Early Childhood Education (2019) 1-19
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
Application of the Theory of Planned Behavior to Explain
Parental Involvement of Immigrant and Refugee Populations in Head Start
Anthony Tran
Northcentral
University, Phoenix, AZ, USA
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Abstract
The purpose
of this quantitative, correlational study was to assess the key variables of
the theory of planned behavior as possible determinants of parental intentions
for school involvement behavior specially for immigrant and refugee parents with
children enrolled in Early Head Start and Head Start programs, and ascertain
whether they are significantly correlated to and can predict reported
intentions of parent involvement in their children’s school. Little is known
about the theory of planned behavior’s ability to explain variance in the
intentions of parental involvement toward children’s education. The variables
in the TPB that contribute to parental intentions have not been thoroughly
examined in the context of the target population. A sample of 122 parents
completed a written questionnaire in four languages. The reported attitudes and
beliefs, subjective norms, behavioral control perceptions or intentions were
significantly correlated with one another and contributed to the prediction of
parental involvement by immigrant/refugee parents. The null hypothesis was rejected. The findings are
particularly encouraging in that parents reported moderately high parental
intentions, which will likely have a positive effect on their children’s
education. Additionally, there is room for teachers and center directors to
implement strategies that may lead parents to increase their level of
involvement in a program. Future research should focus on: (1) further
examination of demographic characteristics, (2) expanding the diversity and
size of the sample for additional generalizability, (3) comparing immigrant and
non-immigrant families regarding parents’ educational involvement practices in
Head Start programs, and (4) improved measurements given the Parent Involvement
Project (PIP) and its data collection protocol were not designed specifically
with the TPB based model.
Key Words:
Attitude toward behavior; Behavioral belief; Behavior intention; Head
Start; Early Head Start; Immigrants; Intention; Perceived behavioral control;
Refugee; Southwest Asian groups; Subjective norm; Southeast Asian groups.
____________________________________________________________________________
Introduction
The
Head Start and Early Head Start programs were designed for students to become
ready upon enrolling in school (DeLoatche, Bradley-Klug, Ogg, Kromrey, &
Sundman-Wheat, 2015; Dove, Neuharth-Pritchett, Wright, & Wallinga, 2015).
However, while these programs showed generally positive results (DeLoatche et
al., 2015), without parental involvement, these students were less ready to
enter schooling at their elementary school age (Dove et al., 2015; Manz et al.,
2014). Parental involvement is an important factor in helping to create
successful early childhood education experiences (Garbacz et al., 2016;
McCormick, Cappella, O'Connor, & McClowry, 2013; Smith, 2014). If parents
are involved in their children’s preschool, then it bodes well for future
involvement, academic success, and other positive outcomes for their children
(Demircan & Erden, 2015). Nevertheless, immigrant and refugee families are
of a particular concern in Head Start and Early Head Start programs because
getting these parents involved is a challenge for many reasons (Cheatham &
Ostrosky, 2013; Demircan & Erden, 2015). Barriers to parental involvement
included parents’ pre-concieved beliefs about involvement, their current life
circumstances, and their cultural beliefs (Manz, Gernhart, Bracaliello,
Pressimone, & Eisenberg, 2014). Researchers have found a significant
positive impact of parental involvement for toddlers at the beginning of early
schooling (McCormick, Cappella, O’Connor, & McClowry, 2013). However,
identifying ways to increase parental involvement with immigrant and refugee families
has been difficult (DeLoatche et al., 2015; Porumbu & Necsoi, 2013; Pratt,
Lipscomb, & Schmitt, 2015).
Attitudes
and beliefs about the roles of parental involvement in education for immigrant
or refugee parents might include that education is a teacher's responsibilities
or that parents do not make a positive difference in their children's education
(Bracke & Corts, 2012; Cheatham & Ostrosky, 2013). Parental involvement
in overall education relates to the beliefs of parents and whether they should
or should not be involved in their children's education (Bracke & Corts,
2012). This knowledge serves as a role construction and is often shaped by a
parent's personal experiences with schooling and personal perceptions (Bracke
& Corts, 2012; Manz et al., 2014). If parents believe good parenting means
that they should take an active role in their children's education, there is a
greater likelihood they will play a decisive role in their children's education
(Bracke & Corts, 2012). In the context of subjective norms about the roles
of parents in education, parents may not be involved because they lack the
examples of involvement or they come from a culture in which parents were never
expected to be involved (Bracke & Corts, 2012). These norms are a product
of whether an individual believes other meaningful people approve or disapprove
of a behavior and their motivation to comply with those people (Perry &
Langley, 2013). Parental intentions are a direct function of the attitude about
the behavior and represent an indication of a parent’s readiness to perform a
given behavior, such as how the responding parents plans on being involved
during the school year (Bracke & Corts, 2012; Kiriakidis, 2015). Finally,
parents’ perceptions of their personal level of control over their choices for
involvement and the barriers to participation that they encounter contribute to
their level of participation within the school (Ajzen, 1991). For example,
low-income parents may have restrictive jobs that limit their availability,
thereby giving an obstacle to their involvement (Bracke & Corts, 2012).
