abstract: The transition process from high school to college can be filled with many rewards and challenges not only for students, but also for their families. As institutions have continued to evolve to support student success and retention, many universities have added or expanded parent and family program offices. While universities continue to work collaboratively with families promote student success, it is important to understand the how the needs of families may vary. One area to explore is the proximity of students to their family members and how distance may impact the transition for both students and families. A perceived problem in this study was that family members of local students were not as engaged as family members who lived outside the local area. The purpose of this action research study was to better understand and enhance the experience of local families as their students transitioned from high school to college. The study and innovation were grounded in two theoretical frameworks: funds of knowledge and Schlossberg’s transition theory. The innovation developed based upon learnings from these theoretical frameworks included four elements: (a) a family guide, (b) family newsletters, (c) an online family video series, and (d) an updated parent and family website. The study was a mixed methods action research study conducted over the course of one semester. Quantitative data was collected through the use of a presurvey at the start of the academic year and a postsurvey as the semester completed. Qualitative data was collected through individual interviews with local family members. The results of this study indicated that families who participated in at least one element of the innovation reported more knowledge of campus resources, felt more supported by the institution, and were confident in their ability to assist their student in the transition to college. Additionally, implications for practice and areas for future research were explored. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Higher and Postsecondary Education 2019

Involving parents in school-based learning can be difficult for both schools and parents, and more innovative approaches to involving parents are needed. Internet-based programs have the potential to address barriers to parent participation, but more research is needed to determine the effectiveness and social validity of such programs. This study explored the social validity of WhyTry for Parents, an internet-based program for parents of students enrolled in WhyTry, a school-based social and emotional learning program for students in grades K through 12. Eleven elementary, middle, and high schools across the United States participated in the study by inviting parents of WhyTry students to use the WhyTry for Parents curriculum. Whether or not parents utilized the curriculum, they were invited to take a survey about the importance they placed on the program's goals, procedures, and effects, and to give reasons for their level of participation in the program. A total of 836 parents were invited to take part in the study, and 14 parents made up the final sample. Coordinators (n = 10) of the WhyTry program at each school were invited to participate in interviews focused on their perspectives of parent participation rates and the WhyTry for Parents program. Regardless of whether parents utilized the curriculum, they found a high degree of social validity in WhyTry for Parents; however, they suggested that the curriculum be simplified and made more accessible. WhyTry coordinators suggested that low participation rates were due to parent resistance, and that helping parents to understand WhyTry might help overcome this resistance. Parents and coordinators suggested that the curriculum be available by app to improve accessibility. Future research should explore the social validity of WhyTry for Parents from the perspective of educators, who implement the program at the school level. Studying the costs associated with internet-based parent programs for both schools and parents may also be prudent.

Educators and researchers have long considered parental involvement to be an integral factor in the success of students. However, parental involvement is low in many U.S. schools. Guided by Epstein's parental model, the purpose of this case study was to examine teachers' perceptions and experiences of parental involvement at an inner-city K-8 center in the United States which has had low parental involvement over the last 5 years. The overarching research question concerned teacher perceptions and experiences regarding communicating with parents, encouraging learning at home, and parents volunteering. Data sources consisted of interviews, questionnaires, and unobtrusive data. Purposeful sampling was used to identify the 11 teacher participants. Data were transcribed, coded and analyzed for various themes. The findings indicated that teachers perceive parental involvement to be important when they communicate with parents, when parents encourage learning at home, and when parents volunteer. The themes that emerged from the data were (a) the importance of parental involvement, (b) reinforcing learning at home, (c) communication, (d) encouraging parental involvement at school, and (e) increasing parental involvement. Based on the findings, a policy recommendation was developed to enhance the Parent Teacher Student Association (PTSA) currently in place at the study site. This project could lead to positive social change by assisting the staff at the K-8 center in developing a PTSA program that may encourage parents to become more involved. Their efforts may provide a model for other schools struggling with a lack of parental involvement.

Men and women are both faced with daily decisions that affect their families and their work. This paper will look at the overall satisfaction of employees as it relates to work &ndash life conflict. The concept has expanded as there are more responsibilities outside of the job setting that include volunteer commitments, personal development, home life and elder care. Since lifestyles have changed and there are significant pressures that all employees are facing, work &ndash life has become a significant benefit issue. Family &ndash friendly policies may help organizations to assist employees with balancing work and family. Conflict roles can spillover from the work domain to the family domain and from the family domain to the work domain. Time and technical connectivity are factors in work overload. Supporting employees could contribute to job satisfaction by offering alternative work schedules and family-friendly benefits. Organizations that offer flexible alternatives can engage employees and decrease job turnover.

