APA Lit Review Outline



Do family-school connections buffer the effect of family stress?

Carrie A. Blevins, M.A., Susan M. Sheridan, Ph.D., S. Andrew Garbacz, M.A., Kevin A. Kupzyk, M.A., Michelle S. Swanger-Gagné, M.A., and Katie L. Magee, M.A.

University of Nebraska-Lincoln

This research is supported by a grant awarded to Dr. Susan Sheridan by the Institute of Educational Sciences at the U.S. Department of Education. The opinions expressed herein are those of the investigators and do not reflect the funding agency (Grant #R305F050284)

Introduction

• Children with family risk factors are disproportionately susceptible to various behavioral and socioemotional problems at home and school.

o Students experiencing family stress (i.e., low SES, high parental stress, single-parent status) have heightened problem behaviors (Takeuchi, Williams, & Adair, 1991; Walker & Cheng, 2007).

o Additionally, the number of risks in early childhood predicts externalizing behavior problems in adolescence (Appleyard et al., 2005).

• Family involvement and parent-teacher relationships are positively linked to behavioral success in children (Comer & Haynes, 1991; Webster-Stratton, Reid, Hammond, 2001).

o Family involvement: behaviors and activities of family members at home and school as they take part in school-related functions.

▪ Associated with increased ability to self-regulate behavior (Brody, Flor, & Gibson, 1999); higher levels of social skills, positive engagements with peers, adults, and learning (McWayne, Hampton, Fantuzzo, Cohen, & Sekino, 2004); and reduced aggressive and withdrawn behaviors (Kratochwill, McDonald, Levin, Bear-Tibbetts, & Demaray, 2004).

o Parent-teacher relationships: the affective connection and components of a partnership between a child’s parent(s) and teacher(s).

▪ Relational behaviors such as “joining” and “communication” are typically included in definitions of parent-teacher relationships (Vickers & Minke, 1995).

• Little empirical research has investigated the relationships among family stress, family involvement, parent-teacher relationships, and child behaviors.

• The degree to which family involvement and parent-teacher relationships mediate the effect of family stress on child behaviors is unknown.

Research Purpose

• The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between family stress, family involvement (i.e., home- and school-based), parent-teacher relationships, and child behavior.

Specific Research Questions

1. Is there a direct effect between family stress and child behaviors at home and school?

2. What is the relationship between family stress and home- and school- based family involvement and parent-teacher relationships?

3. What is the relationship between home- and school-based family involvement and parent-teacher relationships and child behavior at home and school?

4. Do parent reports of home-based family involvement, school-based family involvement, and/or parent-teacher relationships mediate the relationship between family stress and child behaviors at home and school?

(2) (3)

(4)

(1)

Note. Research questions 1-3 are investigating correlational, rather than causal relationships

Hypothesis

• It is hypothesized that significant relationships will exist among/between family stress, child behaviors at home and school, and school- and home-based family involvement.

• Furthermore, it is hypothesized that home-based family involvement, school-based family involvement, and parent-teacher relationships will mediate the relationship between family stress and child behaviors at home and school.

Methods

Participants and Setting

• 187 students in grades K-3 that exhibit externalizing behaviors at school and their parents

• 17 public and parochial schools in a moderately sized Midwestern city and surrounding communities

|Table 1 |

|Participant Demographic Information |

|Child | | |

|Gender |Male |77% |

| |Female |23% |

|Age |Mean |6.63 |

| |S.D. |1.14 |

|Grade |Mean |1.38 |

| |S.D. |1.13 |

|Ethnicity |White, non-Hispanic |75% |

| |African American |10% |

| |Hispanic |4% |

| |Bi-Racial |10% |

| |Other |1% |

|Income-to-Needs Ratio |Mean |1.55 |

Variables and Measures

Family Stress

• Income-to-Needs Ratio: Family income level was assessed by dividing the total family income by the poverty threshold, adjusted for the size of the family (an income-to-needs ratio of 1 is at 100% of the poverty line or equal to the poverty line).

• Parenting Stress Index-Short Form (PSI-SF; Abidin, 1995): Parent report of parenting stress using a 5-point Likert scale; total scale mean score was calculated.