Considered holistically, researchers have suggested that parents or caregivers
of immigrant or refugee children would need to be involved in their children’s
education to promote success; however, few studies exist specifically assessing
and addressing immigrant and refugee populations who are at risk of low
parental involvement with regard to education of toddlers and preschoolers
(Manz et al., 2014).
Parental
involvement in schooling activities for toddlers and preschoolers is important
to a child’s outcomes (e.g., higher levels of proactive learningbehaviors,greater
receptive vocabulary, and lower levels of conduct problems) (Bracke &
Corts, 2012; Hindman et al., 2012; Manz et al., 2014). Particularly, parents
who are immigrants or refugees, for example someone who was foreign born
(first-generation immigrant) (Krogstad, 2015; Winsler et al., 2014), often have
low involvement in their children’s education, possibly due to their attitudes
and beliefs (Demircan & Erden, 2015; Manz et al., 2014; Poureslami et al.,
2013). Use of a relevant theory may guide the design of an intervention to
improve parental participation for a particular population (Lin, 2012). The
theory of planned behavior (TPB) might be useful to examine parental behaviors,
but this theory has been applied in a limited way to early childhood education
settings (McGregor & Knoll, 2015). There was a need for research concerning
parental involvement with the All Kids Academy (AKA) Early Head Start and Head
Start programs, particularly within the immigrant and refugee communities.
Significance of the Study
Parental
involvement has been recognized as a variable of significant impact on early
childhood education (McCormick, Cappella, O’Connor, & McClowry, 2013). It
has been found to increase the academic functioning of young children,
especially for immigrant children who grow up with at least one foreign-born
parent and speak a home language other than English (Demircan & Erden, 2015;
Winsler et al., 2014). Therefore, it was important to study the involvement of
immigrant and refugee parents in preschool because their historical,
socio-demographic characteristics and academic concerns are possibly different
with regards to parental attitudes and beliefs, perceived control, subjective
norms, and subsequent behavioral intentions (Hindman et al., 2012). A lack of
parental involvement was a factor in at-risk children’s academic achievement
(Demircan & Erden, 2015; Hindman et al., 2012). Parent/caregiver
involvement has improved children’s success (Bracke & Corts, 2012; Demircan
& Erden, 2015; Porumbu & Necşoi, 2013). Little is known about how the
theory of planned behavior might explain parent involvement of immigrant and
refugee children at Early Head Start and Head Start programs (Ntuli, Nyarambi,
& Traore, 2014). This quantitative study contributed to understanding
parents’ perceptions of their involvement in Head Start programs and factors
that might contribute to their involvement. The research was important because it builds greater understanding of how
or if parental involvement and engagement practices for immigrant/refugee
parents or caregivers could be effective. The findings could be used to
encourage school and childcare center directors and teachers to expand their
repertoire of strategies to involve parents from diverse language, cultural,
and ethnic backgrounds. Identifying the determinants of parent involvement, or
lack thereof, in immigrant and refugee populations that could subsequently be
used to develop interventions was an important goal of the study (Hindman et
al., 2012). Implications for improving current parent involvement policies and
practices for engaging immigrants and refugees were developed from the findings
and could be useful in overcoming the barriers to involvement if the schools
wish to improve their programs. Subsequently, these parents might be able to
better support their children and the school (Bulotsky-Shearer et al., 2012; Smith, 2014).
The testing of Ajzen’s TPB with regard to parent
involvement in early childhood programs has never been tested relative to
immigrant and refugee parents/caregivers in the context of Head Start and Early
Head Start programs; therefore, more information concerning parents’ attitudes
and beliefs, subjective norms, perceived behavioral controls, and subsequent
behavioral intentions can contribute to improving the effectiveness of the
program. By using Ajzen’s TPB model (1991), the results from this study
contributed to the knowledge of potential outcomes of parental involvement,
such as the following: affirmation of parents’ and caregivers’ positive
attitudes about school participation, clarification of the dissonance between
parents’ professed attitudes, beliefs, values, and intentions and in their
actual behaviors, and rationale for a norm-based initiative that might increase
parental involvement (Bracke & Corts, 2012).
