A r c h i v e d  I n f o r m a t i o n

Parental Involvement

The role of parents in the academic achievement of their children is multifaceted, ranging from direct involvement, such as assisting with homework, to indirect influence, such as the values held by the parents and the emotional climate of the home. The different types of parental involvement can be grouped into three general categories:

• actual involvement at school, such as assisting with class activities or parent-teacher organizations;

• at-home behaviors, such as assisting with homework or monitoring their children's behavioral patterns; and

• the attitudes and expectations of parents, such as their general value of education or aspirations for their children's education.

As children get older, parental involvement becomes more indirect, through practices such as setting standards of achievement for their children and transmitting to their children their values regarding the importance of education.

Involvement at School

U.S. parents become involved in school activities in a variety of ways. For example, they may become involved in parent-teacher organizations (PTOs) or other parent leadership activities to try to affect school policy. In a survey of 2,000 parents nationwide, more than two-thirds reported attending a PTO meeting or similar gathering at least once a year (Moles 1993). While this would seem to be a high rate of participation, it is not clear how many parents attend these meetings regularly or even more than once a year.

Parents may also volunteer at the school to help with classroom exercises, special projects, and class trips and excursions. Participation in these types of activities, however, appears to be quite limited, because, as a recent study found, most work in part- or full-time jobs (Dauber and Epstein 1993).

Parents who do participate in school activities tend to be of higher socioeconomic status, and more highly educated (Dauber and Epstein 1993; Stevenson and Baker 1987). For example, in one study, the amount of education received by mothers was correlated at .32 with their involvement at school, such as attending PTO meetings and parent-teacher conferences. When broken down by the gender of the child, however, the correlation was .53 for boys and -.06 for girls (Stevenson and Baker 1987).

The assumption of many proponents of school involvement is that children of parents who participate in school activities will perform better at school. One study found a correlation of .34 between involvement and children's achievement, but this link has not been clearly established in other studies (Stevenson and Baker 1987). Despite the limited evidence for the positive effects of parental involvement, there has recently been a widespread movement to promote greater parental involvement in the school as a fundamental aspect of school reform.

Involvement at Home

Most of what is known about the direct involvement at home of parents in achievement-related behaviors deals with elementary school children. This is probably because parental assistance with homework and studying is much less frequent when the children enter junior high and high school—a result of parents feeling less capable of assisting their children with their schoolwork than when the children were in elementary school (Dauber and Epstein 1993).

Another reason for the low incidence of parental involvement in junior high and high school may be the generally high level of satisfaction parents have with their children's educational performance and the quality of their schools. For example, in a recent cross-national study of the parents of 11^th-grade students, more than one-third of the American students' mothers indicated that they were "very satisfied" with their child's academic performance, as compared with 10 percent and 2 percent of the Chinese and Japanese mothers, respectively (Stevenson, Chen, and Lee 1993). In addition, 79 percent of the American students' mothers rated their adolescents' schools as "good" or "excellent," as compared with 44 percent and 48 percent of the Chinese and Japanese mothers, respectively (Stevenson et al. 1993).

Parents may be more likely to influence their adolescents' academic performance indirectly, by monitoring their behavior or by generally supporting and encouraging their academic endeavors. A series of studies have attempted to identify the educational impact of what is called "authoritative" parenting, which is a child-rearing pattern that provides a moderate degree of parental direction and control over adolescents' lives along with appropriate amounts of emotional support and encouragement. In numerous studies, researchers have found that adolescents with "authoritative" parents had slightly higher grade-point averages in high school than their peers who had either "authoritarian" parents, who exerted excessive control, or "permissive" parents, who exerted very little control (Steinberg, Mounts, Lamborn, and Dornbusch 1991; Dornbusch, Ritter, Leiderman, and Roberts 1987)

One reason for the small yet consistent relation between these child-rearing patterns and adolescents' achievement may be that the relation is mostly mediated by the effects of child-rearing patterns on other variables. In one study, adolescents with authoritative parents reported higher levels of parental involvement in their education than did their peers; this involvement included help with homework and selection of courses (Steinberg, Lamborn, Dornbusch, and Darling 1992). Adolescents from authoritative homes were also more likely to report that their parents encouraged and supported their academic endeavors. In addition, a national study of high school seniors found that adolescents whose parents were aware of and monitored their everyday activities tended to study more often than their peers whose parents were less attentive to their children's activities (Keith, Reimers, Fehrmann, Pottebaum, and Aubey 1986).

