Thesis (Ed. S.)--Miami University, Dept. of Educational Psychology, 2007. / Title from first page of PDF document. Includes bibliographical references (p. 35-36).

abstract: ABSTRACT The purpose of this research is to provide insight into immigrant Latino parents' perspectives on parental involvement in elementary school settings as influenced by the Title I Family Literacy Program (TFLP). A comparison is made of Latino parents who have been participating in the TFLP for more than one year, participants new to the program and Latino parents who chose not to participate in the TFLP. Both quantitative and qualitative data were collected via a survey and individual interviews of randomly selected members of each comparison group. All research participants were immigrant Latino parents with children at one of ten Title I elementary schools operating a TFLP. The schools are part of a large, urban school district in the Southwest. Findings indicate the TFLP has a positive effect on parental involvement practices of immigrant Latino parents. Participating parents showed increased confidence in their ability to support their children's education and program participants are more engaged in school activities. The results of this study imply participation in the program for one year or more has the most impact on families. Parents who participated for more than one year communicated a high sense of responsibility toward their influence on their child's education and upbringing and an understanding of strategies needed to effectively support their children. This research also identifies barriers parents face to participation in the TFLP and parental involvement in general. Implementation of family literacy programs in other districts would need to follow guidelines similar to this TFLP to achieve comparable results. More research is needed on the effects of this program on parents, children, and school staff. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ed.D. Educational Administration and Supervision 2012

Magister Educationis - MEd / South Africa is amongst the lowest performers in numeracy and literacy in the developing countries, according to Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS 2006). Systemic research conducted by the Western Cape Education Department has pointed to the fact that the literacy and numeracy skills of the learners in the Western Cape are far below what is required for them to learn and develop effectively. Many educators blame parents for learners’ poor academic achievement. This study therefore aims to explore challenges to parental involvement in the homework assignments of learners in a historically disadvantaged primary school in Cape Town. This exploratory qualitative case study followed an interpretive paradigm. Data was collected via field notes; and semi – structured interviews from individuals and focus groups. Thematic data analysis was used to determine challenges to parental involvement in homework assignments of the primary school learners. This research study is grounded on Epstein’s model of overlapping spheres of influence of family, school and community on learners’ learning; six typologies of parental involvement; and on Bronfenbrenner’s bio-ecological model of human development. General systems theory was kept in mind during the study. Where parents were not involved in homework assignments, it was not a deliberate act. The findings highlighted challenges such as poverty, unemployment, inequalities; lack of educational resources; lack of structure in the home; single parenting, school and community factors, and a lack of educational stimulation that negatively affected parental involvement in homework assignments. The blame that educators apportioned on parents for learners’ poor academic outcomes was thus found to be inaccurate. True systems thinkers never debate whether the cause or the solution is situated in one single system, but considers the interdependence between all the systems. The whole is therefore more important than the sum of the parts. Despite the many challenges that parents experience in helping the learners with homework, the parents still want their children to excel in academic work. Parents in the historically disadvantaged school however seek assistance in how to help the learners with homework assignments.

Magister Artium (Social Work) - MA(SW) / Family structure is related to educational attainment; it is evident that individuals from two- parent homes complete on average more years of schooling and are more likely to graduate from high school, attend University and complete University as compared to peers raised in single-parent families. Parental characteristics such as educational level, income and parents, aspirations for their children are variables said to influence schooling outcomes of South African learners. Children from disadvantaged families are less likely to graduate from high school and attend an institution of higher learning. The aim of this study was to explore and describe how single parenting in a disadvantaged community influences a learner's decision to enrol at a higher education institution. An explorative and descriptive research design grounded in a qualitative research approach was utilised. Research participants were purposively selected from two senior secondary schools in Grahamstown in the Eastern Cape. Three sets of data, namely (a) grade 12 learners raised by single parents (b) parents of these learners, and (c) principals and grade 12 Life Orientation teachers were collected for greater insight of this situation. Semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions and field notes were used to collect the data. Tech's eight steps of data analysis were used. Ethical considerations such as confidentiality, voluntary participation, and informed consent from learners, parents, teachers and informed assent from learners younger than 18 years of age were adhered to. The greatest influences to enrolling into a higher education institution and the type of institution were family structure and the learner's socio-economic status. Learners feel responsible for taking care of their parents and siblings; therefore feel obligated to work after high school. Those that have the desire to study further are concerned about how they will finance their studies. The Department of Education (DoE) needs to conduct a needs assessment and provide schools with the resources they need. This includes teachers and administrative staff. The resources schools have influence school outcomes. Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) need to do an analysis of what the barriers to enrolling into university and college are at the various schools. When they have identified these barriers they need to tailor-make their information sessions with high school learners so that they have all the necessary information before they assume enrolling at higher education institutions is inconceivable. Schools need to provide the necessary information about university and college; including available funding to learners and their parents from earlier grades. This will be of use to those who genuinely want to study further but are concerned about finances.