Statement
of the Problem
The
problem to be addressed in this study was the limitation of immigrant and
refugee parent involvement in Early Head Start and Head Start to support their
child’s education (Gennetian et al., 2019; Hindman et al., 2012; Jeon et al.,
2018; Manz et al., 2014). Specifically, this study addressed a lack of
knowledge regarding what variables were related to high and/or low parent
involvement and identification of those that might serve as barriers to or
promoters of parent involvement in this population. The lack of knowledge
mostly surrounded which, if any, variables were related to parents’ beliefs
about whether they “should” or “should not” be involved in their children’s
education were specifically among immigrant and refugee parents who might or
might not engage in parent involvement activities differently than other
parents given their different personal experiences and perceptions about
schooling (Brace & Corte, 2012). Some of the barriers for immigrant and
refugee families might be related to their pre-conceived beliefs about
education (Cheatham & Ostrosky, 2013) as well as differences due to
language and culture (Cheatham & Ostrosky, 2013). The variables as defined
within the theory of planned behavior (TPB), that contribute to parental
intentions are attitudes and beliefs, subjective norms, and perceived
behavioral control (Ajzen, 1991; Bracke & Corts, 2012; Perry & Langley,
2013), and these have not been thoroughly examined within this parent
population. Such knowledge could hopefully be applied to help program educators
devise interventions for parents (McGregor & Knoll, 2015) to improve their
intention for involvement in schooling. Without a further understanding of how
these variables are related to and predict parental intentions for involvement,
strategies employed by these programs to increase the parental involvement of
immigrant and refugee families might be less effective and the families might
not take full advantage of these programs (Lee &
Zhou, 2014).
Purpose of the Study
The purpose of this quantitative, correlational study
was to assess the key variables of the theory of planned behavior as possible
determinants of parental intentions for school involvement behavior (i.e.,
parental attitudes and beliefs, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral
control) and ascertain whether they were significantly related to and could
predict the reported intentions of involvement of immigrant and refugee parents
in their children’s early childhood education programs. By assessing the
constructs that are pivotal to TPB, a test of this theory within the context of
immigrant and refugee families
with children enrolled in AKA Head Start or Early Head Start can be
accomplished. Using a survey instrument to collect data, the goals were to (1)
identify parental attitudes and beliefs, subjective norms, parental intention,
and perceived behavioral control regarding parent involvement, and (2)
investigate how, if at all, these variables are correlated with and served to
predict parent involvement, as TPB would suggest, in this population. The
dependent variable was the level of intention for parental involvement, and the
predictors were the determinants of behaviors as outlined in TPB (i.e., parent
attitudes and beliefs, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control) and
reported by immigrant and refugee families with children enrolled in AKA Head
Start and Early Head Start programs.
The population under study targeted the approximately
800-1000 parents/caregivers who were foreign born, i.e., first-generation
immigrants or refugees (Krogstad, 2015; Winsler et al., 2014),
living in a region of Southern California, and whose children were enrolled in
either an Early Head Start or Head Start program. A census of this population
was conducted with the goal of obtaining a sample of 122 parents/caregivers
whose children participated in these programs. A power analysis using G-Power
software yielded an estimated sample size of 110 for a linear regression with
three predictors (power of 0.8, type one error of 0.05, and medium size effect)
(Faul, Erdfelder, Buchner, & Lang, 2009). Parents were asked to complete
the Parental Involvement Project
(PIP) Parent Questionnaire, a 57-item survey that has been found to be reliable
and valid for measuring attitudes and beliefs (24 items), subjective norms (6
items), perceived behavioral control (17 items), and parental intentions (10
items) for parent involvement. All items were used a six-point Likert scales.
Data collection provided an opportunity to assess how these variables presented
in immigrant and refugee families and examine their ability to predict parent
intentions towards involvement. Step-wise multiple regression was used to
assess the significance of the contributions of each predictor to explain the
variation in the dependent variable.
Conceptual Framework
Ajzen's theory of planned behavior
(TPB) (1991) was the framework employed to explain and predict intentional
behavior based on personal beliefs about outcomes of behaviors. His theory was
developed in the late 1980s as an extension of the theory of reasoned action.
Ajzen described the dynamic and complex nature of parental engagement in a
child’s life and education (Bracke & Corts, 2012). The TPB offered a viable
theoretical lens for examining parental involvement and identifying the
determinants among the immigrant and refugee parent population. To understand
planned behavior and parental involvement, social attitudes and personality
traits were included in an attempt to predict and explain human behavior
(Ajzen, 1991). The TPB focused on the motivations of an individual to engage in
a particular behavior, and the theory had the potential to be a useful
framework for conducting research into parental involvement (Perry &
Langley, 2013).
