Parenting and Children's School Achievement

Parenting and Children's School Achievement: A Multiethnic PerspectiveAuthor(s): Lynn Okagaki and Peter A. FrenschSource: American Educational Research Journal, Vol. 35, No. 1 (Spring, 1998), pp. 123-144Published by: American Educational Research AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1163454 .Accessed: 14/09/2013 10:51

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American Educational Research Journal Spring 1998, Vol. 35, No. 1, pp. 123-144

Parenting and Children's School Achievement:A Multiethnic Perspective

Lynn Okagaki Purdue University Peter A. Frensch

Max Planck Institute for Human Development and Education

The present study is an examination of the relations between parenting and the school performance offourth- and fifth-grade children (mean age = 10 years, 2 months) in 75 Asian-American, 109 Latino, and 91 European- American families. Five aspects of parenting were studied: (a) expectations for children's educational attainment, (b) grade expectations, (c) basic childrearing beliefs (i.e., development of autonomy, development of conformity to external standards, and importance of monitoring children's activities), (d) self-reported behaviors (i.e., creating an academically enriching environment and helping with homework), and (e) perceptions of parental efficacy. School performance was measured by school grades and achievement test scores. Ethnic group differences emerged in parents' expectations for children's educational attainment, grade expectations, childrearing beliefs, perceptions of parental efficacy, and in the relations between these beliefs and children's school achievement. These results provide further evidence of the importance of considering the constellation ofparents' beliefs, goals for their children, and the type of help parents can offer children when working with parents to facilitate their children's school experiences.

LYNN OKAGAKI is an Associate Professor, Department of Child Development and Family Studies, 1267 CDFS Building, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907- 1267. Her specialization is cognitive development.

PETER A. FRENSCH is a Senior Research Scientist, Max Planck Institute for Human Development and Education, Lentzeallee 94, D-14195, Berlin, Germany. His specialization is cognitive psychology.


Okagaki and Frensch

M inority students have experienced varying levels of success in schools in the United States. Although there is great diversity among Latino and Asian-American subgroups, on average, Latino students have not fared well in school, while Asian-American students have tended to succeed in school (e.g., Fernandez, Paulsen, & Hirano-Nakanishi, 1989; Humphreys, 1988; Rumberger, 1987; Sue & Okazaki, 1990). A number of factors have been posited as explanations for differential school achievement across ethnic groups (for general reviews, see Laosa & Henderson, 1991; Sue & Padilla, 1986). These factors include (a) motivational differences in individuals' desires to improve their lives (e.g., Buriel & Cardoza, 1988), (b) differences in parent education and socioeconomic status (e.g., Laosa, 1978, 1982), (c) differences in parental expectations for children's achievement (e.g., Wong, 1990), (d) differences in the congruence between the cultural practices of the home and the cultural practices of the school (e.g., Delgado- Gaitan, 1992; Trueba, 1988), and (e) societal oppression of specific minority groups, which may lead these groups to develop avenues for achievement that do not rely on acceptance by the dominant group (e.g., Ogbu, 1986, 1992; Ogbu & Matute-Bianchi, 1986).

In this article, we focus on the relations between parenting and children's school performance in Asian-American, Latino, and European- American families. To enhance the possibility of identifying relations between parenting and school achievement in different groups, the present study examined the relations between multiple aspects of parenting and children's school performance and considered variations in these relations across these ethnic groups.

Five aspects of parenting were examined: (a) parental expectations for children's educational attainment, (b) grade expectations, (c) basic childrearing beliefs (i.e., development of autonomy, development of conformity to external standards, and importance of monitoring children's activities), (d) self-reported behaviors (i.e., creating an academically enriching environment and helping with homework), and (e) perceptions of parental efficacy. Previous research has found that these aspects, or clusters, of beliefs are associated with school achievement within ethnic groups (particularly, for European Americans). Beliefs have not been found to account for differences in school achievement across ethnic groups (e.g., Dornbusch, Ritter, Leiderman, Roberts, & Fraleigh, 1987). Chao (1994) has shown that the dimensions of specific constructs (e.g., authoritarian parenting as a compo- sition of high behavioral expectations, low parental warmth, and low use of democratic parenting strategies) may go together differently in cultural groups whose history and context are different from the one in which the construct was originally identified. Consequently, any single belief may not easily explain differences in child outcomes across ethnic groups. The two goals of this study were to determine (a) whether relations between parental beliefs and school achievement differ across groups and (b) whether combinations of parental beliefs and practices help explain differential school achievement both within, and across, ethnic groups. 124


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Parenting and School Achievement Parental aspirations and expectations for children's education have

been related to children's cognitive performance in, for example, American, Australian, and Canadian families (Johnson & Martin, 1985; Marjoribanks, 1979).1 In studies of Latino families, researchers have found that parents believe education is important, want their children to excel in school, and actively help with children's homework (Delgado-Gaitan, 1992; Stevenson, Chen, & Uttal, 1990). However, Okagaki, Frensch, and Gordon (1995) found that the degree to which parents believe education is important did not distinguish between parents of high- and low-achieving Mexican-American children. Research on Asian-American families is more limited than research on Latino families, but there is evidence that (a) parental expectations for school performance are high (Schneider & Lee, 1990) and (b) parental expectations for time spent studying and doing homework are high (Caplan, Choy, & Whitmore, 1992; Schneider & Lee, 1990).

