Parent-Child Similarity in Environmental Attitudes: A Pairwise Comparison

Are adolescents’ environmental attitudes similar to their parents’ attitudes? The main objective of this study is to examine what quantitative associations, if any, exist in parent-child environmental attitudes within the family. The survey data was collected assessing attitudes toward the environment and nature from 15-year-old students (n = 237) and their parents (n = 212) in Finland. A significant positive correlation emerged in environmental attitudes between mothers and fathers. Interestingly, the results revealed some indicative evidence that girls’ environmental attitudes could relate more to their father's than mother's attitudes. Girls were as positive in their environmental attitudes as their parents and in contrast boys were noticeably more negative than either their parents or girls of the same age. The parental level of education was not found to be significantly related to the level of environmental attitudes of their adolescent offspring. Implications of these findings are discussed.     

Daily fluctuations in young children’s persistence

Children's behavior changes from day to day, but the factors that contribute to its variability are understudied. We developed a novel repeated measures paradigm to study children's persistence by capitalizing on a task that children complete every day: toothbrushing (N = 81; 48% female; 36–47 months; 80% white, 14% Multiracial, 10% Hispanic, 2% Asian, 1% Black; 1195 observations collected between January 2019 and March 2020). Children brushed longer on days when their parents used more praise (d = .23) and less instruction (d = −.22). Sensitivity to mood, sleep, and parent stress varied across children, suggesting that identifying the factors that shape an individual child's persistence could lead to personalized interventions.     

A Mere Footnote? An American Dilemma and Supreme Court School Desegregation Jurisprudence

This article provides historical and legal context for recent U.S. Supreme Court school desegregation decisions. The Supreme Court's race-based and race-neutral arguments from Brown (1954) to Parents Involved (2007) are examined within their broader context. Policy implications and potential support for diversity goal arguments given the Obama administration's appointments of Sonia Sotomayor and Elana Kagan as the 111th and 112th Supreme Court Justices are considered in light of enduring issues and guiding ideals delineated over half a century ago in Gunnar Myrdal's landmark study of race in the United States, An American Dilemma.     

An examination of perceptions of parental influence on attitudes to language learning

Background The assumption that parents have some effect on their children's attitudes to learning is one that few educationalists would challenge. The ways in which this influence is brought to bear are a slightly more complex and contentious matter, however.

Purpose The paper uses data from a tri-national PhD study on pupil attitudes to examine perceptions of the ways in which parents influence children's orientations towards foreign language learning (FLL). The comparative element is useful in providing a contrasting range of settings in which to examine the issue. The paper thus aims to provide some indication of the similarity and importance of particular influences by identifying features that seem significant, irrespective of setting.

Sample A total of 411 learners of French, German and English (as foreign languages), represented in roughly equal numbers from across the ability range, took part in the survey. The pupils, aged 15 – 16, were drawn from two centrally located mixed comprehensive schools in each country—England, Germany and The Netherlands. The schools were similar in terms of size, social intake and their semi-urban location. Care was taken to ensure as close a gender balance as possible.

Design and methods The study was designed as a qualitative survey and involved three data collection instruments. The first stage of data was collected using a written word association prompt distributed to the whole sample. The second stage involved around half the pupils generating written accounts of their attitudes and the factors they perceived to be influential. A total of 80 pupils took part in the final stage, consisting of 14 focus group interviews. A system of open coding was applied to all the data to support the process of inductive category building used in their analysis.

Results The findings offer some evidence for an association between parental and pupil attitudes. Parental influence appears to operate in a number of ways, ranging from the role model potential of positive/negative behaviours and the communication of educational regrets, to the ways in which parents help to construct their children's understandings of language importance and status. The extent of parental language knowledge appears to be an important additional factor.

Conclusions The evidence suggests that the ways in which parents contribute to the construction of their children's understanding of language utility are particularly important, and that this may be a key factor in the more positive attitudes demonstrated by the German pupils and the more negative orientations among the English participants.     

Features in children's counting books that lead dyads to both count and label sets during shared book reading

This study examined how book features influence talk during shared book reading. We used data from a study in which parent–child dyads (n = 157; child's M_age = 43.99 months; 88 girls, 69 boys; 91.72% of parents self-reported as white) were randomly assigned to read two number books. The focus was comparison talk (i.e., talk in which dyads count a set and also label its total), as this type of talk has been shown to promote children's understanding of cardinality. Replicating previous findings, dyads produced relatively low levels of comparison talk. However, book features influenced the talk. Books containing a greater number of numerical representations (e.g., number word, numeral, and non-symbolic set) and a greater word count elicited more comparison talk.     