The central tenet of the theory is the
intention to perform a particular behavior as defined by three independent
determinants of intentions: attitude and belief toward the behavior, subjective
norms, and perceived behavioral control (Ajzen, 1991). First, attitude referred
to an individual’s values for the outcomes of behavior as associated with his
or her beliefs related to the behavior and his or her evaluation of performing
a behavior. Second, subjective norms were an individual’s perceptions of social
pressures that existed for performing the behavior. This concept was comprised
of beliefs about social expectations and the need to adhere to those
expectations. Third, perceived behavioral control was related to an
individual’s perception of how difficult the task would be to perform (Ajzen,
1991). Furthermore, the theory was based on beliefs about factors that were for
or against performing the behavior and the perceived power of those factors. In
general, the intention of performing a behavior was strong when the performance
of a particular behavior elicited a favorable attitude from the individual was
positively associated with subjective norms, and it was easy to perform with
few obstacles (Ajzen, 1991). If the surrounding social environment was
conducive to the behavior, and the individual was confident in their ability to
perform the behavior then the person's intention was stronger to engage in the
behavior, and thus, it was more likely he or she would (Ajzen, 1991).
Ajzen stressed that interventions
designed to change behavior could be directed at one or more of its determinants
(attitudes and beliefs, subjective norms, or perceptions of behavioral
control). Changes in one of these determinants should produce changes in
behavioral intentions and, given adequate control over the behavior, intentions
should be carried out under appropriate circumstances (Ajzen, 1991). Subsequent
parental involvement might succeed in producing corresponding changes in
attitudes, subjective norms, and perceptions of behavioral control because
intentions were directed by behavioral, normative, and control beliefs
(Kiriakidis, 2015). However, the behavioral intention might vary towards
different behaviors and within different populations. For example, intention to
perform one behavior might be primarily determined by the attitude toward the
behavior, while another behavioral intention might be determined largely by
normative influence. Similarly, intention to perform a particular behavior
might be primarily under the attitudinal influence in one population, while
more influenced by normative influence in another population (Montano &
Kasprzyk, 2015). Thus, to design effective interventions to influence
behavioral intentions, it is important first to determine the degree to which
intention is influenced by attitudes and beliefs, perceived norms, and perceived
behavioral controls (Montano & Kasprzyk, 2015). Parent interventions would
be ineffective unless individuals were in fact capable of carrying out their
newly formed intentions (Girardelli & Patel, 2016). Ajzen (1991) also noted
that there should be an active link from intentions to behavior to facilitate
the success of an intervention (Ajzen, 1991). One of the most efficient ways to
intervene to help develop intentions is to induce individuals to form a plan
with specific details of when, where, and how the desired behavior would be
performed (Lin, 2012).
Girardelli and Patel
(2016) provided the importance of behavioral intentions in the function of the
three constructs of attitudes toward the target behavior, perceived norms, and
perceived behavioral control/self-efficacy. Attitudes toward the target
behavior were defined as a latent disposition or tendency to respond with some
degree of favorableness or unfavorableness to a psychological object. Perceived
norms referred to what was considered an acceptable or permissible behavior in
a group or society. Perceived norms captured the total social pressure that the
environment exerts on an individual to perform, or not perform a given
behavior. Perceived behavioral control is defined as the extent to which people
believed they are capable of performing a given behavior, that they have
control over its performance.
Conducting
research on parental involvement, using Ajzen’s theory, in immigrant and
refugee families might be useful (Perry, 2013) because through this
perspective, benefits for the child, family, and school could be encouraged
(Bulotsky-Shearer et al., 2012). However, to apply the TPB based model to
immigrant and refugee families such as African, Asian, or Hispanic/Latino,
researchers need a better understanding of the issues in practice for these
populations (Paat, 2013), since they might have several specific factors that
impede family involvement such as a lack of knowledgeable resources and
language, cultural, and physical barriers (Garbacz et al., 2016). From these
points of view, the gaps often happen between this theory and its practices
(Dobson & Beshai, 2013) because there are a number of issues,
controversies, and assumptions involving the translation of theory into
practice (Udo-Akang, 2012). However, the gap between theory and practice was
framed as a knowledge transfer problem, and researcher’s continuous refinement
and development based on learning from the application of theory into the field
were never completed (Udo-Akang, 2012). Thus, it was important to choose theory
testing rather than theory building because the theory was needed in explaining
and predicting parental involvement with the TPB in distinct populations
(Udo-Akang, 2012). It was critical to investigate and understand the behavior
from the perspective of the study population because some individuals in
certain demographic groups might hold beliefs about positive outcomes of the
behavior and thus hold more positive attitudes and stronger intention to carry
out the behavior. In addition, they might be more likely than others to engage
in the behavior (Montano & Kasprzyk, 2015).