General childrearing beliefs, particularly the degree to which parents emphasize development of autonomy and conformity in their children, have also been related to intellectual development (Schaefer & Edgerton, 1985). Among Black and White families with kindergarten and first-grade children, traditional authoritarian beliefs (e.g., regarding parental authority as abso- lute) have been negatively related to school competence, while democratic parenting beliefs (e.g., encouraging children's verbalization of ideas) have been positively related to school competence (Schaefer & Edgerton, 1985). In a study of kindergarten through second-grade children, which included Anglo-American, Mexican-American (defined as parents of Mexican descent who were born in the United States), and immigrant families from Cambodia, the Philippines, Mexico, and Vietnam, greater parental emphasis on children conforming to external standards was negatively correlated with school performance (Okagaki & Sternberg, 1993). Adolescents' perceptions of the degree to which their parents are authoritative in their parenting have been positively associated with school achievement in White and Hispanic adolescents, but authoritative parenting has not been found to be related to Asian-American adolescents' school achievement (Steinberg, Dornbusch, & Brown, 1992). Chao (1994) has argued that the Western psychological constructs of authoritarian and authoritative parenting styles do not ad- equately describe nor truly apply to Chinese-American immigrant parents whose ideas about parenting have developed out of an entirely different cultural context. Consequently, it is not surprising that these constructs of parenting did not explain child outcomes for Asian-American adolescents.

In addition to the literature on parental cognitions, other research has focused on the relation between direct involvement with and monitoring of schoolwork and school achievement. Studies have shown that (a) parental involvement in postsecondary plans and interest in school progress are related to high school seniors' grades (Fehrmann, Keith, & Reimers, 1987), (b) parent contact with school is related to school performance (e.g., Grolnick & Slowiaczek, 1994; Stevenson & Baker, 1987), (c) parental monitoring is positively related to school achievement for elementary school

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Okagaki and Frensch

boys (Crouter, MacDermid, McHale, & Perry-Jenkins, 1990), and (d) parental provision for active stimulation (e.g., encouraging children to develop hobbies and special talents) and family participation in developmentally stimulating experiences (e.g., discussing television programs, taking long distance trips) are related to children's school achievement (Bradley, Caldwell, & Rock, 1988). However, recent ethnographic research on Latino families has indicated that, although parents may actively help children with homework, parents' instrumental help may not always be effective (Delgado- Gaitan, 1992; Goldenberg, 1987, 1989). In their research on Indochinese refugee families, Caplan and his associates (Caplan et al., 1992) concluded that instrumental help from parents was not as important as the overall climate parents established in which education, studying, and good grades were deemed very important.

As noted above, parental expectations for children's educational attainment, parental childrearing beliefs, and parental involvement in children's school work have been related to children's cognitive performance in previous studies with European-American families but may not necessarily be related to school achievement in Latino and Asian-American families. In addition to these aspects of parenting, we examined parents' expectations for children's grades because parental responses to grades are potentially an explicit way in which parents can express their educational expectations to their children. Parental efficacy-specifically, parents' perception of their ability to help children with homework-was included after considering the ethnographic work on Mexican-American families which suggested that, although parents may want to help their children and may spend time doing so, they may not be able to understand the assignments.

Three questions were of interest: (a) Are there differences in school performance and parental beliefs across ethnic groups in the present sample? (b) Are the aspects of parenting that we are measuring related to children's school achievement within each ethnic group? (c) Are the relations between parenting and child outcomes different across groups?

Method

Sample Parents of fourth- and fifth-grade students in a suburban school district in northern California participated in this study. Of the 670 parents who were initially contacted in the fall semester of the 1993-1994 school year, 347 parents (52%) returned questionnaires. Twenty questionnaires were excluded because of incomplete data. The present analysis focuses on a subsample (N = 275) consisting of all parents who identified their child's ethnicity as being Asian-American, Latino, or European-American. All other parents were excluded from this analysis, along with any Asian-American, Latino, or European-American family in which both parents were not identified as being of the same ethnicity.

All materials to Latino parents included both English and Spanish 126


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Parenting and School Achievement translations. Prior to data collection, we did not know the nationality of the Asian-American parents. As a result, the Asian-American parents were only given English questionnaires. Hence, the Asian-American group consists only of those parents who were able to read English or who took the initiative to obtain assistance with the questionnaire.

Table 1 shows the demographic characteristics of the sample. To maximize participation, we let either the mother or the father complete the questionnaire. For European-American and Latino families, mothers tended to complete the questionnaire. However, in Asian-American families, there was greater participation by fathers, as compared to the other groups, with 45% of the questionnaires completed by fathers or by mothers and fathers together. The three groups differed with respect to gender of child (X2 (2, N= 275) = 6.02, p < .05), immigrant status (X2 (2, N= 268) = 101.32,p < .001), maternal education (X2 (4, N= 265) = 44.24, p < .001), paternal education (X2 (4, N = 243) = 49.64, p < .001), and family income (X2 (6, N = 249) = 35.29, p < .001). As can be seen in Table 1, most of the Asian-American parents were immigrants; most of the European-American parents were born in the United States; and a little over half of the Latino parents were immigrants. The Asian-American and European-American parents were more likely than the Latino parents to have completed some schooling beyond high school. The minority families were more likely than the European-American families to earn less than $20,000 per year. There was concern because the distribution of family income for Asian-American families was somewhat bimodal. However, Wong (1990) reported that the 1980 Census data showed a bimodal distribution for education among Chinese, Vietnamese, and Filipino adults who were 25 years and older. These three groups comprised almost 60% of the Asian-American families in our study. Consequently, we believe that the present sample is not unusual for Asian-American communities in which most of the adults are immigrants.