This dissertation was undertaken to answer the following research question: What is the relationship between parental involvement and college generation status with the persistence of Hispanic Millennial college students? Social capital theory (Coleman, 1988) was used as a theoretical framework to analyze and gain a greater understanding of the factors that correlated with the persistence of first-generation Hispanic Millennial college students. This dissertation used an ex post facto with hypothesis research design. The research hypothesis was that parental involvement would be positively related with the second-year persistence of first-generation Hispanic Millennial college students. This dissertation used the data collected from 1179 Hispanic students who participated in the ELS: 2002 and enrolled in college. Logistic regression analysis of data from 972 of the students with completed surveys were used to examine the relationship between the dependent variable, which was student persistence to the second year, and the following independent variables: socio-economic status, family income, high school grade point average, gender, financial aid, highest degree ever expected, academic engagement, social engagement, college generation, and parental involvement. This dissertation’s findings show that parental involvement was not statistically associated with persistence to the second year of college, but that high school grade point average, highest degree expected, academic engagement, and the interaction between parental involvement and college generation were. While the findings do not support the hypothesis, they provide some evidence that may be supportive of the argument that recommendations that may affect degree expectations, high school GPA, and academic engagement of first generation Hispanic Millennial college students may be positively related to their college persistence.

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / Literacy levels measured against national and international tests indicate that South African learners are performing poorly. Literacy skills are critical in the development of learners, and research suggests that parents play an important role in enhancing these skills. The study takes into account the geographical, socio-economic and historical context of learners and parents, and seeks to determine why children are struggling with literacy activities.

Introduction: Adequate nutrition knowledge, positive attitudes and perceptions, and good practices of parents on infant and young child feeding (IYCF), among others, are essential for the optimal growth of children. Hence, the involvement of both parents in IYCF is essential. Aim: To explore and describe the involvement of both biological parents and caregivers in IYCF in Mzimba-north district, Malawi by assessing their nutrition knowledge, attitudes, perceptions and practices, and identifying the factors that affected their involvement. Study design: A cross sectional descriptive study employing quantitative and qualitative research methodologies. Setting: Five agriculture extension planning areas in Mzimba-north district, Malawi. Sampling technique: Stratified random sampling in the quantitative domain and purposive sampling in the qualitative domain. Sample: Quantitative domain: Households [mothers (n = 154) and fathers (n = 127)] with children aged zero to 24 months and caregivers (n = 4) where the biological parents were absent. Qualitative domain: A different sample of fathers (n = 41), mothers (n = 53) and local leaders (n = 3). Methodology: Quantitative domain: Participants were stratified into three groups based on the age of their children, i.e. <six months, six to 12 and >12 to 24 months. Data were collected using modified FAO nutrition knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAP) questionnaires. Data were analysed using Stata version 14.0 and Microsoft Excel 2013 version. The Chi-square, Fisher’s exact and McNemar's tests were used to compare the nutrition KAP between males and females. Testing was done at 0.05 significance level. Qualitative domain: Eleven focus group discussions (FGDs): five with males and six with females, and three in-depth interviews with three local leaders were conducted using three interview guides (one for each group). Creswell’s method of data analysis was used to identify themes and sub-themes. Ethical approval was obtained from the Ethics Committee, Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences, University of Pretoria (Ref no EC151204-26) and the Ministry of Agriculture, Mzuzu Agriculture Development Division, Malawi. Results: Quantitative domain: More than half of the participants knew the recommended IYCF practices. More than 80% of the participants showed positive attitudes on the appropriate IYCF practices. No significant differences were observed between the male and female participants’ mean knowledge scores and their responses on the attitude statements (P > 0.05). All participants with children <six months reported having their children breastfed both during the previous day and night. Half of the children <six months were exclusively breastfed. Poor food diversity with low consumption of animal foods was observed for children aged six to 24 months. The majority of the participants reported to have given their children food from only two food groups out of seven food groups. Qualitative domain: The participants identified the roles of mothers, fathers and local leaders in IYCF; mothers had direct roles while fathers and local leaders had supporting roles. The roles and influence of grandmothers on IYCF were also discussed. The participants identified the motivating factors and the factors limiting parental involvement in IYCF, and made recommendations on improving parental involvement in IYCF. Conclusion: Findings from the qualitative study were in support of quantitative study findings. Both parents were involved in IYCF. However, mothers had direct roles while fathers had supporting roles. Good nutrition knowledge, positive attitudes and perceptions, and poor practices on IYCF were reported. Recommendations: Participants in the FGDs made recommendations on improving parental involvement in IYCF. Recommendations are also made for future research and the implementation of IYCF practices in Mzimba-north district, Malawi. / Dissertation (MSc)--University of Pretoria, 2017. / Food Science / MSc / Unrestricted