The effectiveness of authoritative parenting, however, seems to be highest for children from white households. In some studies, it is only slightly predictive of academic success among Hispanic adolescents, and sometimes not at all predictive among Asian-American and African-American adolescents, with no differences found between adolescents with authoritative parents and their peers in terms of their academic performance. These findings suggest that more research needs to be conducted to examine the child-rearing patterns that do make a difference in the achievement of adolescents from these ethnic minority families (Steinberg et al. 1991; Dornbusch et al. 1987).

Attitudes and Expectations of Parents

Although adolescents may become increasingly independent and increasingly involved in peer relationships as they become older, their parents' views and behavior continue to influence aspects of their lives. In particular, parents seem to strongly influence the plans of American adolescents, including their educational aspirations and expectations. For example, in a national study of high school seniors in 1991, 86 percent of the students indicated that they agreed with their parents on the value of a good education (USED 1993a).

One way parental values and expectations influence the achievement and academic behaviors of adolescents is through their influence on gender differences in academic achievement (Eccles 1984; Tocci and Engelhard 1991). One study found that despite the similarity in the actual academic performance of a large group of male and female adolescents, parents tended to have different expectations of the performance of their children and different perceptions of their children's abilities according to gender (Eccles-Parsons, Adler, and Kaczala 1982). For example, the parents of female adolescents believed that their daughters had to exert greater effort to do well in mathematics than did the parents of male adolescents. In addition, the parents of females believed that it was less important for their daughters to take advanced mathematics classes than did the parents of males (Eccles et al. 1982). Clearly, the impact of parents' beliefs regarding sex roles and achievement needs to be taken into account when considering the role of parents in adolescents' achievement.

Conclusion

During the adolescent years, parents seem to have little involvement in official school activities. Their influence on their children's academic performance seems to be primarily indirect, such as by monitoring children's behavior, encouraging academic success, and holding strong values and high expectations regarding academic performance.

Peer Support for Academics

Peers and Academics

It has often been a popular notion in American society that adolescent peer groups do not support the goals of academic achievement and success. This idea may exist because academic endeavors and socializing with peers seem to be two separate—and often competing—worlds for American adolescents. When with their friends, the vast majority of teens in Minneapolis reportedly spent time in social activities, such as dating and attending parties and dances, or attending movies and concerts. Only 1 percent of these adolescents reported engaging in academic activities, such as studying and doing homework, with their friends (Fuligni and Stevenson 1995). While social involvement and investment in peer relationships is considered to be an indication of healthy adjustment on the part of adolescents, extreme involvement with peers can perhaps take away from the time adolescents would otherwise spend in academic pursuits. This relation was evident in the Minneapolis study, in which a significant negative correlation of -.37 was found between time spent with peers and test performance in mathematics (Fuligni and Stevenson 1995). In another study, a similar negative correlation was found between adolescents' time with friends and their school achievement (Larson 1983).

It would be a mistake, however, to consider the influence of peers on American adolescents' achievement as wholly negative. The influence that adolescents' close friends and other peers have on their academic achievement is not unidirectional. Peer influence can depend to a large degree on the types of friends and peer groups with whom the adolescent associates (Kandel and Lesser 1972). For example, teenagers with friends who are achievement oriented and college bound tend to share those attitudes. In fact, these types of friends can even serve to enhance the influence of parents. One study found that when adolescents' mothers wanted them to attend college, but their best friends did not plan to attend college, only 50 percent wanted to attend college. However, when the adolescents' best friends did want to attend college, 83 percent of them had college plans themselves (Kandel and Lesser 1972).

Some investigators have focused on the role of adolescents' larger peer group or crowd in their academic achievement. Secondary schools in the United States are filled with a variety of peer groups that can influence students' achievement in many different directions (Brown 1990). In an ethnographic study of a single high school, one investigator identified two general categories of peer groups, the "jocks" and the "burnouts." While individual peer groups may come and go in secondary schools, these two general categories tend to exist in most high schools. Broadly defined, the jocks share the goals of the school and the burnouts tend to be alienated from the school. Membership in these groups had important associations with adolescents' achievement, with those in jock groups performing at a higher level in school and participating in school activities at a higher frequency than those in burnout groups (Eckert 1989).

What is unclear in most studies of the association between adolescents' friendships, peer group membership, and their academic achievement is the direction of causality. For example, adolescents whose friends are academically high achievers may very well be encouraged to perform at a high level themselves. It is equally likely, however, that adolescents who are already performing at a high level academically will choose friends who achieve at similar levels. Some investigators have suggested that peer groups serve to reinforce the pre-existing characteristics of adolescents, but there has been little research systematically examining the direction of effect between adolescents' peer group membership and their academic performance.