Table 1 also shows that there was a higher proportion of boys in the Asian-American group than in the other groups. Preliminary analyses showed a main effect of gender of child on school achievement, and gender of child was included in analyses of the relations between parental beliefs and school achievement. The three groups did not differ with respect to the number of children in the family or family structure (ps > .05). Main effects of parental education and family income were obtained in preliminary analyses of the relations between parental beliefs and school achievement. For Latino and European-American families, children's grades were correlated with parent education (Latino: r = .36, p < .001; European-American: r =

.23, p < .05) and with family income (Latino: r = .36, p < .001; European- American: r =

.28, p < .01). Similarly, average test scores were correlated with parent education (Latino: r = .35, p < .001; European-American: r = .24, p < .05) and with family income (Latino: r = .43, p < .0001; European- American: r =

.24, p < .05). Neither parent education nor family income was correlated with grades or test scores for Asian-American families. These results were not entirely surprising. Reviewers of research on Asian-Ameri-

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Okagaki and Frensch Table 1

Demographic Characteristics of Families

Asian-American Latino European-American

Target Child' Boy 46 (61%) 60 (55%) 39 (43%) Girl 29 (39%) 49 (45%) 52 (57%)

Child's grade in school Fourth grade 39 (52%) 46 (42%) 46 (51%) Fifth grade 36 (48%) 63 (58%) 45 (49%)

Immigrant status of parents2 Immigrant 65 (87%) 55 (53%) 8 (9%) Born in U.S. 10 (13%) 48 (47%) 82 (91%)

Average years in United States Immigant 10.9 years 15.0 years 23.3 years

Maternal education3 Less than HS diploma 16 (22%) 49 (49%) 7 (8%) Completed HS 17 (23%) 20 (20%) 24 (26%) More than HS 41 (55%) 31 (31%) 60 (66%)

Paternal education4 Less than HS diploma 14 (20%) 50 (54%) 7 (9%) Completed HS 12 (17%) 15 (16%) 20 (24%) More than HS 43 (62%) 27 (29%) 55 (67%)

Family income5 Less than $20,000 26 (39%) 51 (54%) 14 (16%) $20,000s 3 (5%) 7 (7%) 7 (8%) $30,000s 12 (18%) 11 (12%) 12 (13%) $40,000s or more 25 (38%) 25 (27%) 56 (63%)

Family structure Both parents 58 (78%) 66 (64%) 62 (69%) Parent and step-parent 1 (1%) 12 (12%) 11 (12%) Other 15 (20%) 26 (25%) 17 (19%)

Number of children in household One 9 (12%) 13 (12%) 15 (17%) Two 26 (35%) 29 (27%) 32 (36%) Three 14 (19%) 35 (33%) 27 (30%) Four or more 25 (34%) 30 (28%) 16 (18%)

Note. The number of nonmissing data points varied across items. 'Proportion of boys to girls differed across groups (X2 (2, N= 275) = 6.02, p < .05). 2Immigrant to nonimmigrant ratio differed across groups (X2 (2, N= 268) = 101.32, p < .001). 3Maternal education varied across groups (X2 (4, N= 265) = 44.24, p < .001). 4Paternal education varied across groups (X2 (4, N= 243)= 49.64, p < .001). 5Family income differed across groups (X2 (6, N= 249) = 35.29, p < .001).

can student achievement and performance on cognitive tasks (e.g., Ho, 1994; Sue & Okazaki, 1990) have observed that the relations between student achievement and indices of socioeconomic status--such as, parent education, father occupation, and family residence-are lower for Asian- American families than for European-American families and often nonsignifi- cant. Given that parent education and family income were related to grades 128


Parenting and School Achievement and test scores for Latino and European-American families, these variables were included in analyses of the relations between beliefs and school achievement.

Great diversity existed within each of the three global ethnic groups-- Asian-American, European-American, and Latino. Most European-American parents did not indicate a country of family origin or indicated a combination of several countries. Among the Asian-American families, no nationality constituted a large enough sample to allow for separate analyses. The largest groups were families from Vietnam (37%) and from the Philippines (13%). The Latino families were predominantly of Mexican origin (94%). However, because we could not conduct separate analyses for the Asian-American or the European-American families by countries of origin, we did not do so for the Latino families.

Parent Questionnaire A questionnaire was adapted from previous research (Okagaki et al., 1995; Okagaki & Steinberg, 1993; Schaefer & Edgerton, 1985; Small & Luster, 1990) to assess parents' beliefs about education, school achievement, and self- reported parental behaviors. Questionnaires were translated into Spanish and then backtranslated into English by a second translator. Discrepancies were resolved through discussion. The questionnaire consisted of seven sections: (a) educational attainment, (b) grade expectations, (c) childrearing beliefs, (d) self-reported parental behaviors, (e) parental efficacy, (f) perception of child's ability, and (g) demographic information.

Educational attainment. Parents were asked to indicate (a) what the ideal amount of education they would like their child to attain would be (a single item, from 1 = complete some high school education to 6 = get a graduate or professional degree), (b) how much education they expect their child to obtain (a single item), and (c) what the very least amount of schooling they would allow their child to attain would be (a single item).

Grade expectations. Parents indicated on a 4-point scale (1 = very happy: my child did a great job; 4 = upset: I want my child to do better) how they would feel if their child hypothetically brought home certain grades (a separate item for each letter grade from A to F).

Childrearing beliefs. Three subscales were developed to assess the importance parents place on developing autonomous behaviors and attitudes in their children (8 items were adapted from Schaefer and Edgerton, 1985-e.g., How important do I think it is for my child to work through problems on his/her own? and How important do I think it is for my child to think and make decisions on his/her own?), the importance parents place on developing conformity to external standards (8 items adapted from Schaefer and Edgerton, 1985--e.g., How important do I think it is for my child to do what the teacher tells him/her to do? and How important do I think it is for my child to respect adults and people in authority?), and the importance parents place on parental monitoring of children's activities (16 items adapted from Small and Luster, 1990--e.g., How important do I think

129


Okagaki and Frensch it is for me, as a parent, to know what my child does in school? and How important do I think it is for me, as a parent, to know how my child is treated by others at school?). The interitem reliabilities for these subscales were strong (as ranging from .78 to .89).