Researchers
have examined parental involvement through the application of other theories to
include identifying theory, parental investment theory, socio-ecological
theory, role theory and social exchange theory; however, the theories have been
limited in explaining and predicting parental involvement in early childhood
education (Perry & Langley, 2013). According to Perry and Langley (2013),
such theories assumed that active involvement of parents only relied on the
parents' will and desired to be involved in their children's education. As an
alternative theory was more helpful to explain and predict parental
involvement, Perry and Langley (2013) suggested using Ajzen's TPB model and
stressed that this model was “versatile enough to account for the dynamic and
complex nature of parental engagement” (p. 181). What remained unknown was
whether the TPB model would hold for parental engagement in schools with
parents of particular cultures and status, such as those with immigrant and
refugee status.
Nature of the Study
In the current study, Ajzen’s version of TPB (1991) was used as a basis
of a model to examine how intentional behaviors of parents and personal beliefs
about outcomes of their behaviors might affect their perceived levels of
participation in their child’s school. The model constructed for this study
included the TPB constructs of attitudes and beliefs, subjective norms,
perceived behavioral control, and parental intentions for involvement (Bracke
& Corts, 2012). The descriptive and correlational design allowed for
assessing the key variables posed in the TPB model as determinants of behavior
(i.e., parental attitudes and beliefs, subjective norms, perceived behavioral
control) and then analysis of whether they were significantly related to and
could predict the intentions of immigrant and refugee parents to be involved in
their children’s early childhood education programs. The dependent variable
were the parent’s reported intentions for involvement, and the predictors would
be the determinants of behaviors as outlined in TPB, which were parental
attitudes and beliefs, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control
(Bracke & Corts, 2012).
The correlational design used in this study was appropriate for testing
whether TPB constructs fit a model for an observed set of relationships among
the constructs in the model (Girardelli & Patel, 2016). Survey methods were used to measure
the four constructs of TPB with the three-predictor variables and the single
dependent variable of parent intention. The survey method allowed objectivity
and minimized bias (Smith, 2015). The quantitative design-controlled biases so
that facts, instances, and phenomena could be understood in an objective way
(Park & Park, 2016). This design best aligned with the purpose and goals of
the study. After receiving approval from Northcentral University’s
Institutional Review Board (IRB) and the AKA Head Start administrative office,
parents were solicited at each of the centers. During the drop off time at each
of 12 centers, the researcher briefly explained the purpose of the study to the
parents/caregivers and asked them to voluntarily participate if they were
interested in cooperating with the research (Fowler, 2009). The consent form
informed them of the voluntary nature of participation, the level of
involvement, the absence of deception, and that their participation would
remain anonymous. When consent was granted, volunteers were asked to complete a
brief demographic information questionnaire regarding their immigrant/refugee
status. Eligible participants received a PIP survey package with a cover letter.
The cover letter to parents detailed the purpose of the study. All
papers were translated into their home language (i.e., Arabic, Spanish or
Vietnamese) to ensure parents/caregivers understand explanations clearly. Self-addressed and stamped envelopes were enclosed
for returning the survey.
Research Questions
Q1. What are the attitudes and beliefs of
immigrant/refugee parents regarding parent involvement in AKA Head Start and
Early Head Start as determined by Parental Involvement Project (PIP) Parent
Questionnaire?
Q2. What are the subjective norms of
immigrant/refugee parents regarding parental involvement in AKA Head Start and
Early Head Start as determined by Parental Involvement Project (PIP) Parent
Questionnaire?
Q3. What are the perceived behavioral
control perceptions of immigrant/refugee parents regarding parent involvement
in AKA Head Start and Early Head Start programs as determined by Parental
Involvement Project (PIP) Parent Questionnaire?
Q4. What are the parental intentions of
immigrant/refugee parents regarding parent involvement in AKA Head Start and
Early Head Start programs as determined by Parental Involvement Project (PIP)
Parent Questionnaire?
Q5. What is the relationship of measures
of attitudes and beliefs, subjective norms, and perceived behavior control, and
how well, if at all, do they predict parental intentions to parental
involvement by parents in AKA Head Start and Early Head Start programs?
Hypotheses
H0. The attitudes and beliefs,
subjective norms, intentions, behavioral control perceptions, and perceived
control of immigrant and refugee parents are not significantly related to (p > .05) or cannot predict parents’
level of involvement in AKA Head Start and Early Head Start programs.
Ha. One or more of attitudes and beliefs,
subjective norms, intentions, behavioral control perceptions, or perceived
behavior control perceptions are significantly correlated to (p < .05) and significantly contribute
to the prediction of parental involvement by immigrant/refugee parents in AKA
Head Start and Early Head Start programs.
Methodology
This
study used a quantitative non-experimental correlation. The method was used a
self-administered paper-based survey to identify and access the sample. Parents
returned a survey and received $10 gift card incentive.
Population
The
population included all immigrant/refugee parents from AKA HS programs in
southern California.
Sample
The
sample was available to obtain in person at the 12 sites of AKA HS. The
executive director and center directors were asked to collaborate with the
project to ensure all immigrant/refugee parents or caregivers have a chance to
participate. This way, avoided a bias that affects the relationship between a
sample of respondents and the population.
