Mccormick 2013
Mccormick 2013
Mccormick 2013
An Ecological Approach
We examined relations between parent involvement and Meghan P. McCormick
kindergarten students’ behavior problems in classrooms Elise Cappella
with varying levels of teacher emotional support. Multi- Erin E. O’Connor
informant data were collected on n ⫽ 255 low-income Sandee G. McClowry
Black and Hispanic students, and n ⫽ 60 kindergarten
classrooms in the baseline year of an intervention trial.
Hierarchical linear models revealed a moderated nega-
tive effect between parents’ home-school communica-
tion and teacher emotional support on student behavior
problems in kindergarten, as well as negative associa-
tions between school-based involvement and behavior
problems. For children in classrooms with less teacher
emotional support, greater communication between
home and school was related to higher levels of behavior
problems. Among children in classrooms with more
teacher emotional support, this negative relationship
was attenuated. Results illuminate the need to consider
parent involvement within the context of classroom
practices.
P
O L I C Y M A K E R S and practitioners agree that parent involvement in ele-
mentary education, defined broadly as parents’ activities and behaviors re-
lated to children’s schooling, enhances the academic, socioemotional, and
behavioral outcomes of low-income students who are at risk for poor
achievement (Sheldon & Epstein, 2005). With the passing of the No Child Left Be-
hind Act, the federal government has mandated that elementary and secondary
Webster-Stratton, Reid, & Stoolmiller, 2008). Studies that examine distinct dimen-
sions of parent involvement frequently demonstrate positive relations with chil-
dren’s behaviors (e.g., El Nokali et al., 2010; Kohl, Lengua, McMahon, & the CPPRG,
2000). For example, using time-lagged growth models, Domina (2005) found that
parent involvement activities like homework help and school volunteering predicted
lower levels of future behavior problems for elementary school children, relative to
parents who did not engage in these activities. In addition, McWayne and colleagues
(2004) identified multiple dimensions of involvement (school based, home based,
and home school) related to young children’s positive socioemotional outcomes in a
cross-sectional study of urban, ethnic minority children.
As reviewed by McNeal (2012), one dimension of parent involvement— direct
interactions between teachers and parents— has been related to poor behavioral
outcomes. Such evidence has given rise to the reactivity hypothesis (e.g., Catsambis,
1998; Epstein, 1988), or the theory that frequency of parent involvement increases
when students act out in school. For example, controlling for initial behavior prob-
lems, Izzo, Weissberg, Kasprow, and Fendrich (1999) found that direct communica-
tion between teachers and parents in first grade predicted increases in student be-
havior problems in third grade. The authors noted that parents may have waited
until serious problems occurred at school before becoming involved.
Other studies suggest variation in the effects of parent involvement by racial-
ethnic background and socioeconomic (SES) status (Crosnoe et al., 2010; McNeal,
2012). For example, McNeal (1999) argued that the cultural capital possessed by
affluent European-American families may magnify the positive effects of parents’
involvement on changes in academic and behavioral outcomes from eighth through
twelfth grade. Moreover, Lareau (1989) contends that the parents of high-SES
underachieving children are the most involved in their children’s schooling. Given
this mixed research, additional work is needed to understand relations between dif-
ferent types of parent involvement and children’s behaviors as they operate within
samples of urban students and schools (El Nokali et al., 2010; Fan & Chen, 2001;
McWayne et al., 2004).
Although parent involvement has been studied at various stages (e.g., Crosnoe,
2009; Hill & Tyson, 2009; Kuperminc, Darnell, & Alvarez-Jimenez, 2008), it is critical
to examine the construct at the start of formal schooling because early experiences
may influence future involvement activities (Izzo et al., 1999). A great deal of empha-
sis in kindergarten is placed on helping children regulate their behavior in order to
benefit from academic instruction and succeed in social interactions (Blair, 2002;
Ponitz, McClelland, Matthews, & Morrison, 2009). Despite the importance of parent
involvement at the beginning of formal schooling, few studies have examined par-
ents’ engagement on student behaviors in kindergarten.
