Multiple Dimensions of Family Involvement and Their Relations to Behavioral and Learning Competencies for Urban, Low-Income Children

Abstract

Relations between multiple dimensions of family involvement in early childhood education and classroom outcomes were examined. Participants included 144 urban, Head Start children. Parental report of family involvement was gathered in late fall using a multidimensional assessment. Relations between family involvement dimensions and end of the year outcomes of approaches to learning, conduct problems, and receptive vocabulary were investigated. Results revealed that Home-Based family involvement emerged as the strongest predictor of child outcomes. This dimension associated significantly with children's motivation to learn, attention, task persistence, receptive vocabulary skills, and low conduct problems. The School-Based Involvement dimension was significantly related to low conduct problems in the classroom when combined with the influence of Home-Based Involvement. The School-Based Involvement and Home-School Conferencing dimensions did not predict later child outcomes when considered simultaneously with Home-Based Involvement.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

John Fantuzzo

John Fantuzzo, PhD, is the Diana Riklis Professor of Education in the Policy Research Evaluation and Measurement Program at the University of Pennsylvania. He is a licensed clinical child psychologist whose research focuses on design, implementation, and evaluation of school-and community-based strategies for young, low-income children in high-risk urban settings. He has directed over a decade of funded research in partnership with the Office of Early Childhood Education in the School District of Philadelphia (serving over 22,000 children) and has been involved in population-based studies involving citywide, integrated databases across agencies serving young children. He is PI of a recently awarded NICHD grant designed to develop and evaluate an early childhood curricula integrating empirically validated literacy, numeracy, socioemotional, and approaches to learning components.

Christine McWayne

Christine McWayne, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Applied Psychology in The Steinhardt School of Education at New York University. Dr. McWayne is involved in partnership-and community-based research within the Head Start community in New York City. Generally, her research interests include: conceptualizations of family involvement in children's education in low-income communities, helping to establish a whole-child understanding of low-income, preschool children's school readiness competencies, and validating assessment instruments and intervention for low-income, preschool children and their families. Her recent research has focused on the examination of multiple dimensions of school readiness within the context of classroom quality and the social and structural dimensions of urban neighborhoods.

Marlo A. Perry

Marlo A. Perry, MS.Ed, is an advanced doctoral student in the School, Community, and Clinical-Child Psychology program at the University of Pennsylvania. She was awarded a student research grant from DHHS Administration for Children, Youth, and Families to examine the impact of welfare to work mandates on family involvement and on children's outcomes in Head Start. She also earned the Student Poster Award from the American Psychological Association's School Psychology Division in 2000. Her research has focused on the development and implementation of culturally and ecologically valid parent and teacher assessments for Head Start children; family involvement in Head Start and its relation to children's learning and behavioral competencies; and young children exposed to domestic violence.