Child Behavior at Home and School

• Parent Daily Report (PDR; Chamberlain & Reid, 1987): Parents reported the occurrence or non-occurrence of 34 problem behaviors (e.g., aggressiveness, defiance, irritableness) in the previous 24 hours; the sum of number of problem behaviors was calculated.

• Interval Manager (INTMAN; Tapp et al., 2006): a Personal Digital Assistant-based behavior observation system

o 20-second partial interval system; 30-minute observation session

o Rates of externalizing behavior (i.e., off-task, motor movement, interference) were calculated based on percentage of intervals in which behaviors were observed.

o Up to three direct observations conducted per participant; mean score calculated across observations.

• Social Skills Rating System (SSRS; Gresham & Elliot, 1990): Parents and teachers rated the frequency of the child’s social skills; 3-point scale; Standard Scores (M = 100; SD = 15).

• Behavior Assessment Scale for Children-Second Edition (BASC-2; Reynolds & Kamphaus, 2004): Parents and teachers rate the frequency of both Adaptive and Problem Behaviors; 4-point scale; T-scores (M = 50; SD = 10).

School-Based Involvement, Home-Based Involvement, Parent-Teacher Relationship

• Parent Teacher Relationship Scale (PTRS; Vickers & Minke, 1995): Parent report of two factors: Joining and Communication with the school; a total mean score was computed due to the high correlation between factors.

• Family Involvement Questionnaire-Elementary Version (FIQ-E; Manz, Fantuzzo, & Power, 2004): Parent report of two factors: School-based and Home-based involvement; total mean scores were calculated for each factor.

Data Collection Procedures

• Data were collected as part of a randomized clinical trial examining the efficacy of Conjoint Behavioral Consultation (CBC).

• Data included for this study were baseline measurements not affected by the implementation of CBC.

Analyses

Research Questions 1-3: Bivariate correlations: examined the direct relationships among family stress, family involvement, parent-teacher relationships, and child behavior.

Research Question 4: Multiple regression analyses: explored whether school-based involvement, home-based involvement, and parent-teacher relationships partially or wholly mediate the direct effect of family stress on child behavior.

The Parent Daily Report was found to have a positively skewed distribution; thus, a square-root transformation (Cohen, Cohen, West, & Aiken, 2003) was used to meet the important assumption of a normally distributed dependent variable for the analyses.

Results

Table 2

Correlation Results for Research Questions 1-3

|PTRS |FIQ-Home-Based |FIQ-School-Based |School Beh. Obs. |Parent Daily Report |Parent BASC-2 |Teacher BASC-2 |Parent SSRS |Teacher SSRS | |Income-to-Needs Ratio |

-.014 |

.126 |

.124 |

.000 |

-.104 |

-.093 |

-.107 |

.069 |

.075 | |Parenting Stress Index |

-.151+ |

-.135 |

-.095 |

.057 |

.357** |

.490** |

.125 |

-.439** |

-.105 | |

PTRS | | | |

.035 |

-.174+ |

.090 |

.000 |

.056 |

.141+ | |FIQ – Home-Based Scale | | | |

.140+ |

-.040 |

-.068 |

.071 |

.296** |

.082 | |FIQ – School-Based Scale | | | |

.075 |

-.003 |

-.100 |

-.060 |

.172* |

.196** | |** Correlation is significant at p < .01

* Correlation is significant at p < .05

( Correlation is significant at p < .10

Research Question 1: Is there a direct effect between family stress (i.e., parental stress and income-to-needs ratio) and child behaviors at home and school?

• Parental stress:

o Correlated with child behaviors at home.

▪ Significantly negatively correlated with parental reports of child social skills (i.e., SSRS) at home (r = -.439, p = .000).

▪ Significantly positively correlated with parental reports of child externalizing behaviors at home (i.e., PDR: r =.357, p = .000; BASC: r = .490, p = .000).

o Not correlated with child behavior at school.

• Income-to-needs ratios: Not correlated with child behavior at home or school.

Research Question 2: What is the relationship between family stress and home- and school- based family involvement and parent-teacher relationships?

• Parental stress:

o Not correlated with family involvement.

o Marginally significant negative correlation with parent-teacher relationships (r = -.151, p = .093).

• Income-to-needs ratios: Not correlated with family involvement or parent-teacher relationships.

Research Question 3: What is the relationship between home- and school-based family involvement and parent-teacher relationships and child behavior at home and school?