This lack of research is notable, given that children’s classroom behavior in kin-
dergarten is closely related to their overall adjustment to school (Ladd & Burgess,
2001) and is an important determinant of academic progress. School-related prob-
lem behaviors in kindergarten such as inattentiveness or oppositional behavior are
negatively associated with school readiness (Fantuzzo et al., 2007). In addition, eco-
logical theories suggest that children’s behavior in kindergarten classrooms may have
immediate consequences for the classroom environment and teachers’ instructional
efforts, thus influencing classroom peers in the process (Bronfenbrenner & Morris,
1998; El Nokali et al., 2010). Disruptive behavior problems (e.g., not paying attention,
hitting other children, teasing other children, yelling, crying, complaining) in early
childhood are of special concern to practitioners and researchers due to their asso-
ciation with later delinquency and school failure (Caspi, Moffitt, Newman, & Silva,
1996).
actions with parents (Walker & MacLure, 2005), possibly leading to less positive and
productive communication about the child’s problems and progress.
Examining the interactive effect of classroom emotional support and parent in-
volvement on children’s behaviors may be particularly important in low-income
urban communities where parents typically experience less than optimal collabora-
tion with schools. In an interview study of urban parents and teachers, McDermott
and Rothenberg (2000) noted that teachers reported frustration with a lack of pa-
rental involvement in literacy and math activities. In turn, parents expressed distrust
toward schools because of perceived faculty bias against Black and Hispanic families.
Given these findings, it may be particularly important to examine teacher emotional
support when considering the role of parent involvement on children’s behaviors in
urban schools. For example, it is possible that parent involvement—particularly
home-school communication—may be positively related to children’s problem-
atic behaviors if such involvement is in reaction to problematic behaviors at
school (McNeal, 2012). However, in cases in which teachers are more emotionally
supportive, such an association may be less likely. Thus, examining dimensions
of parent involvement in the context of emotionally supportive teacher practices
may yield nuanced information about how the effects of parent involvement on
student behaviors are differentiated by classrooms and teachers.
Research Questions
The aim of the current study is to extend past research by characterizing the preva-
lence of parent involvement behaviors in an urban sample, and examining relations
between three dimensions of parent involvement, observed classroom emotional
support, and student behavior problems at the beginning of kindergarten. In this
study, we will answer the following research questions: (1) What is the frequency with
which a sample of low-income Black and Hispanic parents engages in three distinct
types of parent involvement in education: home-based learning, home-school com-
munication, and school-based involvement? (2) After controlling for a number of
family and student characteristics, do these three dimensions of parent involvement
relate to teacher reports of student behavior problems? and (3) Does teachers’ ob-
served classroom emotional support moderate relations between three dimensions
of parent involvement and student outcomes, controlling for student, family, and
classroom characteristics? In answering these questions, we aim to provide a more
nuanced understanding of the interactive roles of parent involvement and classroom
emotional climate on urban kindergarten students’ behaviors.
When answering these questions, it is important to control for factors that have
the potential to confound relations between parental involvement and child behav-
iors. As such, our analyses include variables for classroom (classroom organization,
instructional support), child (child math and reading skills, age, gender), and family
(parent work status, education, marital status) characteristics associated with school
behavior problems (Amato & Cheadle, 2008; Cote, Borge, Geoffroy, Rutter, & Trem-
blay, 2008; Pomerantz, Moorman, & Litwack, 2007; Webster-Stratton et al., 2008).
Including these predictors as control variables in analyses can help ensure that the
hypothesized direct and moderated relations between dimensions of parent involve-
ment, classroom emotional support, and behavior problems are not spurious.
Method
Participants and Setting
The participants are derived from baseline data from the efficacy trial of
INSIGHTS into Children’s Temperament (see O’Connor et al. [2011] for informa-
tion about the intervention). This analysis includes n ⫽ 255 children (48% girls)
recruited in late September to early November during kindergarten. Children are
nested in n ⫽ 60 kindergarten classrooms and n ⫽ 22 schools. Three consecutive cohorts
were recruited from 2008 to 2010. The majority of students enrolled in the study were
Black, non-Hispanic (72.03%), and a smaller percentage of students were Hispanic
(18.85%). Nearly all students (85.44%) were eligible for free or reduced-price lunch.
Most parents completing research measures were biological mothers (80.72%), with
a nominal group of fathers (8.51%), grandmothers (3.44%), and foster or adoptive
mothers (2.1%).
Sixty teachers participated (97% female). Most teachers identified as Black, non-
Hispanic (55.4%), with smaller percentages identifying as Hispanic (12.3%) and
White (26.3%). According to public school records, the overall percentage of chil-
dren eligible for free or reduced-price lunch in the participating school districts
ranged from 82% to 96%. The districts serve approximately 60,000 kindergarten
children each year (New York City Department of Education, 2011).