Ethnic and Social-Class Differences in Peer Support for Academics

In recent years, public attention has increasingly focused on claims that the extent and type of peer support for academics varies according to adolescents' social class and ethnic group identity. There has been little systematic research, however, into this issue.

Some observers have suggested that among lower class African-American students in some schools, academic success has been stigmatized as "selling out" and "acting white" (Fordham and Ogbu 1986). Within these peer groups, it has been suggested, the pressure against achieving in school is so great that some African-American students will either hide or limit their level of achievement. These students are responding, in part, to the perception that they will not be rewarded for educational success because of discrimination in the labor market. This point of view is a subject of great debate, and as of yet has not been strongly substantiated by research.

It has also been suggested that a different kind of peer support for academics operates within Asian-American peer groups. Adolescents of Asian backgrounds are more likely to be a part of an achievement-oriented peer group. They are more likely to study together and help each other with difficult assignments, and they report the highest level of peer support for academics (Steinberg, Dornbusch, and Brown 1992).

Conclusion

For most adolescents, interactions with friends and other peers do not seem to be focused on academic endeavors. In fact, the academic and social lives of adolescents seem to constitute two different worlds. However, peers do seem to be associated with academic achievement. Having friends and being in a peer group that is oriented toward achievement is associated with adolescents' being focused on academics themselves. What is unclear, however, is whether adolescents choose these types of friends based on their own level of achievement, or whether adolescents' friends actually influence their academic performance.

Risk Behavior During Adolescence

Dropping Out of School

As public schooling has increased in this century, so has the percentage of American youth receiving high school diplomas. Today, approximately 75 percent of American youth will receive their diploma by 18 or 19 years of age; 85 percent will receive it by 20 to 24 years of age (Bachman 1991). Consequently, the dropout rate has declined somewhat in recent years. In 1967, the overall dropout rate for students 16 to 24 years old was 17 percent. By 1991, the proportion of these students who were dropouts had declined to 12.5 percent.

These rates are somewhat higher in certain segments of the youth population. In 1991, the dropout rate for African-American youth aged 16 to 24 years was 13.6 percent, and the rate for Hispanic youth was 35.3 percent (USED 1993b). Those students who drop out of school tend to have a history of poor grades, repeating a grade, absenteeism, truancy, discipline problems, and a dislike of school; most also come from homes of lower socioeconomic backgrounds (Bachman 1991). In addition, dropouts from low-income families are less likely to return to school than are dropouts from families with higher incomes.

Use of Drugs, Cigarettes, and Alcohol

In 1993, 43 percent of U.S. high school seniors reported using some type of illicit drug ("marijuana, hallucinogens, cocaine, and heroin, or any other opiates, stimulants, barbiturates, or tranquilizers not under doctor's orders") at least once in their lives (University of Michigan News and Information Services 1994). Although drug use among American teenagers during the 1980s declined from the rates observed in the late 1970s, recently there has been a slight upswing in usage. According to a national sample of American adolescents, the proportion of students reporting any use of marijuana, LSD, inhalants, and stimulants increased from 1992 to 1993 (University of Michigan News and Information Services 1994). For example, the percentages of high school seniors who have used marijuana, LSD, and stimulants has tended to increase.

The changes in adolescents' drug use appear attributable, in part, to changes in student norms regarding drug use. Students' perceptions of the risks involved and the acceptability of drug use have decreased slightly along with the increase in reported actual use. In 1993, 73 percent of high school seniors believed that smoking marijuana regularly was a great risk, as opposed to 77 percent in 1992. In addition, in 1993, 63 percent of seniors said that they would disapprove of people who try marijuana, compared to 70 percent in 1992 (University of Michigan News and Information Services 1994).

In general, adolescents who become involved in drug use tend to come from homes with discord and poor parental supervision. They tend to be in peer groups that encourage illicit drug use and are more likely to have low school performance and more negative attitudes toward education (Cohen, Brook, and Kandel 1991). Contrary to popular stereotypes, African-American students report the lowest rates of drug use among all ethnic groups (University of Michigan News and Information Services 1994).

The use of cigarettes among American teenagers has also slightly increased. In 1993, 29.9 percent of high school seniors reported smoking in the past year, as compared with 27.8 percent in 1992. In terms of smoking daily, 19 percent reported doing so in 1993, as compared with 17.2 percent in 1992 (University of Michigan New and Information Services 1994).