• Family involvement:

o Significantly positively correlated with child social skills at home (i.e., SSRS; home-based family involvement: r = .296, p = .000; school-based family involvement: r = .172, p = .025).

o School-based family involvement in learning is significantly positively correlated with child social skills at school (i.e., SSRS; r = .196, p = .010).

o Not significantly correlated with measures of problem behaviors (i.e., BASC-2, PDR, INTMAN).

▪ Marginally significant positive correlation between home-based family involvement in learning and direct observations of classroom behavior (i.e., INTMAN; r = .140, .068).

• Parent-teacher relationships:

o Not significantly correlated with measures of child behavior.

▪ Marginally significant positive correlation with teacher reports of child social skills at school (i.e., SSRS; r = .141, p = .067).

▪ Marginally significant negative correlation with parent daily report of problem behaviors (i.e., PDR; r = -.174, p = .061).

Research Question 4: Do parent reports of home-based family involvement, school-based family involvement, and/or parent-teacher relationships mediate the relationship between family stress and child behaviors at home and school?

• There are no indirect effects of family stress on child behaviors via School-based family involvement, Home-based family involvement, and/or parent-teacher relationships.

Discussion

Main Findings

Research Question 1

• Results support the literature pointing to negative effects of parental stress on child behaviors (Frick, 1994; Suarez & Baker, 1997; Webster-Stratton, 1990).

o Higher scores on PSI are associated with lower report of child social skills and higher reports of problem behavior at home, but not at school.

o Although young children from homes with high parental stress experience behavioral concerns at home, they may be resilient at school, possibly due to the consistent, structured environment in place at most schools.

o Parents may also be more aware of their child’s behavior at home and therefore be a more accurate reporter of home behavior.

• Child behavioral concerns in this study were not related to income level. Rather, parental stress is an important predictor of child behavior and may provide an important point of intervention to improve child behavior.

Research Question 2

• This study was among the first to investigate the relationship between parental stress and family-school relationships/family involvement.

o Parental stress scores were trending toward a negative association with parent-teacher relationships, and may reach significance with a larger, more diverse sample.

o If this trend continues with a larger sample, it is possible that parents who experience more stress may not have as strong of relationships with their children’s teachers.

Research Question 3

• Consistent with previous literature (Comer & Haynes, 1991; McWayne et al., 2004) and current hypotheses:

o Home- and school-based involvement was significantly positively associated with higher parental report of child social skills at home.

o School-based parent involvement was significantly positively associated with teacher report of child social skills at school.

o The parent-teacher relationship was marginally positively related to parental reports of child social skills at home.

o The parent-teacher relationship was marginally negatively related to parental reports of problem behaviors at home.

o School-wide and community-wide efforts to improve involvement and relationships may serve as a mechanism to improve child’s behaviors.

• Contrary to hypotheses:

o Home-based parent involvement was moderately positively related to externalizing behaviors observed in the classroom, but not significantly so.

o It is possible that parents are unaware of their child’s behavior at school or how to intervene in this setting. It is also possible that parental reports of involvement at home are inflated due to social desirability of home involvement in children’s learning.

o Furthermore, it may be that children whose parents are involved at home may not be receiving the same level of individualized attention/stimulation at school and are consequently displaying problem behaviors at school.

Research Question 4

• Family involvement and parent-teacher relationships do not appear to buffer the deleterious effect of family stress on child behavior at home in this sample.

• Child externalizing behaviors may not improve due to family involvement and parent-teacher relationships unless more fundamental needs, such as family stress, are addressed.

o To improve child behaviors, practitioners may first need to intervene directly with families to alleviate stress.

o Practitioners may also need to intervene directly with children to improve child behaviors which may reduce parental stress.

• The absence of indirect effects of family stress on child behaviors at school via school- and home-based family involvement and parent teacher relationships may be attributable to the lack of direct effects between family stress and child behaviors at school.

Limitations and Future Research

• Results from research questions 1-3 represent correlational, not causal relationships.

o To better understand an effective point of intervention for practitioners, future research should investigate the predictive relationships between family stress, home-school connections, and child behavior.

• Child behavior at home was described by parent report only; no direct measures by independent raters were used. Future research should use objective, direct measures of child behavior at home.