Parental behaviors. The parental behaviors section was divided into two subscales. For each scale, parents indicated on a 6-point scale (1 = rarely; 6 = daily) how frequently they did a specific activity. The first scale consisted of 10 items about activities the parent does to help the child with schoolwork (e.g., How often do you remind your child to study for a test? and How often do you help your child study for a test?). The second scale was composed of eight items related to general activities parents might do with children that would encourage them to read or think about issues or would provide opportunities to observe their parents reading (e.g., How often do you read a magazine at home? and How often do you have your child read a nonschool book at home?). Interitem reliabilities for these scales were strong (both as = .77).

Parental efficacy beliefs. Six items asked parents to rate the extent to which they agreed or disagreed with statements related to the confidence they felt about their ability to help their child succeed in school (e.g., There are times when I do not understand my child's math homework and There are times when I do not understand my child's reading homework). Items were rated on a 6-point Likert scale (1 = strongly disagree; 6 = strongly agree). The interitem reliability for this scale was satisfactory (a = .72).

Perception of child's ability. Parents were presented six items related to their perception of their child's ability to do well in school (e.g., My child usually gets good grades in school and My child usually does not need help with homework). Items were rated on a 6-point Likert scale (1 = strongly disagree; 6 = strongly agree). The interitem reliability for this scale was strong (a = .81).

Results Presentation of the results is organized into four sections: (a) analysis of school performance, (b) comparisons of parents' beliefs, (c) the relations between children's school performance and parental beliefs within ethnic group, and (d) the relations between children's school performance and parental beliefs across ethnic groups. Differences in School Performance by Ethnic Group To measure school performance, children's 1992-1993 and 1993-1994 end- of-year math, science, language, and reading grades were obtained, along with their 1992-1993 and 1993-1994 language, reading, and math school achievement test scores (Individual Tests of Academic Skills). Two multivariate analyses of covariance (MANCOVA) were conducted to determine if a main effect of ethnicity existed after gender of child, parent education, and family income were controlled. In the first MANCOVA, the dependent variables consisted of children's reading, math, language, and science grades 130


Parenting and School Achievement

(averaged across the 2 years). In the second MANCOVA, achievement test scores for reading, math, and language were the dependent variables (averaged across the 2 years). Independent variables were always parent education, family income, and ethnicity.

To illustrate the differences in school performance, Figure 1 shows the distribution of math, reading, and language grades for each ethnic group. A significant main effect of ethnicity was obtained for children's grades (lambda = .92, F (8, 464) = 2.56, p < .01). In follow-up univariate analyses, significant main effects of ethnicity were obtained for reading (F(2, 235) = 9.29, MSE = 5.88, p < .0001), language (F (2, 235) = 6.57, MSE = 5.86, p

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Parenting and School Achievement Table 2

Means and Standard Deviations (in Parentheses) of Parental Belief Scores by Ethnic Group

Belief European-American Latino Asian-American

Ideal attainment1 5.43 (.68)b 5.42 (.93)b 5.76 (.43)a Expected attainment 4.32 (1.27)b 4.15 (1.44)b 5.26 (.68)a Minimum attainment 3.19 (1.34)c 3.96 (1.51)b 4.97 (1.03)a

Response to B2 1.63 (.63)b 1.71 (.63)b 2.04 (.57)a Response to C 2.99 (.80)b 2.98 (.79)b 3.39 (.59)a Response to D 3.92 (.27)a 3.86 (.34)a 3.93 (.25)a

Develop autonomy3 4.89 (.55)b 5.15 (.57)a 4.94 (.69)b Develop conformity 5.12 (.56)b 5.41 (.53)a 5.20 (.68)b Parental monitoring 5.33 (.51)b 5.56 (.40)a 5.24 (.56)b

Enriching environment4 4.04 (.77)a 3.80 (1.02)a 3.89 (.92)a Help with homework 4.47 (.60)a 4.65 (.69)a 4.59 (.67)a Parental efficacy5 4.47 (1.13)a 3.70 (1.29)b 3.98 (1.15)b

Note. Different subscripts denote means that are significantly different within each row. 'For educational attainment scales, 3 = high school degree plus vocational training; 4 = some college education; 5 = graduate from college; 6 = graduate or professional degree. 2For response to grade items, 2 = happy; 3 = satisfied; my child could do better, but the grade is okay; 4 = upset; I want my child to do better. 3For autonomy, conformity, and monitoring scales, 3-4 = moderately important; 5-6 = most important. 4For enriching environment and help with homework, 3 = 1 or 2 times a month; 4 = about once a week; 5 = a few times a week. 5For value of education and parental efficacy scales, 1 = strongly disagree; 6 = strongly agree.

was high school graduation. For Latino parents, the lower boundary was some college education.

Grade expectations. In a MANOVA with parents' responses to hypotheti- cal grades of Bs, Cs, and Ds as the dependent variables (responses to As and Fs were dropped because virtually all parents were happy with As and upset with Fs), a main effect of ethnicity was obtained (lambda = .91, F (6, 522) = 3.99, p < .001). Univariate analyses revealed a main effect of ethnicity for Bs (F (2, 263) = 9.63, MSE = .38, p < .0001) and for Cs (F (2, 263) = 6.35, MSE = .55, p < .01). On average, all parents were happy or very happy with grades of B. However, as Table 2 shows, Asian-Americans parents were not as pleased as European-American parents (F (1, 263) = 17.77, p < .0001) or Latino parents were (F(1, 263) = 11.65, p < .001). Similarly, while the average response to Cs for all three groups moved away from being happy toward being satisfied but believing the child could do better, the Asian-American parents were again less satisfied than European-American (F (1, 263) = 9.54, p ? .01) or Latino parents (F (1, 263) = 10.41, p < .001).

