Abstract

Does the parental involvement of interracial families have different effects on children's academic achievement compared to same-race families? This study compares parental involvement in children's education and the academic outcomes of White-Asian families and White and Asian families. Five dimensions of parental involvement are examined: educational expectations, school involvement, home involvement, parental control and parental social networks. Based on data from The Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, generalized estimating equations (GEEs) are used to analyze the variability of academic achievement produced by the interaction of involvement dimensions and family types. Asian mother-White father families rank the highest in most forms of involvement. They are most active in school and most frequent in interacting with their child at home, and they also show the highest level of contacts with parents of their child's friends. However, only home-based involvement is a stronger predictor of reading scores compared to White parents families. Asian parents generally expect their child to go much further in school and tend to express higher levels of parental control. But it is home involvement that has a stronger effect on reading achievement while school involvement is a stronger predictor of math achievement. Although White parents have the lowest educational expectations for their children, their expectations and school involvement tend to have stronger effects on children's reading achievement. What improves educational attainment for children from White mother-Asian father families is not significantly different from other families.

Degree

MS

College and Department

Family, Home, and Social Sciences; Sociology

Rights

http://lib.byu.edu/about/copyright/

Date Submitted

2016-06-01

Document Type

Thesis

Handle

http://hdl.lib.byu.edu/1877/etd8712

Keywords

parental involvement, academic achievement, family types, assimilation

Language

english

Included in

Sociology Commons

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