale project of educational psychologists working with parents

Being in a Service family can be a difficult position for children and parents alike due to high levels of mobility, parental separation, and the remaining parent’s stress and emotional well-being. A Service family is defined as a family with one or both parents employed by the Ministry of Defence (MOD). The current project looked at the under-researched area of supporting parents in Service families with an intervention funded by the MOD. Work carried out involved inviting parents of primary aged children to take part in consultation sessions and parent discussion groups, facilitated by educational psychologists (EPs). These looked at the psychological concepts of separation, anxiety, self esteem and friendship as well as positive psychology. Outcomes indicated that parents experienced an increase in confidence and a decrease in concern following the consultation sessions. Parents valued the support of the group and found the sessions practical and informative. This intervention filled a gap in support for Service parents and indicates a role for EPs in terms of further input and research.     

Personal growth and development of parent leaders through a group parent education program

Many scholars assert that current parent education practices in Hong Kong are dominated by the transmission perspective. This perspective assumes inadequacies in the knowledge and skills of parents; hence, the goal of parent education appears to be the transmission of facts as well as skills development and values information that prepare children to become better members of society. Simply providing parents with knowledge about child development and teaching them certain skills cannot help them gain deeper insights. Indeed, parents find it difficult to apply what they have learned because of inadequate reflections on their goals and values related to parenthood. These criticisms have serious implications on the re-conceptualization of parent education. This article reports on a new approach to parent education, in which a group of parent leaders developed and facilitated a group parent education program (GPEP) for low-income parents. The GPEP emphasized the use of the group approach and interactive activities as well as homework to help the target parents practice the skills they learned during the program. The parent leaders taught positive parenting strategies and exchanged their own experiences with low-income parents. This research aims to study how parent leaders evaluate their challenges, growth, and development, as well as analyze the impact of the GPEP approach on these parents. The study provides valuable data to facilitate further studies on GPEP and other alternative approaches for parent education.     

Factors shaping parent–adolescent communication about sexuality in urban China

Within a rapidly changing cultural and socio-economic context, young people in China are increasingly engaging in romantic experiences and sexual behaviours with consequences such as unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections. Across a range of contexts, parental communication about sexuality has been recognised as protective in terms of increasing the likelihood of sexual abstinence and safer sexual practice. This study focuses on the factors shaping parent–adolescent communication about sexuality. Thirty-eight young people and twenty-seven parents, recruited from two high schools in a Northern-Eastern city of China, were interviewed. Thematic analysis of their interview responses was conducted using a social constructionist framework. Four main themes were identified: timing; discomfort and uncertainty; assumptions; and the parent–adolescent relationship. Findings suggest that communication between parents and children is influenced by individual as well as interpersonal factors and factors relating to the broader Chinese sociocultural context. To facilitate communication, both parents and young people need support from health and other professionals, while parents need more help and support in overcoming historical, social and cultural barriers to open communication about sex.     

The mental health and psychological well-being of refugee children and young people: an exploration of risk,resilience and protective factors

This research investigates the perceptions of refugee children, refugee parents and school staff regarding the positive adaptation of refugee children in a new social context and the effects on mental health and psychological well-being. This included an exploration of resilience and the role of risk and protective factors. Few studies have focused on views from a resilience perspective, and these have tended to use quantitative rather than qualitative measures. This mixed methods piece of “real world” research adopted a “what’s working well” perspective and explored the important voices of these children, parents and school staff. Staff, parent and child responses were triangulated to provide a rich picture of the potential protective factors operating within the school and family environment. Implications for practice are discussed.     

农村留守儿童主观幸福感与公正世界信念的关系研究

为考查农村留守儿童主观幸福感（生活满意度,积极/消极情感）与公正世界信念的 关系,采用公正世界信念问卷,生活满意度问卷和积极,消极情感问卷,选取5-8年级565 名留守儿童和640名非留守进行调查.结果表明:(1)留守儿童主观幸福感各成分得分显 著低于非留守儿童,留守儿童内部主观幸福感各成分上年级差异显著,性别差...     