Childrearing beliefs. As the means in Table 2 show, all parents reported

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Okagaki and Frensch that developing autonomous behaviors in their children, encouraging conforming behaviors in their children, and monitoring their childen's behaviors were important. A MANOVA indicated that the three groups differed in their childrearing beliefs (lamba = .90, F (6, 524) = 4.65, p < .0001). There was a main effect of ethnicity on all three univariate analyses (autonomy, F (2, 264) = 4.78, MSE = .36,p < .01; conformity, F(2, 264) = 6.12, MSE = .33,p < .01; monitoring, (F (2, 264) = 10.96, MSE = .23, p < .0001). Latino parents gave higher importance ratings than European-American parents on all three measures (autonomy, F (1, 264) = 8.84, p < .01; conformity, F (1, 264) = 11.55, p < .001; monitoring, F (1, 264) = 10.64, p < .001) and higher ratings than Asian-American parents on all three measures (autonomy, F (1, 264) = 4.14, p < .05; conformity, F (1, 264) = 4.82, p < .05; monitoring, F (1, 264) = 19.60, p < .0001).

Self-reported behaviors and parental efficacy. Finally, a MANOVA with frequency of helping with school work and frequency of engaging in academically enriching activities showed an overall effect of ethnicity (lambda = .94, F (4, 530) = 4.32, p < .01). However, neither univariate analysis revealed a significant main effect of ethnicity (ps > .10), and specific contrasts between groups were not performed. An ANOVA with parental efficacy as the dependent variable obtained a significant effect of ethnicity (F (2, 269) = 9.99, MSE = 1.45, p < .0001). European-American parents felt more confident about their ability to help their children than either Asian- American (F(1, 269) = 6.60, p < .01) or Latino parents did (F (1, 269) = 19.80, p < .0001).

Influence ofprior school performance on parents' beliefs. By the fourth and fifth grades, the child's previous grades may affect parents' expectations. That is, parents' expectations for their children's grades may be a function of their perceptions of their child's ability to succeed in school. To examine this question, two MANCOVAs were performed. The independent variables were (a) ethnicity; (b) the average of children's 1992-1993 reading, math, language, and science grades (i.e., the grades the children received the year prior to obtaining data on parents' beliefs); (c) parents' perceptions of children's ability to do school work; and (d) ethnicity X perception of ability. Average grades were used to partial out differences in actual school achievement. The dependent variables for the first MANCOVA were parents' ideal, expected, and minimal educational attainment levels for their children. The dependent variables for the second MANCOVA were parents' responses to Bs and Cs. (Note: Recall that there was no difference across groups in parents' responses to Ds.)

There was a significant main effect of ethnicity, indicating differences in parents' educational attainment expectations across groups (lambda = .94, F (6, 442) = 2.19, p < .05). The follow-up simultaneous regression analyses for expected school attainment (F (2, 223) = 5.48, MSE = 1.13, p < .01) and for minimum school attainment (F (2, 223) = 3.68, MSE = 1.70, p < .05) indicated that parents' educational expectations differed across groups even when children's prior grades and parents' perceptions of their children's 134


Parenting and School Achievement abilities were considered. In other words, differences in parents' expectations for their children's educational attainment were not solely a function of children's previous grades and parents' perceptions of their children's abilities.

Similarly, there was a significant main effect of ethnicity for parents' responses to grades (lambda = .95, F (4, 496) = 3.12, p < .05). The univariate analyses revealed a main effect of ethnicity for responses to Cs (F (2, 249) = 4.85, MSE = .48, p < .01). Parents' responses to their children receiving Cs differed across groups when children's actual grades and parents' perceptions of their children's abilities were statistically controlled.

In sum, when previous school grades and parents' perceptions of their child's abilities were statistically controlled, ethnic group differences in expected school attainment, minimum school attainment, and responses to Cs remained. These findings provide some evidence that the observed differences in parents' expectations for their children's school attainment and school grades were not simply a response to children's prior school achievement.

Ethnicity and perception of child's ability. Previous research comparing Asian and American parents (Stevenson & Lee, 1990) has shown that American parents believe school achievement has more to do with a child's ability than Asian parents do. Consequently, we examined parents' responses to grades to see if there was an interaction between ethnicity and perception of child's ability. For the MANCOVA with responses to grades as the dependent variables, the interaction between ethnic group and perception of ability was significant (lambda = .95, F (4, 496) = 3.19, p < .01). The univariate analysis for responses to Cs indicated a significant interaction between ethnicity and perception of ability (F (2, 249) = 3.76, p < .05). The contrast between Asian-American and Latino parents was significant (F (1, 249) = 6.86, p < .01). Partial correlations indicated that, for the Latino families, there was a positive relation between perception of child's abilities and response to Cs (r = .29, p < .01) but that, for Asian-American families (r = .01, ns), there was no such relation.

In sum, all parents indicated that they would be happy if their child received an A. When we considered previous school performance, we found no differences in parents' responses to Bs. On the lower end, all parents wanted their children to do better if they received an F, and there were no significant differences across groups in parents' responses to Ds. However, when we considered Cs, we found that parents' responses differed across groups. Asian-American parents were less satisfied with Cs than the other parents were, and their response to Cs was not related to their perception of their child's ability.

