Family School Relationships Peer Contexts H607: Ethnicity, Context & Family Dynamics

The Plan  Family School Relations –Partner bias –Ethnic differences in parenting and academic goals  Parenting, Friendships and Peer Relations

Considerations for Mitigating Partnership Bias  Levels of analysis: –Individual child/family level  Making sure child is healthy and prepared  Supporting individual achievement  What does EVERY family need to do? –At the school level  Collective parental influence –through PTA monitoring –provision of resources improves quality for all  How many parents do you need & what do you need them to do?  Increasing the diversity of voices heard –District level  Impact of choice on target school AND school left behind  Voting on school board/budgets  How can some parents advocate at the district/state level?

Monitoring and Autonomy: Ethnic Differences Monitoring Autonomy- Granting Autonomy- Granting Warmth Aspirations GPA; Staying on Task College Enrollment College Enrollment N=1450, followed from 7 th grade to 3 years post high school; Hill & Wang, Developmental Psychology 2015 Monitoring stronger for Blacks than whites Autonomy Granting stronger for Whites Autonomy Granting most important for Aspirations for both groups

Parenting, meaningful future and engagement Meaningful Future Meaningful Future School: School belonging Teacher relationships School: School belonging Teacher relationships Family: Support, Scaffolding Linking advice Family: Support, Scaffolding Linking advice Engagement Self Reg. Learning Cog Strat Use YTD-GPA Engagement Self Reg. Learning Cog Strat Use YTD-GPA CFI=.94; TLI=.92 RMSEA =.0; SRMR=.05; 2 nd factor loading is model without direct effects.29/.30.33/.38.49/.75.38

Parental Involvement depends on Youths’ Perception of the job market Perceptions Job Market Volatility Perceptions Job Market Volatility School: School belonging Relevance of courses Teacher relationships School: School belonging Relevance of courses Teacher relationships Family: Support, Scaffolding Linking advice Family: Support, Scaffolding Linking advice Engagement Self Reg. Learning Cog Strat Use YTD-GPA Engagement Self Reg. Learning Cog Strat Use YTD-GPA CFI=.95; TLI=.93 RMSEA =.07; SRMR=.04; 2 nd factor loading is model without direct effects. -.33/ /-.20 Family: Support, Scaffolding Linking advice Family: Support, Scaffolding Linking advice

Teens’ views on economy change impact of parenting At High Levels of Job Market Angst… Parenting, including Educational Advice, Linking Education to the Future, Scaffolding Independence, & Support, UNDERMINES school engagement At Low Levels of Job Market Angst… Parenting MOTIVATES engagement in school Youths’ perceptions of the job market matter… Talk with them about it and how they might navigate it

Parental Influences on Peers and Friendships

Why be concerned with children’s friendships?  Friendships and play increase cognitive development  In the context of friendships, children learn to negotiate and resolve conflicts  In early childhood and more significantly in adolescence, friends shape identity, self concept, and self esteem  Making friends at the beginning of the school year  better school performance  Having friends at school increases school engagement –Engagement & sense of belonging  reduced drop out Cf. Piaget; Vygotsky

How do Families Shape Peer Relations and Friendships?  Attachment (Ainsworth, 1958; Bowlby, 1969) –Providing secure base –Emotional security –Internal working models or relational schemas/scripts  Social Learning –Modeling desirable behaviors –High parent-child relationship quality may cause children to select friends their parents like  Direct Involvement to manage peer/friend influences –Selecting/changing neighborhoods –Supervision/monitoring Cf. Ladd & Pettit, 2002; Parke & Ladd, 1992; Putallaz, 1987

Ethnicity, Parenting, and Friendships  Parenting and friendship literature has failed to consider ethnic variations in parenting and interrelations among parenting  Ethnicity and parenting literature has focused mainly on mental health and academic outcomes

Preliminary Studies  Friendship dynamics –Extent to which friends get child in trouble (child report) –School loneliness (child report) –Extent to which friends have a good/bad influence (teacher report) –Number of friends child has relative to classmates (teacher report)  Parenting –Warmth  Parental acceptance  Communication –About positive & negative events and feelings (mom report) –Control  No nonsense parenting  Consistent discipline  Love withdrawal

Results: Friendship Outcomes  Peer get student into trouble… –parenting more salient for Whites  Acceptance more strongly related for Whites than Blacks (-.43 vs..13; ΔR2=.11)  Positive Communication more strongly related for Whites (-.60 vs ΔR2=.08)  Friends having a good influence –Main effect—Blacks have friends with worse influence than do Whites –Parenting more salient for Whites  Acceptance more strongly related for Whites than for Blacks SES (.49 vs..04; ΔR2=.06).

Results: Friendship Outcomes  Number of friends –Main effect--  Communication about Positive and Negative Events positively related to number of friends (.26 and.22, respectively)  School Loneliness –Parenting more salient for Whites  Acceptance was more strongly related for Whites than for Blacks (-.44 vs. -.03; ΔR2=.07)

Summary: Friendship Outcomes  Association is stronger for Whites –Especially for Loneliness, negative influences  Acceptance and communication are key –consistent with attachment, modeling, and emotional security.  Theory has not tapped into parenting practices that shape friendships & peer dynamics for Blacks

Qualitative Findings For African Americans & Latinos  Managing negative peer context was highly salient for supporting achievement –Peers influence was a chief barrier to doing well in school –These parents are more likely to believe that messages are more incongruent between parents and peers  Parents assisted in navigating peer context in avoiding negative influences –Strict parenting is used to ensure youth don’t “fall into the wrong crowd.”  Prior research finds that African Americans are more resistant to peer influence than Whites. –These data provide a window into why

General Conclusions for School Context  African American & Latino Youth experience different school contexts –schools with fewer resources and lower achievement levels –Different experiences in the classrooms with teachers  African American and Latino parents and youth have significant concerns about the peer context at school –Engage in different strategies about how to manage the peer context  Parental involvement in education functions within different contexts across ethnicity –Different strategies are engaged with differential impact –African American & Latino parents still believe in the schools and want to partner, it just takes more time to achieve partnerships