Child AD/HD severity and psychological functioning in relation to divorce,remarriage, multiple transitions and the quality of family relationships

Both Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (AD/HD) and divorce are very prevalent in western societies, and they may occur together. AD/HD is generally viewed as a neurobiological disorder, which has led to a commonly held belief that social-environmental factors play little role in the symptom profile of children diagnosed with the disorder. This study investigated the association between parental divorce, remarriage, multiple transitions, the quality of relationships with family members and the psychological well-being of children and adolescents with AD/HD. First, differences in children’s AD/HD symptom profiles in relation to parents’ divorce status (single/multiple divorce) and family composition (single parent/stepfamily) were examined. Second, the association between the quality of children’s relationships with each family member and parents’ marital status (divorced/non-divorced) and family composition was investigated. In addition, age, gender and AD/HD subtype differences were assessed. Third, the association between the quality of children’s interactions with family members and children’s AD/HD symptom profile was explored. No significant differences in children’s behavioural profiles were found in terms of parents’ divorce status. Living in stepfamilies was associated with greater AD/HD severity and social malfunctioning. Disruptive parent–child and sibling relationships were found to be related to children’s age, gender, AD/HD subtype and parents’ marital status. Further, poor interactions with family members correlated with children’s AD/HD severity and psychological well-being. In summary, divorce, remarriage and the quality of relationships with family members are important correlates of the symptom profile of children with AD/HD, and this emphasises the need for special treatment modules for these families.     

Evidence for different parent–child strategies while reading

This study examined the strategies parents use naturally to help early readers at difficult points of text or pronunciation. Forty‐two children were videotaped reading to a parent. Results suggest parents are not likely to provide specific instructional feedback when listening to their children read. When given, parental feedback tends to be well tuned to the child's reading ability, with parents of less skilled readers providing richer and more varied feedback than parents of more skilled readers. A tree clustering analysis placed parents in one of three groups: 1) ‘Learner centred’ parents use a variety of feedback strategies; 2) ‘Inactive’ parents allow their children to continue uncorrected; 3) ‘Direct’ parents supply the miscued word. The children of ‘learner centred’ parents did not perform as well as children of ‘inactive’ parents on measures of reading ability, possibly because parents of better readers no longer need to be ‘learner centred’.     

On the development of biologically specific beliefs: the case of inheritance

5 experiments investigated children's intuitions about genetic transmission of features. After parent animals possessing an abnormal feature were described, children were asked whether their baby would be born with that feature in abnormal or normal form. Features were either internal or external, inborn or acquired after birth, and had functional or nonfunctional consequences for the parents. Among preschoolers, features with functional consequences were considered inherited much more frequently than any other type, but only when the functional consequences were biological rather than social or psychological. Older children demonstrated more awareness of the inheritance of inborn traits. Overall, the results suggest young children have principled, specifically biological notions of inheritance.     

Perceived family functioning, marital status, and depression in parents of boys with attention deficit disorder

The present study examined the perceptions of parents of children with attention deficit disorder with hyperactivity (ADD/H) regarding their family environment and depression in comparison with a clinical and a nondisabled control group. Parents of children with ADD/H perceived their family environment as less supportive and more stressful than did either the clinical or the nondisabled controls. Specifically, ADD/H parents viewed their families as having lower levels of interpersonal relationships than did either of the control groups. Ratings of depression for each of the parent groups indicated a greater frequency of depressive symptomatology among the parents of children with ADD/H. In addition, more parents of ADD/H children were separated or divorced. Correlation coefficients computed for the entire sample suggest differences between mothers' and fathers' depression and differences in their perceptions of the family. Recommendations are made for future research as well as the development of treatment programs to incorporate work with the parents of children with ADD/H.     

The effectiveness of nurture groups: a systematic review

Children with emotional difficulties often experience problems at school in terms of academic progress and within peer relationships. They are also more likely to continue to experience emotional problems in their adult lives. Nurture groups (NGs) were developed in the 1960s by the educational psychologist Majorie Boxall and their aim is to improve the emotional well-being of children who are struggling, through providing them with reparative attachment experiences. This review aims to evaluate the effectiveness of NGs. Eleven papers examining the effectiveness of NGs were included, as well as two papers which explore the particular communication styles adopted by NG teachers. There was evidence that NGs are effective in improving the emotional well-being of children, but there is a need for higher quality and longitudinal research. There is a paucity of research into secondary school NGs. The review highlighted the NG teachers’ use of more positive verbal and non-verbal behaviour. Implications for future research are discussed.     