The Southern Manifesto: A Doctrine of Resistance 60 Years Later

ABSTRACT

This article illustrates the historic relationship between the Brown v. Board of Education decision and the school choice movement. It will discuss the immediate push back to Brown particularly from Southern states that were resistant to desegregating public schools; a move that would provide African-American parents with educational choice for their children. Within the United States Congress 101 members, most from formerly Confederate states, drafted what is commonly known as the Southern Manifesto intent on reversing the Court’s decision and urging states to defy the law. Sixty years after the signing of the Southern Manifesto, there is still a coalition pushing for “freedom of choice,” this time with a sincere interest in the well-being of students trapped in the nation's lowest-performing schools and a mandate for equal opportunity, racial, ethnic, and gender equality.     

School choice in the stratilingual city of Vancouver

This paper examines the links between language, social difference and political domination in the practices of parental school choice at the heart of a global city, Vancouver. Vancouver is a highly diverse city, especially in terms of language. Its inner city is replete with multiple languages whose exchange values are not equal. In this context, our case study of two elementary schools observes that white middle‐class parents choose a predominantly white school – whose students are non‐ESL and have a second language choice of French – in a socially and ethnically mixed inner city neighbourhood, creating a stark imbalance in the student population of local neighbourhood schools. This paper examines parents' accounts of their choices, which they rationalise on the basis of linguistic competency and differentiation from multilingual others. We draw from Pierre Bourdieu's theory of language and symbolic power and Ghassan Hage's spatial theory of nationalist practice to understand the linguistic dimension of school choice rationalisation made by white middle‐class parents. In the context of these insights, we argue that the way anglophone white middle‐class parents choose their children's schools is intricately linked to active processes of reproducing a stratilingual society in Canada.     

The Home Literacy Environment and Preschool Children's Reading Skills and Interest

Research Findings: This study explored the association between the home literacy environment (HLE), conceptualized as comprising parents’ reading beliefs and home literacy practices, and preschoolers’ reading skills and reading interest. It also identified factors in the HLE that predict emerging reading competence and motivation to read. A total of 193 children age 6 years from 14 preschools across Singapore and their parents participated in the study. The parents completed a reading belief inventory, a family literacy activity inventory, and a demographic questionnaire that surveyed the child's reading interest. The children were administered a battery of standardized literacy tests. The study found a moderate relationship between the HLE and children's reading competencies and a strong relationship between the HLE and children's reading interest. When parents’ education level and children's age were controlled, hierarchical multiple regression analyses found that family literacy activities contributed more unique variance to children's reading outcomes and reading interest than did parents’ reading beliefs. Active parental involvement was the strongest component of the HLE, with parent–child engagement in reading and writing emerging as the best predictor of both the child's emerging reading skills and reading interest. With respect to reading beliefs, parents’ efficacy in supporting literacy development before their child attended school positively predicted reading competence, as did parents’ affect and verbal participation in fostering reading interest. However, verbal participation negatively predicted Singapore children's reading competence. Practice or Policy: The implications of the results were discussed.     

School choice in an English village: living,loyalty and leaving

In late modernity, the marketisation of public services has become a global policy phenomenon. In the case of schooling, this has resulted in parents discursively positioned as consumers of education making a choice between providers of education. To date the majority of research on parental choice has focused on the urban; this paper is concerned with the rural. Using ethnographic data collected through interviews (N = 24) and observations in one English village, it explores the ways in which parents engage with primary school choice. The research draws on Bourdieu's interrelated concepts of field, habitus and capital to discuss how the dispositions and resources parents had impacted upon the school choices they made. In presenting its findings, the paper distinguishes between the long-term residents (villagers) and more recent arrivals (newcomers) to suggest a differentiated commitment to place and schooling.     

Promoting toddlers' self-regulation and healthy eating habits among families living in poverty: A randomized controlled trial of Recipe 4 Success

The Recipe 4 Success preventive intervention targeted multiple factors critical to the health and well-being of toddlers living in poverty. This randomized controlled trial, which was embedded within Early Head Start home visits for 12 weeks, included 242 racially and ethnically diverse families (51% girls; toddler mean age = 2.58 years; data collected 2016–2019). Compared to parents in usual practice home visits, parents in Recipe 4 Success displayed greater sensitive scaffolding of toddlers' learning and more responsive food parenting practices (Cohen's d = .21–.30). Toddlers in Recipe 4 Success exhibited greater self-regulation and had healthier eating habits (Cohen's d = |.16–.35|). Results highlight the value of Recipe 4 Success in promoting parent and toddler behavior change that could have life-long benefits.     