Procedures
Participant recruitment. Schools serving predominantly low-income students
(⬎50% eligibility for free or reduced-price lunch) in three urban school districts
were targeted for participation (McClowry, O’Connor, Cappella, & McCormick,
2011). The principal investigator and project staff contacted principals over the sum-
mer months and informed them of the INSIGHTS intervention, the purpose of the
study, and data-collection procedures. Twenty-three principals agreed to participate
over three waves; one school dropped out of the study during baseline data collection
due to a change in school leadership. In September, the study was explained to the
kindergarten teachers. Ninety-six percent of kindergarten teachers (⬃2 to 4 teachers
per school) in the 22 schools provided informed consent. All children enrolled in
kindergarten at baseline in the participating schools were invited to take part in the
study. However, given resource limitations, recruitment at each school stopped once
the target number of students was recruited and those students were assessed to be
representative of the school as a whole. Chi-square tests indicated that there were no
significant differences between the children enrolled in the study and children in the
school as a whole in terms of percentage female, Black, Hispanic, and eligible for free
or reduced-price school lunch. As such, team members enrolled 4 –10 students per
classroom, or approximately 27% of the children attending kindergarten at the tar-
geted schools.
A racially and ethnically diverse team of field staff recruited parents from the
participating teachers’ classrooms during September and October. Parents were in-
formed of study goals and procedures in individual meetings at the school when
parents were present (e.g., conference days, before or after school). Written materials
were sent home with students, and interested parents contacted researchers for more
information. Children enrolled in the study were demographically similar to the
larger population of children at each school in terms of racial and ethnic background
and eligibility for free or reduced-price lunch.
Data collection. Parents completed measures at their child’s school via audio-
enhanced, computer-assisted self-interviewing software (Audio-CASI). This tech-
nology facilitates data collection for respondents with low literacy levels, limits so-
cially desirable responses, and standardizes data-collection procedures (Cooley et al.,
1996; Couper, Singer, & Tourangeau, 2003). Parents took approximately 30 minutes
to complete measures and received $20 for their time. Teachers completed paper
questionnaires for each consented student. The reports took teachers 1 to 2 hours to
complete (approximately 15 minutes per student). The teachers received $50 gift
cards upon completion to purchase classroom supplies.
Child assessments. Data collectors conducted individual child assessments with
all children participating in the study. An outside consultant trained data collectors
to administer the Applied Problems subtest of the Woodcock-Johnson III Tests of
Achievement, Form B (WJ-III) (Woodcock, McGrew, & Mather, 2001) over a one-
day training session in the fall of each year of the study (2008 –2010). A graduate
research assistant conducted a field reliability test with all data collectors before they
were permitted to assess children and collect data.
Measures
Demographic characteristics. Parents reported on parental demographic char-
acteristics, including parent racial-ethnic background, education (in years), marital
status, full- and part-time work status, employment, and age (in years). Parents also
provided information on child characteristics, including child age (in years), racial-
ethnic background, and gender. Analyses presented in the current study will include
child gender, child age, parent education, parental work status (full- and part-time
work status), parent age, and parent marital status as covariates to control for hy-
pothesized associations between these variables and child behavior problems
(Amato & Cheadle, 2008; Cote et al., 2008; Dubow, Boxer, & Huesmann, 2009;
Green, Walker, Hoover-Dempsey, & Sandler, 2007; Pomerantz et al., 2007).
Parent involvement. Parent involvement in children’s education was assessed
with the Family Involvement Questionnaire for Elementary School (FIQ-E), an ad-
aptation of a questionnaire originally developed for early childhood (FIQ-EC)
(Manz et al., 2004). Consisting of 44 parent-reported items, the FIQ-E was developed
for lower-income urban families and validated with a large sample of Black families.
The measure asks parents to report on the frequency with which they engage in a
range of behaviors related to their child’s schooling on a 4-point frequency scale in
which 1 ⫽ never, 2 ⫽ rarely, 3 ⫽ sometimes, and 4 ⫽ all the time. All items are worded
positively, but do not ask about whether the school or parent initiated a given be-
havior.