A total of 500 parent surveys were sent out to parents who
met the criteria in which parents to participate are first-generation and
considered an immigrant or refugee and have been living in Southern California
and whose children are enrolled in either an HS or EHS program.
There
were 122 parents successfully completed the surveys by answering all the items.
It was 24% survey’s packages returned. Including Arabic (12%), Hispanic (41%),
Vietnamese (6%), and English speaking (41%). All of them were between 18 to 65
years old.
Instrument
The
Parent Involvement Project (PIP) survey was the instrument used for data
collection. The questionnaire contained 57 items developed by Hoover-Dempsey,
Walker, Jones, and Reed (2002). All items were measured on a six-point Likert
scale with subscales for attitudes and beliefs, subjective norms, perceived
behavioral control, and parental intentions for involvement.
The
Likert scale ranged from strongly
disagree to strongly agree, with
the additional option of I Don’t Know. For example, parents were
asked to rate each statement based on how much they disagree or agree. The
options were 1 indicating Strongly
Disagree, 2 indicating Disagree,
3 indicating Don’t Know, 4 indicating
Agree Just a Little, 5 indicating Agree, and 6 indicating Strongly Agree.
All
surveys were collected within an eight-week timeframe. Once the survey’s time
had passed, the survey results were entered into Statistical Package Social
Science (SPSS), version 22 for statistical analysis. All analyses were
conducted using the 0.05 level of significance.
Descriptive
summary statistics, means, standard deviations, and ranges for
attitudes/beliefs, subjective norms, perceived behavioral controls, and
parental intentions were obtained to answer the first four research questions.
A
Pearson’s correlation and multiple regression analysis were used to determine
the amount of variation in the dependent variable explained by the three
independent variables.
Results
Attitudes
& Beliefs
The
result of research question one related to the attitudes/beliefs with the means
of 107, standard deviation was14, and the range was 120. The mean score was
considered moderate.
Subjective
Norms
The
result of research question two related to subjective norms with the means of
31, standard deviation was four, the range was 30. The mean score was
considered moderately high.
Perceived
Behavioral Controls
The
results of research question three related to the perceived behavioral controls
with the mean of 88, standard deviation was nine, and the range was 85. The
mean score was considered moderate.
Parental
intentions
The
result of research question four related to the parental intentions with the
means of 51, standard deviation was six, the range was 50. The mean score was
considered moderately high.
Discussion
The
attitudes/beliefs parents reported was moderate (M=107). This level implies
that parents from immigrant/refugee populations hold generally positive
attitudes about becoming involved in the early education of their children and
believe that parent involvement is important to their children’s success in
school.
The
subjective norms parents reported somewhat high (M=31). This level
implies that parental involvement does not seem to be an area in which parents
from immigrant/refugee communities are concerned with regard to making sure
they are following cultural or communities’ norms.
The
perceived behavioral control parents reported was moderate (M=88). This
level implies that these parents do believe they have some degree of control
over their ability to become involved in their child’s education. This would
influence parents’ thinking about the kinds of involvement activities they can
take on or choose to engage in.
The
parental intentions reported were moderately high (M=51). This implies
that parents from immigrant/refugee populations appear to indicate they are
moderately high interested in becoming involved in their child’s early
education.
The
null hypothesis for research question five was rejected with 50% of the
variance in intentions accounted for by all three variables. It was rejected
because statistically significant positive correlations were found among the
variables.
Practical
Implications
Immigrant
and refugee parents’ involvement in HS/EHS programs can be predicted by their
reported attitudes and beliefs, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral
controls with regard to their involvement in children’s education. This finding
implies that all three variables should be considered important aspects by
which teachers, center directors, and administrators may affect parents’
intentions and desire to be involved in their child’s schooling. The findings of
the multiple regression suggested that attitudes and beliefs and subjective
norms were the two strongest predictors of parental intentions for involvement.
Some prior researchers also found all three variables to be significant
predictors of parental intentions for involvement (Kiriakidis, 2015; Tipton,
2014), while others have had findings that support only one or two of these
variables (Case, Spark, & Pavey, 2016). The findings supported that the
theory of planned behavior can be applied to explaining parent involvement of
immigrants and refugees whose children are enrolled in HS/EHS, thereby
expanding the theory to encompass people with culturally and linguistically
diverse backgrounds.