• Parent report of home- and school-based family involvement, and parent-teacher relationships were used. Future research should examine the unique perspective of the child’s teacher and the relationship to family stress and child behavior variables.

• Family stress was limited to parental report of annual salary, family size (computed to determine the income-to-needs ratio), and PSI assessments.

o A variety of other factors could be related to family stress (e.g., social support, psychopathology, single-parent status, and minority status).

o Future studies should operationalize stress in a more multidimensional manner, including constructs not only related to parental stress and income level.

References

Abidin, R. R. (1995). Parenting Stress Index, Third Edition: Professional Manual. Odessa, FL: Psychological Assessment Resources, Inc.

Appleyard, K., Egeland, B., van Dulmen, M. H. M, & Sroufe, L. A. (2005). When more is not better: The role of cumulative risk in child behavior outcomes. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 46(3), 235-245.

Brody, G. H., Flor, D. L., & Gibson, N. M. (1999). Linking maternal efficacy beliefs, developmental goals, parenting practices, and child competence in rural single-parent African American families. Child Development, 70(5), 1197-1208.

Chamberlain, P., & Reid, J. B. (1987). Parent observation and report of child symptoms. Behavioral Assessment, 9(1), 97-109.

Cohen, J., Cohen, P., West, S. G., & Aiken, L. S. (2003). Applied Multiple Regression/Correlation Analysis for the Behavioral Sciences, Third Edition. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers.

Comer, J. P. & Haynes, N. M. (1991). Parent involvement in schools: An ecological approach. The Elementary School Journal, 91(3), 271-277.

Frick, P. J. (1994). Family dysfunction of the disruptive behavior disorders: A review of recent empirical findings. In T. H. Ollendick & R. J. Prinz (Eds.), Advances in Clinical

Child Psychology (pp. 203-226). New York, NY: Plenum Press.

Gresham, F. M. & Elliott, S. N. (1990). The Social Skills Rating System. Circle Pines, MN: American Guidance.

Kratochwill, T. R., McDonald, L., Levin, J. R., Bear-Tibbetts, H. L., & Demaray, M. K. (2004). Families and schools together: An experimental analysis of a parent-mediated multi-family group program for American Indian children. Journal of School Psychology, 42, 359-383.

Manz, P. H., Fantuzzo, J. W., & Power, T. J. (2004). Multidimensional assessment of family involvement among urban elementary students. Journal of School Psychology, 42(6), 461-475.

McWayne, C., Hampton, V., Fantuzzo, J., Cohen, H. L., & Sekino, Y. (2004). A multivariate examination of parent involvement and the social and academic competencies or urban kindergarten children. Psychology in the Schools, 41(3), 363-377.

Reynolds, C. R., & Kamphaus, R. W. (2004). Behavior Assessment System for Children, Second Edition (BASC-2). Circle Pines, MN: AGS Publishing.

Suarez, L. M., & Baker, B. L. (1997). Child externalizing behavior and parents' stress: The role of social support. Family Relations, 46(4), 373-381.

Takeuchi, D. T., Williams, D. R., & Adair, R. K. (1991). Economic stress in the family and children's emotional and behavioral problems. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 53(4), 1031-1041.

Tapp, J., Ticha, R., Kryzer, E., Gustafson, M., Gunnar, M. R., & Symons, F. J. (2006). Comparing observational software with paper and pencil for time-sampled data: A field test of Interval Manager (INTMAN). Behavior Research Methods, 38(1), 165-169.

Vickers, H. S., & Minke, K. M. (1995). Exploring parent-teacher relationships: Joining and communication to others. School Psychology Quarterly, 10(2), 133-150.

Walker, L. O., & Cheng, C. (2007). Maternal empathy, self-confidence, and stress as antecedents of preschool children’s behavior problems. Journal of the Society of Pediatric Nurses, 12(2), 93-104.

Webster-Stratton, C. (1990). Stress: A potential disruptor of parent perceptions and family interactions. Journal of Clinical Child Psychology, 19(4), 302-312.

Webster-Stratton, C., Reid, M. J., & Hammond, M. (2001). Preventing conduct problems, promoting social competence: A parent and teacher training partnership in Head Start. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, 30(3), 283-302.

-----------------------

Parent-Teacher Relationship

School-Based Involvement

Home-Based Involvement

Child Behaviors at Home/School

Family Stress

................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download