ETHNIC, FAMILIAL INFLUENCES ON SCHOOL PERFORMANCE

University Of California Riverside, Riverside CA

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Abstract

This is proposal is for a new investigator. This study will longitudinally examine how parental control and parental involvement in school influence the school performance of Asian American and European American adolescents. This study will provide an understanding of the cultural processes underlying the effects of parental practices on adolescents' school performance by examining (1) the influence of parental belief systems on parental practices and (2) the cultural scripts for how adolescents and parents interpret such practices. This is a 3-year multi-method longitudinal study of adolescents in the 9th grade and their parents, comprised of three parts. In part one, adolescents will be asked to complete questionnaires consisting of the following: measures of parental control, parental involvement in school, their affective interpretations of parents' practices, and their school performance. In part two, parents of these adolescents, and measures of their parental belief systems. In part three, face-to-face, open-ended interviews will be conducted with a sub-sample of adolescents and parents about their interpretations of parental control. For parts one and two of the study, the sample will be composed of four ethnic groups: 400 Chinese Americans, 400 Filipino Americans, and 400 European Americans. Multiple group structural equation modeling will be used to examine across ethnic group the relationship between (1) parental practices and adolescents' school performance and adjustment and (2) parental beliefs and parental practices, and (3) to examine the moderating effects of ethnicity and adolescents' affective interpretations of parenting on the relationship between parental practices and adolescent school performance. Then Latent Growth Modeling techniques will be used to test these relationships across time. An additional sample of 400 Mexican Americans will also be included in this study as part of an IRPG collaborative proposal in which data from additional samples of Hispanic and African American youth are being collected by a separate, independent researcher (Craig Mason). For this collaboration, data from a portion of the adolescent and parent surveys involving the measures of parental control, adolescents' affective interpretations of the control, and adolescent's school performance and adjustment for each year will be pooled with similar data being collected by Dr. Mason.