This
study was guided by the theory of planned behavior that stipulates the more
favorable parents’ intention to engage in their child’s education, based on
their attitudes and beliefs, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral
control, the more likely they will actually engage with their intended
behaviors (Ajzen, 2011). The findings of this study revealed the implications
of improving current parent involvement policies for engaging immigrants and
refugees, and they may be able to overcome the barriers of involvement if the
schools can improve their programs. Regarding parental behavior, Ajzen’s theory
of planned behavior (TPB) model (1991) was a useful method to explain and
predict parents’ intentional behavior based on their personal beliefs about the
outcomes of behaviors. It was used to describe the dynamic and complex nature
of parental engagement in their child’s life and education (Bracke & Corts,
2012). In addition, the TPB based model offers a viable theoretical lens for
examining parental involvement, the most important determinant of parental
behavioral dispositions. The findings from this study are also particularly
encouraging in that they reported to have relatively moderate parental
intentions, and this will likely have a positive effect on their child’s
education if teachers and center directors lead parents to increase their level
of involvement in a program.
Recommendations
for Practice
By assessing the constructs that were
pivotal to TPB, an expansion of this theory––within the context of immigrant
and refugee families with children enrolled in Head Start or Early Head
Start—was accomplished. There was a lack of proper application of TPB
highlighted in the literature review about both of school personnel and key
variables in this study (Dean, Stewart, & Debattista, 2017). The aspects of
parental involvement included attitudes and beliefs, subjective norms,
perceived behavioral control, and subsequent parental intentions. First, parents or caregivers need the provision of resources to
change their attitudes and beliefs, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral
control toward their children’s education in early development. Second, increasing parent involvement is positively
correlated with higher achievement of children’s learning activities (Castro et
al., 2015). Thus, teachers and center directors must outweigh the challenges
that they encounter with involving parents. Any barrier
identified by parents should be resolved and educators should strive to make a
priority of reaching out to involve parents (DeLoatche, Bradley-Klug, Ogg,
Dromrey, & Sundman-Wheat, 2015).
Researchers
have reported on different methods of involving
parents that play a positive role in
becoming involved in their children’s school (Kikas et al., 2014). Castro et
al. (2015) conducted a meta-analysis and found multiple ways in which families
could be involved in children’s learning at home, in the community, and in
school. At home, a family’s engagement is the most important factor to a
child’s development; for example, the activities include shared book reading,
parent-child conversation, discussed letters and sounds, and writing exercises.
Hindman, Miller, Froyen, and Skibbe (2012) stressed that enjoyable at-home
learning activities may encourage children’s positive attitudes about learning.
In the community, families can help children learn about the wider world and
access resources that may not be readily available within the household such as
visiting libraries, attending museums, sport
events, church functions, or other cultural opportunities (Hindman et al.,
2012). School-based involvement includes various activities in which parents
engage, for example, participating in school trips, volunteering in the
classroom or at school events, fundraising, and attending school programs
(Castro et al., 2015; Kikas et al., 2014; McCormick et al., 2013). In
school-based activities, McCormick, Cappella, O’Connor, and McClowry (2013)
found that parents who were involved would likely have positive relationships
with teachers; in turn, teachers might be less liable
to perceive problematic behaviors among the children of highly involved
parents. Parents and caregivers could volunteer in the classroom or staff the
office to participate in decision-making bodies such as the parent policy
council or personal communication such as parent-teacher conferences (Hindman
et al., 2012).
Homeschool
conferencing is a communication between parents and school staff on educational
topics related to a specific child
(Castro et al., 2015; Kikas et al., 2014). For school conferences or meetings,
where oral communication skills are essential, parents with limited English
language skills can be asked in advance
to bring an adult whom they trust to serve as their translator (Cheatham & Ostrosky, 2013). If centers have trouble-locating translators for written school materials, schools should successfully
collaborate with community-based organizations and refugee resettlement
agencies to provide translation assistance (Manz et al., 2014). Finally,
centers should outreach to families through informal meeting settings. For
example, making home visits for young children below the age of three years is
a primary means of strengthening the pivotal role of parents (DeLoatche et al.,
2015; Manz et al., 2014). Although encouraging parent involvement was
politically neutral and rhetorically popular,
much of the research informing policy was occurring in the absence of clarity
around the dimensions of parent involvement
and the role of teachers in predictive relationships of children’s behaviors
(McCormick et al., 2013). Researchers found that preschool educators and staff should be trained to
communicate with parents or caregivers regarding giving their engagement in
home-school learning activities, as well as in the communities (DeLoatche et
al., 2015).
Positive
attitudes and beliefs of parents and caregivers toward participation in Head
Start and Early Head Start programs have benefited them. Parental involvement
and acceptance of these family characteristics are important aspects of
research and can always be improved for these actions ultimately can affect
immigrant and refugee parents’ perspectives about their child’s education
(Leyendecher et al., 2018). When dealing with immigrant and refugee families
with different characteristics, Head Start faculties may not understand the
difficulties the young children and families have been through (DeLoatche et
al., 2015) and may not always able to address specific needs that families
wants. Hence, knowledge of parent involvement is crucial to Head Start staff
who should be well-trained (Edberg et al., 2017).
