Marie-Anne Suizzo

Home-Based Parental Involvement in Young Children's Education: Examining the Effects of Maternal Education across U.S. Ethnic Groups.

This study investigated the contributions of maternal education and ethnicity to three dimensions of home‐based parental involvement in young children’s education and development: parental expectations about educational attainment, children’s activities at home and outside the home, and family routines. Controlling for family background variables such as family size and structure, household income, and neighbourhood safety, we examined these relations in a nationally representative U.S. sample of 9,864 Asian American, African American, Latino American, and European American five‐year‐old children. Multiple regression models suggested that maternal education explained small to moderate amounts of variation in parental home‐based involvement, and was more strongly associated with these outcome variables than was income. Ethnicity significantly predicted additional variation in only two outcome variables: parental educational expectations and family discussions. Maternal education plays a unique role in explaining U.S. ethnic group variations in parental involvement in young children’s education.

Parental Beliefs about Young Children's Socialization across US Ethnic Groups: Coexistence of Independence and Interdependence.

This study compared dimensions of independence and interdependence in parents’ beliefs about daily child‐rearing practices across four ethnic groups. Two questionnaires were completed by 310 parents of preschool‐age children, and three belief constructs were identified. Conformity was least valued by European Americans. Autonomy was equally valued by European Americans and African Americans, and less by Asian Americans. There were no group differences in the importance of prosocial. Parental education was negatively associated with conformity except among Asian Americans, for whom education and conformity were positively associated. This study provides further evidence that differentiating the broad cultural orientations of independence and interdependence provides more accurate and sensitive cultural models of parenting. This study’s findings may enhance the cultural competence of educators and community workers who interact with children and parents of diverse ethnic groups.

French and American Mothers’ Childrearing Beliefs Stimulating, Responding, and Long-Term Goals

Previous research on French parenting suggests that the French share characteristics with both individualistic and collectivist cultures, but cross-cultural studies remain scarce. For this study, 84 European American and 120 French mothers completed two measures of beliefs about childrearing practices with 1-day-old to 3-year-old children and long-term goals and values for children. Both groups believed stimulating practices to be more important than responsiveness practices. French mothers attributed greater importance to stimulating and less importance to responding than American mothers. Although both groups valued long-term goals representing inner psychological attributes more than those representing concrete achievements, French mothers valued concrete goals slightly more than American mothers. Results suggest that although French and European American parents’cultural models share some aspects of individualistic cultures, they are distinctly different. This study contributes to the argument that further differentiation of the individualism/ collectivism framework is necessary to adequately explain variations in cultural models of parenting.

Parental Academic Socialization: Effects of home‐based parental involvement on locus of control across U.S. ethnic groups

This study investigates the relations between three academic socialisation processes and late adolescents’ internal locus of control. A sample of 249 college students from four ethnic groups completed three measures. Three factors explained 46.44% of the variance in academic socialisation, and the following differences were found: emotional support and active involvement were rated by all as the most frequent practices used by parents, and European Americans rated these significantly higher than did Asian Americans, who reported the highest mean score on “demandingness” practices. Separate multiple regression analyses suggested that among Asian Americans and European Americans, emotional support practices predicted internal locus of control; however, this model was not significant among Latinos and African Americans. Results suggest that academic socialisation practices operate differentially on psychological outcomes for adolescents in different ethnic groups, extending our knowledge of how culture shapes parenting and parent–child relationships.

Home-Based Parental Involvement in Young Children’s Learning Across U.S. Ethnic Groups Cultural Models of Academic Socialization

Despite a growing body of research on school-based parental involvement, our knowledge of home-based involvement beliefs and practices, and how these vary across ethnic groups, remains limited. Our study addresses this gap by exploring how the meanings of educational achievement and parents’ roles in young children’s learning vary across ethnic groups. The aim of this study was to construct a detailed picture of the landscape of parental home-based involvement with children and to gain a deeper understanding of the beliefs, meanings, and goals underlying parents’ interactions. Forty-one middle-class Mexican American, African American, and European American mothers participated in semistructured interviews about their goals and interactions with their children in the domain of education. We identified seven themes across the interviews and constructed two cultural models of parental academic socialization: determination with intervention, more typical of ethnic minority group mothers, and trust and laissez-faire, more common among European American mothers.

Parents’ School Satisfaction and Academic Socialization Predict Adolescents’ Autonomous Motivation A Mixed-Method Study of Low-Income Ethnic Minority Families

In this mixed-methods study, we used an explanatory sequential design to investigate the processes through which parental involvement influences adolescents’ achievement motivation. One hundred twenty low-income urban parents and their sixth-grade adolescents completed questionnaires, and a subsample of 11 mothers and 11 adolescents were interviewed. Parents’ questionnaires measured their satisfaction with their childhood school experiences, their current academic socialization practices, and their educational aspirations for their adolescents. Adolescents’ questionnaires measured their motivation to achieve to please their family and their autonomous motivation (internal locus of control and internalized value of learning). In Step 1, we conducted quantitative analyses to test two path models from parental school satisfaction to each adolescent autonomous motivation dimension. Results indicated that relations between parents’ school satisfaction and their adolescents’ autonomous motivation are fully mediated by parents’ academic socialization practices and adolescents’ motivation to achieve for their family. In Step 2, we coded interviews and identified themes to help explain how mothers’ memories of their school satisfaction inform their parenting goals and practices, and how adolescents have internalized their parents’ messages and are autonomously motivated to achieve.

African American and Mexican American Youths’ College Adjustment and Perceptions of Parental Academic Socialization: Interactions Between Ethnicity and Parental Education

In a sample of 283 African American and Mexican American college students, we investigated the effects of ethnicity and parental education on three dimensions of parental academic socialization (PAS), active involvement, autonomy support, and demanding hard work, and their impact on college adjustment. Controlling for parental education, African Americans reported higher parental active involvement. Academic self-efficacy mediated the effects of both demanding hard work and autonomy support on college adjustment, controlling for parental education. Moderated mediation models suggested that effects of both demanding hard work and autonomy support on academic self-efficacy were stronger for African Americans than for Mexican Americans.