The Home-School Communication subscale of the FIQ-E includes items pertain-
ing to contact between family members and school personnel, including attendance
at conferences, phone contact, and note writing (current study ␣ ⫽ 0.91). Sample
items include “I talk to the teacher about how my child gets along with his/her
classmates in school” and “I talk with my child’s teacher on the telephone.” The
Home-Based Involvement subscale includes family activities outside of school that
encourage learning, such as maintaining routines, securing places for study in the
home, visiting educational settings in the community, and talking to children about
personal school experiences (current study ␣ ⫽ 0.88). Sample items include “I read
with my child” and “I share stories with my child about when I was in school.” The
School-Based Involvement subscale comprises conventional activities in the school
setting, for example, volunteering, attending workshops, and participation in fund-
raising (current study ␣ ⫽ 0.81). Sample items include “I attend parent workshops or
training offered by my child’s school” and “I pick my child up from school in the
afternoon.”
Student behavior problems. Behavior problems were measured with the 36-item
Sutter-Eyberg Student Behavior Inventory (SESBI), the teacher version of the Eyberg
Child Behavior Inventory (Eyberg & Pincus, 1999). On a frequency scale ranging
from 1 to 7 (1 ⫽ never, 3 ⫽ seldom, 5 ⫽ sometimes, 7 ⫽ always), teachers reported on
the frequency with which each consented child engaged in a range of disruptive
behaviors, such as “acts defiant when told to do something,” “has temper tantrums,”
“verbally fights with other students,” and “is overactive and restless.” Teachers also
reported on whether each of the disruptive behaviors posed a problem for them
when teaching. Because we were interested in examining an overall score of disrup-
tive in-school behavior problems, we used the full 36-item scale as an outcome mea-
sure. Cronbach’s alpha in the current study was 0.97.
Classroom climate. Trained data collectors conducted classroom observations to
assess three dimensions of classroom climate using the observational tool, the Class-
room Assessment Scoring System (Pianta, La Paro, & Hamre, 2008). Classrooms
were observed by a single coder who was trained following standard procedures
(Pianta, La Paro, & Hamre, 2008): (a) two-day training with a certified trainer, (b)
scoring within one point of “gold-standard” codes (scored by CLASS developers) on
80% of CLASS dimensions across four videos, and (c) completion of a live observa-
tion with a master coder. For all observers, initial codings yielded overall interrater
reliabilities of .90. Interrater reliability for the classroom practices subscales was .92
for Emotional Support (.85–.96 for each dimension), .87 for Classroom Organization
(.82–.93 for each dimension), and .91 for Instructional Support (.88 –.92 for each
dimension). As recommended in the CLASS manual (Pianta, La Paro, & Hamre,
2008), researchers observed for 15 minutes and recorded scores in the final 10 min-
utes. This procedure was repeated four times across the morning for 100 minutes of
observations and coding.
The CLASS examines 10 dimensions associated with expected classroom charac-
teristics (Pianta, La Paro, & Hamre, 2008) and related to young children’s academic
and social development (Burchinal et al., 2008; Howes et al., 2008). Using a diverse
range of study samples, Hamre and colleagues (2007) reviewed the factor structure of
the CLASS across 4,035 classrooms in the preschool and elementary school grades.
Results of these analyses provided evidence that the CLASS three-factor latent struc-
ture provided a better fit to observational data than alternative one- and two-domain
models of classroom interactions. Moreover, results of the three-domain structure
were generalizable from preschool through fifth grade.
The current study focuses on emotional support, which comprises the following
dimensions of teacher practice: Positive Climate, Negative Climate (reverse coded),
Teacher Sensitivity, and Regard for Student Perspectives (see Table 1 for additional
information on the dimensions of emotional support). While a factor analysis of the
CLASS finds support for a three-factor structure, it is important to note that the
Dimension Description
Positive climate Reflects the overall emotional tone of the classroom and the connection
between teachers and students.
Negative climate Reflects the overall level of expressed negativity in the classroom
between teachers and students (e.g., anger, aggression, irritability).
This dimension is reverse coded so that a high score indicates a low
level of negative climate.
Teacher sensitivity Encompasses teachers’ responsivity to students’ needs, and awareness
of students’ level of academic and emotional functioning.
Regard for student perspectives The degree to which the teacher’s interactions with students and
classroom activities place an emphasis on students’ interests,
motivations, and points of view, rather than being solely
teacher-driven.
emotional support factor may be moderately to highly correlated with the remaining
factors: classroom organization and instructional support (Hamre et al., 2007). In
order to isolate the effect of emotional support, analyses include classroom organi-
zation and instructional support as covariates.
