Family Involvement and Social Development in Early Childhood

Transcription

1 Family Involvement and Social Development in Early Childhood Ifl k GÜRfi MfiEK* Abstract This study examines the relation between family involvement level and social-psychological development of children of early childhood in relation with different aspects of family life. The sample consisted of 200 preschool children from four different school and their parents. Teachers rated the psychosocial development level by a development form Developmental Observation Form for Early Childhood (DOFEC) and Family Involvement Questionnaire (FIQ) that was applied to the families. A personal information form developed by the researcher collected demographic data related with the child and the family. The results of the study demonstrate that the basic involvement style of the families is seen as family-school conferencing. Results also show that observation of the teachers can be used as an useful data for understanding family involvement. Relation between psychosocial development and family involvement is positively correlated. Key Words Family Involvement, School-family partnership, Early Childhood Education, Psychosocial Development *Assis. Prof., Dokuz Eylül University, Faculty of Buca Educational Faculty Department of Primary Education. Kuram ve Uygulamada E itim Bilimleri / Educational Sciences: Theory & Practice 3 (1) May s / May

2 GÜRfi MfiEK / Family Involvement and Social Development in Early Childhood 141 Beginning with birth family is the main source of development. Researches on child development have demonstrated that, child rearing practices and family involvement level has critical effects on child s progress during the early years of life. Some family factors as; parents personality, education level, occupation, socio-cultural and economic status, living together or apart, agreement on discipline practices are some of the variables found related with the parentchild relations and parent involvement (Fantuzzo, Tighe & Childs, 2000). Empirical research on family involvement has documented positive relationship between specific parental participation behaviors. Parents involvement on school activities were related significantly with teacher reports on children s academic performance (Stevenson & Baker, 1987); teacher s rating of educational motivation of children, social competence and school readiness (Parker, Piotrowski, Kesslar-Sklar, Baker, Peay & Clark, 1997); marital status and parent education also were related significantly to involvement level (Grolnick, Benjet, Kurowski & Apostoleris, 1997). Higher education levels were related to more home and school-based parent involvement, but marital status was not found to be related with any dimensions of involvement. Epstein (1995) developed a classification system to identify the multiple ways that families can participate in their children s education. Epstein classified parental involvement behaviors into six different categories of influence, from close home influence to the more distant community influences and empirical documentation provide support the idea that this multidimensional nature of family involvement is related to children s certain developmental outcomes (Fantuzzo, Tighe & Childs, 2000 ). The purpose of this study is to investigate the relation between family involvement and some key child and family demographic characteristics. To analyze the relation between child s social development and family involvement level is the second question addressed by the study. Method Sample The sample of the study consists of 63 children (31.7 %) age of 5, and 137 children (68.3 %) with age of 6, totally 200 preschool child attending four different school and their parents. 59 of the mother s (26.6 %) were housewives and 141of them were mothers (70.4 %)

3 who had different occupations. The respondents education level ranged from with 55 parents (27.6 %) aged 20-30, 125 parents (62.8 %) and 19 parents (9.5 %) aged The education level of the parents ranged between elementary to higher education, with 33 respondent (16.5 %) reporting a degree less than high school and 167 parents (83.5 %) reported high school and upper education. Measures 142 EDUCATIONAL SCIENCES: THEORY&PRACTICE Family Involvement Questionnaire (FIQ) was applied to the families; and a development form also gathered teacher ratings on children s development. FIQ consists of three dimensions; home-based involvement, school-based involvement and home-school conferencing. Homebased involvement, includes behaviors describing the active promotion of a learning environment at home the child (5 items). Schoolbased involvement is defined by activities that parents engage in at school with their children (7 items). Home-school conferencing describes parents and school personal communicating about child s educational progress (9 items), the questionnaire consists of 21 items in total. The Cronbach Alpha was.87 total, and.79 for school-based involvement,.69 for home-based involvement., and.84 for homeschool conferencing. Higher point relates to higher involvement level of the family. A personal information form developed by the researchers collected demographic data related to the child and family. Developmental Observation Form for Early Childhood (DOFEC) used for teacher ratings on children s emotional-social development consists of 37 items rated as always, usually, sometimes, rare and never depending on the occurrence of the defined behavior from the child as teacher observes. Higher point relating better development level in the related area. Results To determine whether there were differences among the Home-Based Involvement, School-Based Involvement and Home-School Conferencing, dimensions of the FIQ as a function of differences in demographic variables, a series of analyses were conducted for age, education level of the parents, number of children in the family, economic status of the family, hours spent with the child, parents agreement level about child rearing, teachers evaluation of the family child rearing practices and the involvement level. The relation among the Home-Based Involvement, School-Based Involvement and Home- School Conferencing dimensions of the FIQ and DOCEF was conducted by a statistical analyzing technique.

