Educators and researchers have suggested that positive relations with their parents would have significant impacts on children's attitudes and behaviours. The present study has two purposes: (a) to examine whether parent-child relations would influence low achievers' liking of school, and (b) to investigate whether low achievers' parent-child relations and liking of school could be improved through a focused intervention emphasizing interpersonal skills. Using a confirmatory factor analysis approach, the path from prior self-concept of parent relationship to subsequent self-concept of academic affect were examined using a sample of students who failed in the school system of Hong Kong but were provided with further education opportunities through an innovative program known as Project Yi Jin initiated by the Special Administrative Region government of Hong Kong (N = 2,779). Controlled for the effect of prior academic affect, prior parent-child relations were found to have a significant, though small, association with subsequent academic affect. The results supported the positive influence of parent-child relations on children's liking of school. Analysis of variance of pretest and posttest scores showed that as a result of a program emphasizing the development of interpersonal skills, the students improved in both parent-child relations and liking of school. The findings have important implications for a holistic approach to children's education by incorporating parent education as an important component of the education system. Appended is: Response Items and Alpha Reliabilities of Factors. (Contains 4 tables and 1 figure.).

Strengthen programs of family and community engagement to promote equity and increase student success! When schools, families, and communities collaborate and share responsibility for students′ education, more students succeed in school. Based on 30 years of research and fieldwork, the fourth edition of the bestseller School, Family, and Community Partnerships: Your Handbook for Action, presents tools and guidelines to help develop more effective and more equitable programs of family and community engagement. Written by a team of well-known experts, it provides a theory and framework of six types of involvement for action; up-to-date research on school, family, and community collaboration; and new materials for professional development and on-going technical assistance. Readers also will find: Examples of best practices on the six types of involvement from preschools, and elementary, middle, and high schools Checklists, templates, and evaluations to plan goal-linked partnership programs and assess progress CD-ROM with slides and notes for two presentations: A new awareness session to orient colleagues on the major components of a research-based partnership program, and a full One-Day Team Training Workshop to prepare school teams to develop their partnership programs. As a foundational text, this handbook demonstrates a proven approach to implement and sustain inclusive, goal-linked programs of partnership. It shows how a good partnership program is an essential component of good school organization and school improvement for student success. This book will help every district and all schools strengthen and continually improve their programs of family and community engagement.

Decades of research have demonstrated that the parent-child dyad and the environment of the familyâ€"which includes all primary caregiversâ€"are at the foundation of children's well- being and healthy development. From birth, children are learning and rely on parents and the other caregivers in their lives to protect and care for them. The impact of parents may never be greater than during the earliest years of life, when a child's brain is rapidly developing and when nearly all of her or his experiences are created and shaped by parents and the family environment. Parents help children build and refine their knowledge and skills, charting a trajectory for their health and well-being during childhood and beyond. The experience of parenting also impacts parents themselves. For instance, parenting can enrich and give focus to parents' lives; generate stress or calm; and create any number of emotions, including feelings of happiness, sadness, fulfillment, and anger. Parenting of young children today takes place in the context of significant ongoing developments. These include: a rapidly growing body of science on early childhood, increases in funding for programs and services for families, changing demographics of the U.S. population, and greater diversity of family structure. Additionally, parenting is increasingly being shaped by technology and increased access to information about parenting. Parenting Matters identifies parenting knowledge, attitudes, and practices associated with positive developmental outcomes in children ages 0-8; universal/preventive and targeted strategies used in a variety of settings that have been effective with parents of young children and that support the identified knowledge, attitudes, and practices; and barriers to and facilitators for parents' use of practices that lead to healthy child outcomes as well as their participation in effective programs and services. This report makes recommendations directed at an array of stakeholders, for promoting the wide-scale adoption of effective programs and services for parents and on areas that warrant further research to inform policy and practice. It is meant to serve as a roadmap for the future of parenting policy, research, and practice in the United States.

Studies the interactive effects of family status and family process on children's academic achievement, drawing on research with a group of students in two inner-city schools to illustrate how parenting style mediates the influences of family structure and socio-economic status on academic performance. Concludes that an integrated model is superior to the traditional view of family status and process as independent factors. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

This volume takes an international and multidisciplinary approach to understanding students’ academic achievement. It does so by integrating educational literature with developmental psychology and family studies perspectives. Each of the nine chapters focuses on a particular country: China, Colombia, Italy, Jordan, Kenya, the Philippines, Sweden, Thailand, or the United States. It describes the country as a cultural context, examines the current school system and parenting in light of the school system, and provides empirical evidence from that country regarding links between parenting and students’ academic achievement. The book highlights similarities and differences in education and parenting across these nine countries - all varying widely in socioeconomic and cultural factors that affect schools and families. The volume contributes to greater understanding of links between parenting and academic performance in different cultural groups. It sheds light on how school systems and parenting are embedded in larger cultural settings that have implications for students’ educational experiences and academic achievement. As two of the most important contexts in which children and adolescents spend time, understanding how schools and families jointly contribute to academic achievement holds promise for advancing the international agenda of promoting quality education for all.