For
parental involvement, attitudes and beliefs, subjective norms, and perceived
behavioral control play a crucial role in parental intentions to be involved
and, subsequently, the development of their children. Of all the variables that
were considered important, parental involvement was considered to have the
greatest impact on preschoolers’ education (Dean, Stewart, & Debattista,
2017). There is evidence that parents strongly believe they should be involved
in helping their children succeed in school. Therefore, administrator or center
directors should share this same regard for involvement and set the tone for a
school culture that has high expectations for parental involvement.
Collaboration will be needed between parents and teachers to maintain the
expectation in the Head Start and Early Head Start centers. Teachers and center
directors should consider the theory of planned behavior to account for
parental intentions to become and remain involve with their child. Chiefly, teachers
and center directors should communicate clearly that all parents have an
important role to play in children’s learning success.
Recommendations for Future Research
Continued research on parental involvement
is needed to further support a significant correlation with and contribution to
the prediction of parental involvement by immigrant/refugee parents in AKA Head
Start and Early Head Start programs. The problem of parental involvement in
children’s education in Head Start or Early Head Start programs was a primary
focus in the study, although other problems arise in immigrant/refugee
families. Findings were delimited to only those variables being measured in
relation to parent involvement and the theory of planned behavior. The criteria
for participants’ enrollment in this study were immigrants and refugees, which
eliminated some families from participating even though they would consider
themselves a part of this population. This study delimited the population to
only the geographic regions in southern California being sampled and whose
children were enrolled in Head Start and Early Head Start programs. Expansion
to a wider geographic region, other programs that serve the early childhood
population and more diverse parent populations would serve to further validate
the current findings.
The current study has only focused on the
three factors contributing to parent intentions for involvement as defined by
TPB, but other factors may affect parental intentions for involvement. This
delimitation had a potential effect on the examination of relationships among
beliefs/attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioral controls, and
parental intentions. One effect was that other variables could contribute to
parent involvement or a lack of involvement that were not measured or not
included in TPB and so were not accounted for in the study; therefore, the
prediction formula would be limited. Future research should attempt to identify
additional factors that might be particular to one people group. Researcher seeking
to gain a better understanding of demographic characteristics that may conflict
with parental involvement and parental intention outcomes would serve to
further inform TPB (DeLoatche et al., 2015).
Another recommendation would be for
studies to examine the effect of biases and prejudices based on languages,
races, religions, and socioeconomic statuses. Including a wider sample of a
diverse demographic population, such as Chinese, Somalians, or Iranians for
more findings would also be worthwhile. Investigations of both immigrant and
non-immigrant families’ educational involvement practices in Head Start
programs might also serve to reveal differences that may need to be addressed
by program directors to further increase involvement (Sibley & Brabeck, 2017).
More research is needed to explore teacher-parent relationships that are
developed within the programs, particularly with the immigrant and refugee
populations, and in which teachers’ and parents’ perceptions of the program.
Research on the teacher-parent relationship could advance understanding of the
benefit of having positive intentions related to parents’ involvement in the
HS/EHS programs (DeLoatche et al., 2015; Perry & Langley, 2013).
Conclusions
This
quantitative correlational study utilized a correlation analysis to measure the
degree of an association among the variables and a multivariate regression
analysis to assess the magnitude with which TPB variables could predict
parental intentions for involvement in schooling. The measures of attitudes and
beliefs, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control perceptions, and
intentions of immigrant and refugee parents were significantly related to each
other and predicted 50% of the variance in parents’ intentions for involvement
in AKA Head Start and Early Head Start programs resulting in rejection of the
null hypothesis. The findings are
consistent with the theory of planned behavior applied to explain parent
involvement for parents with culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.
The variables examined significantly predicted the reported intentions of
parental involvement in early childhood education programs. The findings of
this study would support the theory of planned behavior as applied to parent
involvement of immigrant and refugee parents whose children are enrolled in
HS/EHS. Information collected in the study is useful for training for Head Start
educators in order to meet the needs of immigrant and refugee families and
involve parents. Competence training should be provided in HS/EHS programs.
Future
research on parental involvement in the HS/EHS programs should continue. The
most effective efforts for improving parental involvement must be reinforced
and built in early childhood education by a program executive director, a
center director, educators, and policy-makers. These professionals always wish
to increase parental involvement in the programs to be successful; however, the
number of immigrants and refugees’ families is rapidly growing each year, which
affects the way HS/EHS programs operate. Finding an appropriate method of
increasing parental intentions to participate in their children’s education
helps address the centers’ responsibility of increasing parent involvement and
the immigrant and refugee family would benefit. An important task to promoting
children’s early education is getting parents involved in their programs.
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