Drawing on intensive interviews with 61 Asian American undergraduates from diverse class and ethnic backgrounds, this paper investigates the relationship between class, family involvement, and student success. I assess three hypotheses derived from the literature. First, social reproduction theorists suggest that parents from advantaged class backgrounds provide more support—economic and cultural capital—to their children than parents from disadvantaged class backgrounds, which leads to greater success for these advantaged offspring. Second, some research challenges this view, arguing instead that class does not impact students’ receipt of support or their resulting success. Third, some now suggest that larger amounts of support may undermine success. Employing a trichotomous class design and model of family that includes parents and non-parents, analysis of the interviews reveal that students from advantaged class backgrounds do receive far more economic as well as cultural capital than students from disadvantaged class backgrounds. Yet, how the receipt of that capital impacts student success yields mixed results. Quantitative analysis reveals that the receipt of large amounts of various forms of capital had little or no impact or a slightly negative impact on students’ GPAs. Analysis of the intensive interviews, however, suggests the provision of capital created substantially less stress and struggle for students as they navigated the college environment. These findings challenge popular stereotypes concerning Asian Americans, highlight the complexity of class, and call for broader definitions of family and a reconceptualization of “success”.

This study of 24 therapists and 64 family members representing 109 adolescent residents of six residential treatment centers aimed to better understand therapists' and family members' points of view about family involvement in residential treatment for troubled adolescents. The study also provided the therapists' and family members' recommendations for family involvement in residential treatment. Findings from this mixed-methods study suggest that (a) the families from this study were involved in many different ways in their adolescents' treatment, including phone calls, visits to the treatment center, participation in therapy, and so forth; (b) there were areas in which therapists and family members agreed (e.g., whether families used phone calls as a form of contact) and areas in which they disagreed about how involved the families were in treatment and therapy (e.g., how often any family member was involved in therapy with the adolescent); and (c) the therapists and family members recommended that families should be involved in therapy but recommend some forms of involvement over others.

Parent involvement is essential if students are to succeed in school. In fact, "parental involvement is more important to student success, at every grade level, than family income or education" (Starr, 2004). Yet many schools struggle to effectively engage parents in the education of their children as the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001 now requires. The purpose of this study was to explore parents', administrators', and guidance counselors' perceptions of parent involvement at a Title I elementary school and a non-Title I elementary school, both of which are located in the southern Appalachian region of the United States, to identify successful parental involvement practices, and to determine the perceived impact of parent involvement on student achievement and school improvement. Specifically, this study explored the strategies employed within the 2 elementary schools to encourage parent involvement, identified effective practices of highly involved parents at the 2 schools, and determined barriers to parental involvement at the 2 elementary schools. The findings of this study suggested that parents in both elementary schools have very similar perceptions of parent involvement. Parents from each school reported that they feel welcome in their children's school, communicate regularly with school personnel, engage in parent-child learning activities, and serve on decision making bodies within the school. Surprisingly, parents in both schools expressed a desire for more parent involvement and perceived some parents as not having an equal opportunity to participate in school functions. School personnel identified barriers to parent involvement and described the manner in which they were working to overcome challenges in their respective schools. While principals articulated the desire for greater parent involvement, they perceived their schools as providing opportunities for all parents to be actively engaged in the educational process. Recommendations from the study include providing parents with a specific definition of parent involvement so there is a clear understanding that parent involvement encompasses more than "physical presence," and establishing parent-to-parent outreach programs to mentor those who are reluctant or new to the school.

Research has shown that there is a positive correlation with student performance when there are members of the family, primarily a parent, who are actively involved with the student and their education. The following action research plan was designed to determine how increasing parental involvement affected student performance in a scientific inquiry program. This was done by offering "parenting a middle school student" workshops, encouraging family run practices at home, and inviting parents to attend a class with their student. This research was conducted in a large middle school in a central Florida school district with two 7th grade classrooms. One classroom served as the control group, while the second served as the experimental group. The teacher researcher was responsible for increasing communication with the parents in regards to student behavior and/or performance. Implementation of increased communications are associated with keeping parents informed, however they only work to increase student performance if the parent uses the increased communication and applies the information to use at home. Analysis of the data indicated that there was no difference between the two classes. The majority of the invited parents in the experimental group did not participate in the parent workshops. Students in the experimental groups showed little or no difference in grades on the post unit exam or in their overall grades. Additional research with smaller sampling sizes would be a recommendation of this researcher. When working with an average of one hundred and twenty students on a regular basis, working with twenty five sets of parents to increase communication was a daunting task. The researcher would recommend having an experimental group of no more than ten for future ii i studies. Although a small sample may be sufficient for a descriptive study, it's recognized that a small sample will likely not have sufficient power to detect statistically significant differences if they exist.

Strong families are built on positive relationships among husbands, wives, and children, and can be positively or negatively impacted by a variety of factors. This study focuses on the influence of religiosity on family strengths, particularly as it affects marital commitment, relationships between parents and children, and family involvement. Using Flourishing Families Project (FFP) data (N=305 couples) and a theoretical framework derived from Dollahite and Marks, Mahoney and colleagues, and Stinnett and DeFrain, I examined the ways in which a parent's religious beliefs and religious practices support or hinder family relationships. The Actor-Partner Interdependence Model (APIM) was used to examine the intrapersonal and interspousal relationships among religious beliefs, religious practices, marital commitment, parent-child closeness, and family involvement. Results suggest that religious beliefs and practices are equivocal and are associated with higher and lower marital commitment, parent-child closeness, and family involvement for both husbands and wives. Significantly, this research demonstrated that husbands and wives differed through both intrapersonal and interspousal pathways. These results provide important insight into the ways religiosity is associated with family strengths and provides additional handles for researchers and practitioners interested in strengthening families. / Ph. D.

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