4 GÜRfi MfiEK / Family Involvement and Social Development in Early Childhood 143 No significant difference were found between the involvement level of the family and age, education level of the parents, number of children in the family, economic status of the family. The hours spent with the child were seen to make significant difference especially at Home-Based Involvement dimension. Parents that reported higher hours of relation with the child at home also were more involved at Home Based Involvement activities (F 2,197 )=6.14, p<0.05). Parent s agreement level about child rearing and perception on effectiveness of discipline practices are seen to have no significant difference depending on dimension of involvement level. Depending on the data of teacher evaluations about families child rearing practices; parents defined by the teachers as u n c o n c e r n e d are significantly less involved in school-based activities (F 3, )=4.95, p< ). Significant difference is also seen between the teacher s evaluations related with families involvement level and measures of FIQ. Parents defined by the teacher as not involved or limited involvement are seen to get lower involvement marks from School-Based Involvement ( F 2, )=7.27, p<0.05) and Home-School Conferencing (F 2, ) = , p<0.05). To determine the relation among the School-Based Involvement, Home-Based Involvement, Home-School Conferencing and the socialemotional development level of the children, correlation analyzes were conducted. A positive relation is seen among School-Based Involvement, Home-Based Involvement and Home-School Conferencing with social-emotional development level of the children, but no significant effect could be measured. Discussion Results show that family involvement procedure has a complex and multidimensional structure. Some demographic characteristics are seen to be related with involvement, but there is a need for further studies in order to understand the dynamics of multidimensional structure of family involvement that is appropriate for children early educational experiences. Depending on the results of this study, it can be argued that teachers and other school staff may be one of the main sources for understanding and structuring the family involvement process. Results of a study illustrate that the leadership style of the principals effect the involvement level of the parents (Zembat & Unutkan, 1999). Schools must try to develop a new culture in relation with the parents of their students for better relations and participation.

5 144 EDUCATIONAL SCIENCES: THEORY&PRACTICE Kaynakça/ References Epstein, J. L. (1991). Effects of students achievement of teacher practices of parent involvement. In S. Silvern (Ed.), Advances in reading language research: Literacy through family, community and school interaction (pp ). Greenwich, CT: JAI Press. Epstein, J. L. (1992). School and family partnership. Encyclopedia of Educational Research (Vol. 5, pp )New York: Mac Millan. Epstein, J. L. (1995). School/family/community partnership: Caring for the children we share. Phi Delta Kappan, 76, Eryorulmaz, A. (1993). Kurumsal okul öncesi e itimde ailenin rolü. YA-PA 9. Okul Öncesi E itimi ve Yayg nlaflt r lmas Semineri içinde (s ). stanbul: YA-PA Yay nc l k. Fantuzzo, J., Tighe, E., & Childs, S. (2000). Family involvement questionnaire: A multivariate assessment of family participation in early childhood education. Journal of Educational Psychology, 92, Grolnick, W. S., Benjet, C., Kurowski, C. O., & Apostoleris, N. H. (1997). Predictors of parent involvement in children s schooling. Journal of Educational Psychology, 89, Gürflimflek, I. (2002). Etkin ö renme ve aile kat l m. I. Gürflimflek (Ed.), Dokuz Eylül Üniversitesi anas n f -anaokulu ö retmeni el kitab içinde (s ). stanbul:ya-pa Yay. Henderson, A. T. (1987). The evidence continues to grow: Parent involvement improves student achievement. Columbia, MD: National Committee for Citizens in Education. Ka tç bafl, Ç., Bekman, S. & Sunar, D. (1993). Baflar ailede bafllar: Çok amaçl e itim modeli. stanbul: YA-PA Yay nlar Liontos, L. B. (1992). At-risk families and schools: Becoming partners (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED ) Ma den, D. (1993). Okul öncesi e itim programlar nda yeni yaklafl mlar. YA-PA 9. Okul Öncesi E itimi ve Yayg nlaflt r lmas Semineri içinde. stanbul: YA-PA Yay nc l k. Oktay, A. (1993). Okul ortam ve veli-ö retmen iliflkisinin okul baflar s na etkisi. Yaflad kça E itim, 30. Parker, F. Piotrowski, C., Kesslar-Sklar, S., Baker, A., Peay, L., & Clark, B.(1997). Final report: Parent involvement in Head Start. New York: National Council of Jewish Women. Seçkin, N. & Koç, G. (1997). Okulöncesi e itimde okul-aile iflbirli i. Yaflad kça E itim, 51. Stevenson, D., & Baker, D. (1987). The family-school relations and the child s school performance. Child Development, 58, Türk Psikologlar Derne i Okul Öncesi Komisyonu (1998). Okulöncesi çocuklar için davran fl gözlem formu. Ankara: Türk Psikologlar Derne i Yay nlar. Zembat, R. & Unutkan, Ö. (1999). Okul öncesinde çocu unun sosyal gelifliminde aile kat l m n n önemi. R. Zembat (Ed.), Marmara Üniversitesi okul öncesi anas n f -anaokulu ö retmeni el kitab içinde (s ). stanbul: YA-PA Yay nlar.