The head start teaching center: An evaluation of an experiential,collaborative training model for head start teachers and parent volunteers

Forty-eight Head Start teachers and 48 parent volunteers from 24 classrooms were randomly assigned to either the Collaborative Training (CT) or Workshop Training (WT) approach. CT teachers and parents were involved conjointly in experiential training which included receiving guided practice and feedback from exemplary peers. WT consisted of a series of workshops conducted by outside trainers for separate groups of parents and teachers. Training methods were compared with respect to (a) teacher and parent reports of their level of involvement in training and satisfaction with the training experience, (b) teacher and parent reports of parent classroom activity, and (c) observation of adult-child classroom interactions. CT teachers and parents reported significantly greater levels of active involvement in and satisfaction with the training, as well as significantly greater levels of parent classroom activity than WT participants. With respect to adult-child classroom interactions, CT teachers demonstrated significantly more positive initiations and praise than WT teachers. Parent reports of their perceived role in the classroom as well as parent levels of initiation with children did not differ between training groups. Implications of these findings for further research were discussed.     

The narratives of abused children who have survived attempted filicide

Child abuse is a social problem that receives much attention from policy makers, practitioners, and researchers. This alarming phenomenon generates many consequences for children, their families, and society as a whole; one tragic consequence of child abuse is filicide. Because of the unfortunate circumstances surrounding such events, children are hushed by their perpetrators, whether abusers or killers, and we are thus denied the opportunity to hear their voices and to promote understanding of the phenomenon. The aim of the current study is to explore in depth the patterns and themes that can be found in the narratives of children who survived a murder attempt by one of their parents. Content analysis was performed on seven investigative interviews with children using thematic analysis. Five key categories were determined based on the children's narratives: (a) many bad things have happened to me, (b) this was not the first time I was abused by my parent, (c) I am concerned about my parent, (d) I am alive thanks to my siblings, and (e) it is hard to remember what exactly happened. This study contributes to the understanding of child physical abuse and filicide. The discussion integrated conclusions for policy makers and practitioners who seek methods of addressing child abuse as well as determining whether and how filicide can be prevented.     

Families with children conceived by donor insemination: a follow-up at age twelve

Growing public awareness of the use of donor insemination (DI) to enable infertile couples to become parents has been accompanied by increasing concern regarding the potentially negative consequences for family relationships and child development. Findings are presented from a prospective study of the quality of parenting and psychological adjustment of DI children at age 12. Thirty-seven DI families, 49 adoptive families, and 91 families with a naturally conceived child were compared on standardized interview and questionnaire measures administered to mothers, fathers, children, and teachers. The differences between DI families and the other family types reflected greater expressive warmth of DI mothers toward their children and less involvement in the discipline of their children by DI fathers. The DI children were well adjusted in terms of their social and emotional development. The findings are discussed with respect to the secrecy surrounding DI and the imbalance in genetic relatedness between the parents and the child.     

Parent preferences and parent choices: the public–private decision about school choice

School choice survey data from the Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools, a large county‐wide school district, is analysed to examine the characteristics of parents who consider choosing private schools for their children and those who do not. We examine differences in background, including race, educational attainment and socioeconomic status, as well as differences in parent satisfaction with their child’s previous school, parent involvement in school, parents’ priorities in school choice, as well as parents’ social networks. After controlling for background characteristics, we find that parent satisfaction with their child’s previous school was not a predictor of considering a private school. Rather, parent involvement seems to be a more important indicator of whether or not a parent would consider sending their child to a private school. In this case, parents are not ‘pushed’ away from public schools, contrary to much public rhetoric that suggests private schools are somehow inherently ‘better’ than public schools and parents who are dissatisfied with their public schools will opt for private schools. Instead, these findings suggest a ‘pull’ towards private schools. Parents may perceive that parent involvement and parent communication are more easily facilitated and valued in private schools.     

The influence of racial socialization practices on the cognitive and behavioral competence of African American preschoolers

The association between parent racial socialization and child competence was examined in a socioeconomically diverse sample of African American preschoolers living in an urban setting. Interviews were conducted in the homes of 200 families. Racial socialization was assessed by parent report as well as by observation of the sociocultural context of the home, and child outcomes were assessed using the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children and the Child Behavior Checklist. Results indicated that African American parents who provided homes that were rich in African American culture had preschool children who had greater amounts of factual knowledge and better developed problem-solving skills. African American parents who socialized their preschool children to be proud of their heritage reported fewer problem behaviors.     

Concerns of families of children with learning disabilities

The purpose of this report is to share the experiences and concerns of a group of parents of children with learning disabilities. Parents of eight different families were interviewed in depth, and seven themes emerged from the interviews. Parents discussed their involvement in their child's education, and their positive and negative experiences with school personnel as well as with seeking other sources of support. They expressed concerns about the social isolation and future well-being of their children with learning disabilities. They indicated many emotional strains from parenting children with learning disabilities, and that there are both positive and negative effects on the families. Implications for further research and practice are discussed.