Summary. In general, Asian-American parents had higher educational expectations for their children. Compared to European-American and Latino parents, Asian-American parents had higher expectations for their children's educational attainment. Asian-American parents were also less satisfied with grades of Bs and Cs than the other parents were. In contrast, when questions

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Okagaki and Frensch focused on the importance of developing general characteristics in the child (i.e., autonomy and conformity) rather than on specific aspects of school achievement, Latino parents gave higher ratings than either Asian-American or European-American parents did. Latino parents also placed higher importance on the parental role of monitoring children's activities and school performance. However, compared to both Latino and Asian-American parents, the European-American parents had more confidence in their ability to help their children succeed in school.

Parental Beliefs and Children's School Performance To examine the relations between parental beliefs and children's school performance, two sets of analyses were conducted. The first set of analyses looked at the relations between parental beliefs and school performance within each ethnic group. The second set examined the relations across groups. Because the average grades and average test scores were highly correlated (r = .70 for the entire sample), only analyses with average school grades are described. Analyses using school achievement test scores were generally consistent with the results obtained using grades. Regression coefficients for each model by ethnic group are presented in Table 3.

Parental belief and behavior scales were grouped into four clusters: (a) educational attainment, (b) grade expectations, (c) childrearing beliefs, and (d) self-reported parenting behaviors and parental efficacy. Parental belief scale scores were standardized on the entire sample; outliers ? 3.0 standard deviations from the group mean were removed (Tabachnick & Fidell, 1983). A composite parent education variable was constructed by standardizing the mother's and father's education variables on the entire sample and taking the average of the two standardized scores to represent parent education. (Note: Analyses examining the effects of mother's education with the global belief variables and father's education with the global belief variables obtained generally similar results.) Four separate, simultaneous regression analyses with the individual scales in each of the four belief clusters, gender of child, parent education, and family income as independent variables and with average school grades as the dependent variable were performed. Analyses were conducted separately for each ethnic group.

Educational attainment belief cluster. The educational attainment belief cluster consisted of parental beliefs about the ideal, minimum, and expected years of schooling they desire for their child. The overall model was significant for each group (European-American families: F (6, 74) = 3.34, MSE =

.55, p < .01; for Latino families: F (6, 69) = 3.30, MSE = .52, p < .01; and for Asian-American families: F (6, 52) = 2.46, MSE = .34, p < .05). As Table 3 shows, expected years of schooling were positively related to children's grades for European-American: (b = .23, p < .05) and Asian-American (b = .55, p < .01) families. In contrast to the other groups, none of the individual beliefs about school attainment was significantly correlated with school grades for Latino families.

Grade expectations belief cluster. For European-American and Latino 136


Parenting and School Achievement Table 3

Regression Coefficients for Relations Between Parental Beliefs and Children's Grades by Ethnic Group

Belief European-American Latino Asian-American

Ideal attainment .13 .11 -.05 Expected attainment .23* .03 .55** Minimum attainment -.04 .05 -.01 Parent education .07 .20 -.02 Family income .09* .06 .04 Gender of child .12 .32 .10

Response to B -.08 -.06 .23* Response to C .12 .03 -.22 Response to D .20* .23** -.05 Parent education .22 .22* .03 Family income .06 .03 .02 Gender of child .24 .30* .20

Develop autonomy -.01 -.06 -.02 Develop conformity -.33** -.12 .09 Parental monitoring .25* .23 -.09 Parent education .34* .23* -.01 Family income .09* .05 .04 Gender of child .17 .33* .25

Enriching environment .28* -.04 .06 Help with homework -.20 -.03 -.25* Parent efficacy .09 .14 -.11 Parent education .09 .23* .05 Family income .08* .05 .03 Gender of child .23 .25 .23

*p < .05; **p < .01.

families, the overall model composed of parents' beliefs about Bs, Cs, and Ds was significant (European-American: F (6, 81) = 3.42, MSE = .54, p < .01; Latino: F (6, 81) = 5.60, MSE = .46, p < .0001). In both groups, parents' response to children receiving Ds was correlated with children's grades (European-American: b = .20, p < .05; Latino: b = .23, p < .05). For the Asian- American families, the overall model was not significant (p > .10).

Childrearing beliefs cluster. For European-American families, the childrearing beliefs model (composed of the developing autonomy, developing conformity, and importance of parental monitoring scales) was related to average grades (F (6, 79) = 3.23, MSE = .53, p < .01). As Table 3 shows, development of conformity was negatively related to grades (b = -.33, p < .01), and importance of monitoring children's activities was positively related to grades (b = .25, p < .05). For Latino families, the childrearing belief cluster was significantly related to grades (F (6, 81) = 4.78, MSE = .49, p < .001). The

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pattern of relations between parent beliefs and children's grades was similar to that of the European-American families, but no parental belief contributed uniquely to the model. In contrast to the other groups, there was no relation between average grade and childrearing beliefs for Asian-American families (F < 1).

Parental behaviors andfeelings of efficacy cluster. For European-Ameri- can families, the relation between parental behaviors and feelings of efficacy and children's school grades was significant (F (6, 80) = 3.42, MSE = .54, p < .01). As Table 3 shows, creating an academically enriching environment (e.g., parental reading, parental encouragement of child's reading, parent-child discussion of current events) was positively related to children's grades (b = .28, p < .01). For Latino families, a different pattern emerged. The overall model was significant (F (6, 80) = 4.48, MSE = .50, p < .001), but no parental belief contributed uniquely to the model. For Asian-American families, the parental-behaviors- and feelings-of-efficacy model was not significant (p > .10). Summary As Table 3 shows, the patterns of relations between parental beliefs and children's school achievement varied across the three ethnic groups. For the European-American families, all four belief clusters were significantly related to children's grades. In particular, higher grades were associated with (a) higher expectations for the amount of schooling children will achieve, (b) greater dissatisfaction with Ds, (c) less emphasis placed on developing conforming behaviors, (d) more importance placed on monitoring children, and (e) more emphasis placed on creating an academically enriching environment.