The study aims to determine the effect of parental involvement on the reading literacy abilities of Grade 4 learners. Literacy is a fundamental skill needed to successfully function in a country’s economy, as well as broader society. The acquisition of literacy is a complex and difficult process, where several factors can have an effect. One of the most important factors in the acquisition of literacy, is parental involvement. Many initiatives have been launched in South Africa to get parents involved in their child’s acquisition of literacy, such as the Family Literacy Project and Nal’ibali. Both of these initiatives aim to improve learners’ literacy through parental involvement. In order to determine the effect of parental involvement on the reading literacy abilities learners, this study focused on selected variables from the PreProgress in International Reading Literacy Study (prePIRLS) 2011, notably from the parental responses and Grade 4 learners reading literacy achievement results. This study took the form of a secondary data analysis while specifically using descriptive and multiple regression techniques to measure the effect of parental involvement and the parental level of education on learner reading achievement. The conceptual framework of the study consists of parental involvement and the parental level of education which might have an effect on the reading literacy ability of Grade 4 learners. The study adapted Epstein’s six types of parental involvement (1992, 1994), as well as Myrberg and Rosén’s (2008) path model of direct and indirect influences of parental education on learners’ reading achievement. This study found that higher levels of parental education, as well as higher levels of parental involvement can be associated with higher reading literacy achievement results. Therefore parental involvement is of great importance in children’s development of reading literacy skills. / Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria, 2017. / Science, Mathematics and Technology Education / Centre for Evaluation & Assessment (CEA) / MEd / Unrestricted

Youth mentoring has become a popular program model promoting positive youth development and outpacing available research to guide all the programmatic growth. The systemic model of mentoring (Keller, 2005) expands the traditional mentor-youth dyadic focus of program development and evaluation, taking into account other important contextual and influencing factors including the role of parents, program staff and the larger agency. However, there remains an absence of literature that examines what is known about parental involvement and the role parents play in their child's formal mentoring relationship. This study explores the nature of parental involvement in formal community-based youth mentoring relationships. An analysis was conducted of in-depth qualitative interviews collected at multiple data points from parents and mentors of 30 mentoring matches, selected from a larger longitudinal study of youth mentoring relationships, and one-time in-depth interviews with 12 staff members from the agencies supervising the mentoring matches conducted for the purposes of this study (a total of 162 transcripts). Thematic coding and narrative summaries were utilized to develop themes that were compared within and across cases. This analysis yielded three main findings regarding the nature of parental involvement in mentoring relationships and the beliefs surrounding it, namely 1) the presence of distinct assumptions and expectations held by participants regarding parents and their involvement in mentoring relationships, 2) the identification by participants of five parental roles that were both expected of and actually performed by parents in their child's mentoring relationship, and 3) the identification of three types of parent-mentor interactions, which contributed to the characterization of parent-mentor relationships based on a level of communication and a degree of closeness. These study findings bring the perspectives of parents to the forefront in the examination of parental involvement in mentoring, a topic that is only beginning to gain greater attention within mentoring literature and research. Together these findings suggest that programs may be missing opportunities to tap into an important yet undervalued resource of parents, in supporting and strengthening the youth-mentor relationship.

Sleep and cortisol function are two physiological self-regulatory processes that codevelop during infancy. Dysregulation of each system is linked to enduring health problems, so it is critical to understand factors contributing to the development of physiological self-regulation. However, it is not clear how infant sleep and cortisol interact with each other or with the parenting context. This project examined (1) the interplay of infant sleep and cortisol; (2) how cortisol interacts with parent characteristics in relation to infant sleep; and (3) whether consistent parenting buffers infant cortisol dysregulation. Study 1 (86 parent-infant dyads) investigated whether average nighttime sleep onset and duration predicted cumulative cortisol exposure, indexed by hair cortisol concentration (HCC). As hypothesized, infants who fell asleep earlier at night had lower HCC regardless of their family income and household chaos. Additionally, I expected that sleep characteristics on one night would predict total salivary cortisol exposure (AUCg) the next day, and that salivary cortisol at bedtime would predict sleep the same night. Partially supporting expectations, time-based analyses revealed that infants with lower cortisol on a particular evening fell asleep earlier the same night. In Study 2 (84 parent-infant dyads), I hypothesized that the link between parent characteristics (i.e., bedtime parental involvement and parental sensitivity) and infant sleep would differ by AUCg. Falling asleep independently predicted earlier sleep onset only for infants with dysregulated cortisol, whereas bedtime parental involvement did not predict sleep for infants with well-regulated cortisol. Infants with emotionally warm and appropriately responsive parents fell asleep earlier at night only if their cortisol was well-regulated. Utilizing archival data of 82 mother-infant dyads, Study 3 assessed consistency in parenting behaviors (i.e., smiles and laughter, and positive vocalizations), cortisol, and socioeconomic status (SES). As hypothesized, higher-SES infants experienced consistency, whereas lower-SES infants experienced inconsistency, in maternal smiles and laughter across 6 to 12 months of infancy. Contrary to expectations, inconsistent parenting did not predict cortisol. Findings highlight the intricate relation between two vital physiological processes codeveloping in the first year of life – sleep and cortisol regulation – and the role cortisol plays in moderating how parenting characteristics contribute to infant sleep.