White children's prosocial behavior toward White versus Black peers: The role of children's effortful control and parents' implicit racial attitudes

White children's effortful control (EC), parents' implicit racial attitudes, and their interaction were examined as predictors of children's prosocial behavior toward White versus Black recipients. Data were collected from 171 White children (55% male, M_age = 7.13 years, SD = 0.92) and their parent in 2017. Prosocial behavior toward White peers was predicted by children's higher EC. When predicting prosocial behavior toward Black peers and prosocial disparity (the difference between White and Black recipients), parents' implicit racial attitudes moderated the relation between children's EC and children's prosocial behavior. Specifically, children's EC was positively associated with prosocial behavior toward Black peers (and negatively related to inequity in prosocial behavior) only when parents exhibited less implicit racial bias.     

Can earlier literacy skills have a negative impact on future home literacy activities? Evidence from Japanese

We examined the cross‐lagged relations between the home literacy environment and literacy skills in Japanese, and whether child's gender, parents' education and child's level of literacy performance moderate the relations. One hundred forty‐two Japanese children were followed from Grades 1 to 2 and assessed on character knowledge, reading fluency and spelling. Their parents responded to a questionnaire assessing the frequency of their teaching and shared reading. Results showed that parent teaching increased and shared reading decreased from Grades 1 to 2. Cross‐lagged path analysis indicated that the literacy skills in Grade 1 were negatively associated with parent teaching in Grade 2. The results further suggested that more educated parents of higher performing children, particularly boys, adjusted their involvement to their children's literacy skills, while less educated parents of lower performing children did not. These findings indicate the importance of parents' sensitivity to their child's performance. What is already known about this topic

• Home literacy environment (HLE) plays an important role in children's literacy acquisition in Western and some East Asian contexts.
• Children's early reading skills can have an impact on later HLE.
• The direction of the relationship between HLE and children's reading skills may change from positive in Kindergarten to negative in Grade 1.

What this paper adds

• In line with the findings of previous studies in other languages, Japanese parents adaptively adjust their home literacy activities to their child's literacy skills.
• The effect of children's literacy skills on later shared reading is stronger among boys than among girls.
• More educated parents of higher performing children adjust their involvement to their child's literacy skills, while less educated parents with lower performing children do not.

Implications for theory, policy or practice

• We should encourage parents to be sensitive to their child's literacy skills to help them build a foundation that will boost future literacy development.
• This can be particularly true of less educated parents with poorly performing children.
• We should encourage educators to communicate the children's literacy achievement to their parents and also suggest the means by which HLE could be beneficial for their children's literacy development.

     

Parental attitudes about teenage pregnancy: impact on sexual risk behaviour of African-American youth

African-American youth suffer disproportionately from sexual risk consequences including unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections. Parents educating young people about sex may be one approach to reduce sexual risk behaviour among this population. The purpose of this study was to determine young people's perceptions of parents' attitudes about sex and assess whether these perceptions affect sexual risk. Data were collected from 560 African-Americans, aged 9–19 years. Most (73.4%) thought their parents would be unhappy if they got someone pregnant/got pregnant, with more girls feeling this way than boys (p = 0.013). Sexually active boys who thought their parents would be unhappy if they got someone pregnant reported fewer sexual partners within the past year (p < 0.01) and fewer sexual encounters in the past 3 months (p = 0.01) compared to those whose parents would think otherwise. Our research illustrates that parents' explicit and unstated attitudes are apparent to their offspring, and young people's perceptions can impact their risk behaviour. As such, early and often sex education communication between parents and young people should be encouraged. Sexual health interventions encouraging parents to educate about sex and its consequences could enhance the health of young African-Americans.     

Family,schools and Taiwanese children's outcomes

Background Educational reform is a major challenge facing schools in Taiwan. The new educational reform requires that every primary school must have parental involvement programmes in their school schedules, and to support these new programmes, there is a need for research to examine the extent and nature of parental involvement in primary schools in Taiwan, and to investigate the impact of parental involvement on pupil outcomes.

Purpose The purpose of the study was to examine the extent to which parents' involvement in schooling is related to primary pupil outcomes, after taking into account differences in family social status and family structure, and the children's perceptions of their school learning environments.

Sample For the analyses data were collected in 2001 from 261 6th-grade Taiwanese students, 128 boys and 133 girls, from four primary schools in the Taichung City school district. The average age of the children was approximately 11 years.

Design and methods In the analysis of the research model, a quantitative approach was adopted, in which each student completed two questionnaires and two academic achievement tests. The first questionnaire included questions to assess family social status, family structure and parents' involvement in their children's education. In the second questionnaire there were questions to measure pupils' self-concept and perceptions of their schools' learning environments. The data were analysed using multiple-regression techniques to examine relationships among family social status, family structure, parental involvement, the school learning environment and pupils' school-related outcomes.

Results The findings suggested that: (a) children's academic achievement is related to their family social status and perceptions of immediate family learning environments, and (b) children's self-concept is associated with their perceptions of classroom learning environments, parents' aspirations and parents' involvement at home. These propositions indicate the differential nature of the relationships among family and school environments and measures of children's school outcomes.