For Latino families, all four belief clusters were significantly related to children's grades. However, as Table 3 shows, the only parental belief that uniquely contributed to its overall model was parents' responses to Ds. Higher grades were associated with greater dissatisfaction with Ds.

For Asian-American families, the only belief cluster that was significantly related to children's grades was the educational attainment cluster. The number of years of schooling that parents expect their children to attain was positively related to grades. Ethnicity, Beliefs, and School Achievement

Interactions between beliefs and ethnicity. To test for interactions between beliefs and ethnicity, all three groups were combined into four separate simultaneous regression analyses (one for each belief/behavior cluster), with average school grades as the dependent variable. The independent variables in each of the analyses were (a) the parental beliefs for the cluster (e.g., development of autonomy, encouraging conforming behaviors, and importance of parental monitoring), (b) ethnicity, (c) interactions between each belief and ethnicity (e.g., autonomy x ethnicity), (d) parental education, (e) parental education x ethnicity, (f) family income, (g) family 138


Parenting and School Achievement income x ethnicity, (h) gender of child, and (i) gender x ethnicity. The dependent variable was children's average grade. Specific contrasts tested whether the relation between each belief and grades was different for European-Americans versus Asian-Americans, European-Americans versus Latinos, and Asian-Americans versus Latinos. Because of the exploratory nature of this analysis, we include belief x ethnicity interactions that were significant at the level of a trend (p < .10).

For the educational attainment belief cluster, the interaction between expected educational attainment and ethnicity was significant at the level of a trend (F (2, 195) = 2.94, MSE = .48, p < .10). Contrasts revealed that the relations between expected attainment and average grades differed between Asian-American and Latino parents (F (1, 195) = 5.04, p < .05). As Table 3 shows, there was a positive relation between expected attainment and grades for Asian-American families but not for Latino families.

For the grade expectations belief cluster, the interaction between parents' response to Bs and ethnicity was significant at the level of a trend (F (2, 218) = 2.40, MSE = .47, p < .10). The relations between response to Bs and average grades differed between Asian-American and European- American parents (F (1, 218) = 4.17, p < .05). As Table 3 shows, there was a positive relation between response to Bs and grades for Asian-American families and no such relation for European-American families.

For the childrearing beliefs cluster, the interactions between ethnicity and encouraging conforming behaviors (F (2, 215) = 2.66, MSE = .48, p < .10) and between ethnicity and parental monitoring (F (2, 215) = 2.57, MSE = .48, p < .10) were significant at the level of a trend. European-American and Asian-American parents differed in the relations between grades and beliefs about encouraging conforming behaviors (F (1, 215) = 5.26, p < .05). With respect to encouraging conforming behaviors, there was a negative relation between the importance of conformity and grades for European Americans but no such relation for Asian Americans. There was a positive relation between parental monitoring and grades for European Americans but no similar relation for Asian Americans.

Finally, for the behaviors and efficacy cluster, no belief x ethnicity interaction was significant. Thus, when gender of child, parental education, and family income were statistically controlled, some ethnic differences in the relations between parental beliefs and children's grades emerged.

Discussion The focus of this research is on the relations between parenting beliefs and practices and children's school achievement in different ethnic groups. From our view, three interesting and pragmatically important observations can be drawn from the data.

First, the data show that parents' beliefs and behaviors differ across the ethnic groups. In general, Asian-American parents set higher educational expectations for their children. They ideally wanted their children to have more education than did other parents. They set a higher standard for the

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Okagaki and Frensch minimum amount of education that they would accept from their children. Perhaps most important, they expected their children to complete more schooling than other parents did. The Asian-American parents also set higher expectations for their children's grades. Asian-American parents were less satisfied with Bs and Cs than other parents were.

Although all parents indicated that development of children's autonomous and conforming behaviors and parents' monitoring of their children's lives were important, Latino parents placed more importance on these aspects of childrearing than the other parents did. Compared to other parents, European-American parents felt more confident about their ability to help their children succeed in school, but parents' reports of the frequency of their efforts to help children with school work did not differ.

Because the children in this study were in fourth and fifth grades, their parents' expectations for their educational attainment and for their classroom grades were likely to have been influenced by children's earlier school performance. However, we found that parents' expectations for their children's educational attainment differed across groups when children's prior school performance and parents' perceptions of their children's abilities were included as covariates. This finding is consistent with the hypothesis that differences in parents' beliefs across the three ethnic groups reflect cultural differences in beliefs and have not emerged solely in response to differences in children's previous school performances.

The difference between Asian-American parents and other parents with respect to grade expectations was of particular interest. Research comparing Japanese and American parents (for review, see, Holloway, 1988) has indicated that Japanese parents place more emphasis on the role of effort in school achievement than do American parents. Research on parents' conceptions of intelligence has indicated that Vietnamese and Filipino immigrant parents placed more importance on motivation as an aspect of intelligence than did Anglo-American, Mexican-American, or Mexican immigrant parents (Okagaki & Sternberg, 1993). If Asian-American parents believe that school achievement rests on effort rather than on innate ability, their expectations for their child's grades may not be affected by their perceptions of their child's ability. We found some evidence to support this explanation. Compared to Latino parents, Asian-American parents' responses to children's grades were less related to parents' perceptions of their children's ability to do school work.

