Following scholarly calls (e.g., Crosnoe, 2001; Perna & Titus, 2005) for studies related to studentsâ academic trajectories, the purpose of this study was to examine whether the relationship between studentsâ college aspirations and parental involvement differs between the eighth grade and tenth grade years, two critical time periods during which students typically initiate and subsequently reassess future college plans. Utilizing base-year and first follow-up data from the restricted-use version of the National Educational Longitudinal Survey (NELS: 88/90), results from fixed-effects logistic regression analyses indicated that parental involvement has a significant positive effect on the likelihood of students having high college aspirations (desire to finish college) during both the eighth and tenth grade years. Additionally, a cross-model hypothesis test indicated that the magnitude of the relationship between students' college aspirations and parental involvement is significantly weaker during the tenth grade year. In conclusion, findings from this study provide statistical support for previous claims that the relationship between college aspirations and parental involvement weakens as students ascend through the educational pipeline. Results from this study imply that scholars should view the relationship between studentsâ college aspirations and parental involvement as dynamic, rather than static, as students ascend through the secondary school grades and, coincidentally, the student college choice process. Additionally, this studyâs findings imply that future revisions to federal, state, and school-level parental involvement policies such as Section 1118 of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 should emphasize proactive forms of parental involvement (e.g., participation in school activities, school-related discussions with students), in addition to motivational forms of parental involvement (e.g., expressed levels of encouragement and expectations for educational attainment), throughout the secondary school years.
Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:NCSU/oai:NCSU:etd-01152008-152426 |
Date | 08 February 2008 |
Creators | Brasier, Terry Gale |
Contributors | Carol Kasworm, Duane Akroyd, Bruce Mallette, Marvin Titus |
Publisher | NCSU |
Source Sets | North Carolina State University |
Language | English |
Detected Language | English |
Type | text |
Format | application/pdf |
Source | http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/theses/available/etd-01152008-152426/ |
Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dis sertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to NC State University or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
Page generated in 0.4601 seconds