Conclusions In the Taiwanese context, by showing the particularly important association between Taiwanese family environments and children's school outcomes, the present investigation supports the educational reform movement that encourages schools to involve parents more intimately in shared responsibilities.     

What would make children read for pleasure more frequently?

Regular recreational reading offers benefits across a range of literacy outcomes, as well as supporting learning in other subject areas, offering cognitive benefits, and potentially fostering empathy. Therefore, increasing frequency of engagement in recreational reading can play an important role in addressing inequity in literacy outcomes once independent reading skill has been achieved. While previous studies address how to increase children's engagement in reading for recreation, few allow children's viewpoints to take primacy. The 2016 Western Australian Study in Children's Book Reading collected data from respondents across 24 schools, seeking to determine how educators and parents may best support young people to read with greater frequency. Interview participants from Years 4 and 6 were asked what would make them read more. The five recurring themes of finding engaging books, series adherence, challenge seeking, skill deficit, and time availability indicate optimal avenues for future research and educational intervention to foster increased engagement in reading.     

Family Socialisation and Children's School Outcomes: an investigation of a parenting model

The study investigated relationships between the dimensions of a parenting model and children's school outcomes. Also, a bioecological model was examined which proposes that proximal parenting processes have the general effect of mediating relationships between distal social contexts and children's outcomes, while advantageous individual characteristics enhance associations between proximal family processes and children's characteristics. Data were collected from 900 (460 boys, 440 girls) 11 year‐old Australian children and their parents. The findings suggest that: (a) a parenting model defined by parents’ aspirations, parenting practices, and parenting style has modest to moderate concurrent validity in relation to children's academic achievement and school attitudes, (b) the proximal processes of the parenting model mediate substantially the relationships between family social status and children's academic achievement but not the associations between intellectual ability and outcomes; and (c) there are sex‐group differences in the nature of the relationships between the dimensions of the parenting model and children's school outcomes.     

Engaging White parents to address their White children's racial biases in the Black-White context

Multiple studies (n = 1065 parents, 625 females, 437 males, 3 nonbinary, 99.06% White; n = 80, 5 to 7-year-old children, 35 girls, 45 boys, 87.50% White; data collection September 2017–January 2021) investigated White U.S. parents' thinking about White children's Black-White racial biases. In Studies 1–3, parents reported that their own and other children would not express racial biases. When predicting children's social preferences for Black and White children (Study 2), parents underestimated their own and other children's racial biases. Reading an article about the nature, prevalence, and consequences of White children's racial biases (Study 3) increased parents' awareness of, concern about, and motivation to address children's biases (relative to a control condition). The findings have implications for engaging White parents to address their children's racial biases.     

“Sweet Little (White) Girls”? Sex and Fantasy Across the Color Line and the Contestation of Patriarchal White Supremacy

The presence of the Little Rock Nine at Little Rock's Central High in September 1957 as a result of Brown vs. the Board of Education evoked anger, fear, and even panic among some parts of the white community, and many white women and girls responded with near hysteria. This article seeks to answer why. What was it about integration that provoked such a response from many Whites, and especially from white females? By briefly examining both the history of white racism and the socio-political context of the 1950s, this article argues that what Little Rock Whites, and in particular white females, were responding to was the fear of miscegenation. Yet this was not exactly the same fear of miscegenation that had spread throughout the South in the post-Civil War period in which white woman were supposedly at peril from the “black male rapist.” This fear of miscegenation, it is argued, had a new twist and that new twist came from the white women and girls themselves. Based on an analysis of the actions of individual white female Central High students from the perspectives of race, class, and gender, this article argues that not only were race relations in a state of flux but so were gender and class relations, giving Little Rock's “sweet little (white) girls” a pivotal role in the events surrounding the desegregation of Central High.     

Parents' views on the success of integration of students with special education needs

This study investigated how parents' views on important aspects of integration correlate with parents' actual experiences concerning the integration into mainstream education of their child with special education needs. It was assumed that the degree of discrepancy between perceived importance and corresponding actual experience contributes to the overall perceived success of integration. The data for the study were collected in 2006 from parents (N?=?219) whose special needs children were integrated into mainstream education in Helsinki, Finland. Quantitatively analysed findings were reflected against background variables. Results showed that the importance of the given statements were affected by the child's gender and school level. The parents' actual experiences were affected by two factors. The first showed that teachers at the primary level were evaluated as being more skilful than teachers at the secondary level, and at the secondary level, teaching was more individualised than at the primary level. Second, a child's self-worth was shown to be higher when integrated into the neighbourhood school. Parents' views on the success of integration were related to their actual experiences, especially in those statements rated as important. Possible explanations for these findings and practical implications are discussed.