The second major finding of the study is that parental beliefs and behaviors were related to children's school achievement within each ethnic group. However, the parental beliefs and behaviors that we assessed were more consistently related to children's school performance for the European- American families. Each of the four clusters of beliefs were related to European-American children's school performance, and in three of the four clusters at least one specific belief uniquely contributed to the model. The consistency of these results is certainly not surprising, given that these measures were based on previous research that has primarily been con- 140


Parenting and School Achievement ducted with European-American families. For the Latino families, all four of the individual clusters of beliefs were significantly related to school performance. Within each cluster, however, the individual beliefs did not do as well at capturing unique relations between beliefs and school performance. Finally, the aspects of parenting we assessed did not do well in capturing the relation between parenting and children's school performance for Asian- American families. Only the educational attainment cluster was significantly related to children's grades.

A third finding from our data is that, when we tested for belief x ethnicity interactions, we obtained some evidence consistent with the hypothesis that the relations between parental beliefs and school achievement differ across the three ethnic groups. For example, expected educational attainment was positively related to children's school achievement for Asian-American parents but not for Latino parents. Because the parenting constructs and the measures that were used were developed out of a Western psychological tradition, they may be less applicable to non-Western groups (e.g., see Chao's 1994 discussion of why authoritative and authoritarian parenting styles are not appropriate descriptors of Chinese parenting). Alternatively, or in addition to measurement and construct inadequacies, these beliefs do not stand in isolation. The conglomeration of parents' beliefs and behaviors that may work to facilitate children's school achievement in any particular group may be influenced by that group's social context. For example, Ogbu (1986, 1992) has argued that oppression by the majority group forces some minority groups to seek success and rewards outside the mainstream society. Others (e.g., Mickelson, 1990) have found that minority students' perceptions of prejudicial treatment were negatively related to their school achievement. Our point is that parents' beliefs and behaviors are related in nontrivial ways to their children's school performance but that the relations between specific types of beliefs and children's grades may differ from one group to the next.

Although we cannot draw conclusions about the direction of the relationships obtained in these data, the fact that differences in parent beliefs across ethnic groups were obtained when children's grades and parents' perceptions of children's abilities were statistically controlled suggests that there may be group differences in beliefs that exist apart from parents' responses to children's previous school achievement. Pragmatically, there may be very little that school districts can do to change the socioeconomic characteristics of children who are having difficulty in their school work. Identification of parental beliefs and self-reported behaviors that are associated with school achievement furthers our understanding of the processes that may affect children's achievement. Moreover, the fact that parental beliefs and behaviors account for variance in school performance after parental education and family income have been considered is consistent with the hypothesis that parental beliefs and behaviors may play a unique role in how children do in school.

Differences in the relations between beliefs and school achievement

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Okagaki and Frensch across groups suggest that, as educators, we cannot assume that what works for one group of families will necessarily work for another group. The social and economic context along with the global constellation of beliefs parents hold regarding multiple aspects of life (e.g., the importance of family, principles of child development, education, perspective of work, and their general world view) may make intervention strategies that work in some family contexts ineffective in other family contexts. Telling parents that they need to have higher expectations of their children may not change their expectations if their expectations are tied to their perceptions of their children's ability to handle school work. Consideration of the greater constellation of parents' beliefs, their goals for their children, and the type of help they can offer their children is necessary for helping parents facilitate their children's school experiences.

Finally, if parental beliefs and behaviors are causally related to children's school achievement, then one mediating variable is likely to be children's perceptions of parents' beliefs and the expectations that their parents have of them. Okagaki, Frensch, and Dodson (1996) reported that Mexican- American parents' beliefs about racial barriers to their children's success were related to children's perceptions of barriers. In turn, children's perceptions of barriers were related to their attitudes toward school. Consequently, besides the need to examine specific parenting beliefs and behaviors that may be more consistent with the ways in which Asian-American and Latino parents view parenting and child development, a greater understanding of children's perceptions of their parents' beliefs, expectations, and behaviors is needed.

Notes The research reported in this article was supported by a 3-year grant from The

Spencer Foundation and by a 1-year grant from the Kinley Trust. The views expressed are solely the responsibility of the authors. We would like to thank the parents and school staff who participated in this research. We also express our appreciation to Betty Jackson, Bessie Windecker-Nelson, Teresa Mok, and Pilar Gonzalez-Doupe for their help with collection and coding of data, and to Karen Diamond for insightful comments on earlier drafts.

'When referring to other research, we have adopted the terms the authors used to identify different ethnic or cultural groups.

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Accepted May 20, 1997

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Article Contentsp.[123]p.124p.125p.126p.127p.128p.129p.130p.131p.[132]p.133p.134p.135p.136p.137p.138p.139p.140p.141p.142p.143p.144

Issue Table of ContentsAmerican Educational Research Journal, Vol. 35, No. 1 (Spring, 1998), pp. 1-163Front Matter [pp.1-64]Social and Institutional AnalysisThe Differences in Theory That Matter in the Practice of School Improvement [pp.3-31]State Policy and the Non-Monolithic Nature of the Local School District: Organizational and Professional Considerations [pp.33-63]

Teaching, Learning, and Human DevelopmentHow Tutors Model Students: A Study of Personal Constructs in Adaptive Tutoring [pp.65-99]The Role of Classroom Goal Structure in Students' Use of Self-Handicapping Strategies [pp.101-122]Parenting and Children's School Achievement: A Multiethnic Perspective [pp.123-144]Stress, Coping Strategies, and Psychological Distress among Secondary School Teachers in Hong Kong [pp.145-163]

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Parenting and Children's School Achievement