There has been no change, however, in the high rates of adolescent drinking. In 1993, 76 percent of American high school seniors reported using alcohol in the past year, and approximately half indicated that they had been drunk at some time during the past 12 months (University of Michigan News and Information Services 1994).

Table 7 provides additional statistics.

Table 7—Percentage of high school seniors reporting any drug use in their lifetime: 1993

School Crime and Violence

The rising incidence of violence occurring on school grounds is also a concern in U.S. junior high and high schools. In a national survey of eighth-grade students in 1988, the most commonly cited problem was physical conflicts and fights among the students themselves, cited by more than 16 percent of the students as a "serious" problem (USED 1991). Vandalism, verbal abuse of teachers, and possession of weapons were perceived as serious problems by 15 percent, 12 percent, and 8 percent of eighth-graders, respectively, while 8 percent of students thought physical abuse of teachers was a serious problem in their school (USED 1991).

In a national survey of high school seniors, students reported that violence at the high school level was not a rare occurrence (USED 1993a). In 1991, more than 40 percent of seniors reported that something was stolen from them, more than 20 percent indicated that their property was deliberately damaged, more than 15 percent indicated that someone had threatened them with a weapon, and more than 15 percent indicated that someone had injured them without a weapon.

In almost all cases, African-American students reported experiencing greater violence than white students. For example, 20 percent of black seniors, as opposed to 16 percent of white seniors, reported being threatened with a weapon (USED 1993a). In addition, 10 percent of black seniors, compared to 5 percent of white seniors, reported being injured by a weapon.

Sexuality

Dating and sexuality are major aspects of adolescents' lives in the United States. In one study, more than three-quarters of 11^th-graders reported that they were currently dating someone (Fuligni and Stevenson 1995). Adolescents are also involved in sexual behavior. In a 1987 report, 67 percent of 18-year-old males and 44 percent of 18-year-old females reported that they had had sexual intercourse (Katchadourian 1990). This prevalence of sexual behavior, however, has not resulted in an increase in teenage pregnancy and childbirth in this century. In fact, the rate of childbirth among teenage females has declined. For example, births to adolescents aged 15 to 19 years dropped from 8.9 per 100 in 1960 to 5.1 per 100 in 1986 (Wetzel 1989). Part of this decline in birthrates may be due to the increased availability of abortion and other methods of birth control.

The change that causes great concerns is the rise in the number of out-of-wedlock births since 1960, due to the decline in marriage among youth. In 1960, 17 percent of the births to teenagers were to unwed mothers; by 1986 that number had risen to 61 percent. Most unwed teenage mothers live in poverty. In 1987, 70 percent of all mothers between the ages of 15 and 24 years had annual incomes that were below the poverty line (Wetzel 1989). In addition, teenage mothers are more likely to drop out of school than are their peers of the same socioeconomic background and academic ability (Furstenberg, Brooks-Gunn, and Chase-Landsdale 1989).

Summary

Secondary school occupies only a modest place in the lives of adolescents in the United States. This is perhaps most evident in the relatively small amount of time American teenagers spend in academic endeavors compared to the time they spend in other activities. In particular, academics seem to compete with socializing with friends and part-time employment for the time and attention of American youth.

Despite the ways they allocate their time, American teenagers value education and believe that receiving a good education is important. Nevertheless, students' motivation declines as they enter secondary school. In addition, despite the nearly universal acknowledgment of the importance of education, academic success does not appear to be a goal of all adolescents. Many American teenagers seem to view applying themselves in school as a matter of personal choice, and they believe that the attainment of academic success is constrained by an individual's innate abilities.

By the time children enter secondary school in the United States, the incidence of direct parental involvement in their education is limited. This may be due to parents' believing that they are unable to provide direct assistance to their teenagers with their schoolwork, or the fact that most U.S. parents report being satisfied with their children's school performance. Similarly, there appears to be little direct assistance with schoolwork among adolescents and their friends, although there have been recent suggestions that the level of peer support for academics varies according to students' ethnic and socioeconomic group membership.

While the dropout rate among American adolescents has declined in the last 25 years, the rates of other problem behaviors—alcohol use and sexual activity in particular—have risen; these behaviors could potentially interfere with adolescents' educational progress.

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[Secondary Education in the Life of American Adolescents - Part 1]

[Secondary Education in the Life of American Adolescents - References]