Child academic achievement. Reading and math achievement were assessed us-
ing the Letter-Word ID and Applied Problems subtests of the Woodcock-Johnson III
Tests of Achievement, Form B (WJ-III) (Woodcock et al., 2001). The Letter-Word ID
subtest assesses letter naming and word decoding skills by asking children to identify
a series of letters and words. The Applied Problems subtest assessed children’s simple
counting skills and the ability to analyze and solve mathematical word problems. The
WJ-III typically correlates with measures of cognitive ability (r ⫽ .66 to .73 with the
Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence—Revised; Wechsler, 1989) and
has good internal consistency (alphas range from 0.8 to 0.9 in the literature). Re-
search suggests that academic achievement and behavior problems in elementary school
are interrelated (Duncan et al., 2007; Webster-Stratton et al., 2008). Because the behavior
problems measure included in the current study—reported by teachers—may be con-
founded with students’ academic abilities, we include student reading and math achieve-
ment as covariates in analyses.
Results
In this section, we first outline analyses performed to handle missing data. Then we
present the results of the confirmatory factor analyses we conducted on the FIQ-E.
To address our first research question, we present descriptive analyses about the
variables of interest. And, finally, we detail the results of the models run to answer our
second and third research questions.
Missing-Data Analyses
There were no missing data for the classroom-level variables. For the child-level
variables, there was 0%–10% missing data across study variables. In order to achieve
maximum power given the sample size (n ⫽ 255), individual students who were
missing data points were compared to students who were not missing data points on
a series of baseline characteristics: school, teacher, cohort, parent education, parent
work status, parent marital status, parent age, child age, child gender, and child
mathematical ability. Little’s MAR test (Little & Rubin, 1987) was used to determine
that data were missing at random.
With less than 10% missingness among study variables, we determined that we
could achieve 97% efficiency by imputing 10 separate data sets (Rubin, 1987; Yuan,
2010, 2011). As such, a multiple data imputation method was employed, and 10 sep-
arate data sets were imputed by chained equations, using SAS PROC MI in SAS
version 9.2. All conditional analyses were subsequently imported into HLM 7
(Raudenbush, Bryk, Cheong, Congdon, & du Toit, 2011) and run 10 separate times.
Final parameter estimates were generated by calculating the mean of these 10 esti-
mates.
Descriptive Analyses
Means, standard deviations, and bivariate correlations for the variables included
in study analyses are included in Table 2. Findings indicate that the average student
demonstrated a low level of behavior problems. However, the standard deviation is
notable, given that the items on the SESBI ask about particularly problematic and
disruptive behaviors. In addition, on average, teachers reported that 5.75 (SD ⫽ 8.78)
of these behaviors posed problems for them when teaching, suggesting that these
disruptive behaviors had notable implications for kindergarten classrooms.
Parents reported engaging in home-based learning activities at a point between
“sometimes” and “all of the time” (M ⫽ 3.31; SD ⫽ .42). Parents reported less fre-
quent home-school communication (between “rarely” and “sometimes”: M ⫽ 2.58;
SD ⫽ .76) and school-based involvement (M ⫽ 2.26; SD ⫽ .62). Subsequent paired
samples t-tests suggested significant differences between home-based learning and
school-based involvement (t(254) ⫽ ⫺27.84, p ⬍ .01), home-based learning and
home-school communication (t(254) ⫽ ⫺17.41, p ⬍ .01), and school-based involve-
ment and home-school communication (t(254) ⫽ 7.30, p ⬍ .01). In terms of class-
room teacher practices, emotional support scores were moderately high, while in-
structional support scores were low.
As anticipated, zero-order correlations between home-based learning and school-
based involvement, home-based learning and home-school communication, and
school-based involvement and home-school communication were positive and of
moderate strength. However, only one dimension of parent involvement— home-
school communication—showed evidence of a moderate and positive relation with
student behavior problems. In addition, there was a strong, positive correlation be-
Variable Mean SD 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
Table 3. Hierarchical Linear Models of Parent Involvement and Classroom Emotional Support
Predicting Student Behavior Problems
Fixed Effects b SE b SE b SE b SE
Behavior problems intercept 2.25 ** .10 2.36 ** .16 2.38 ** .16 2.37 ** .15
Individual level (level 1):
Child age ⫺.06 .11 ⫺.06 .11 ⫺.06 .11
Child female ⫺.37 ** .13 ⫺.35 ** .13 ⫺.37 ** .13
Child math achievement ⫺.02 .02 ⫺.02 .02 ⫺.02 .02
Child reading achievement ⫺.02 .01 ⫺.01 .01 ⫺.02 .02
Single-parent family .25 ⫹ .13 .20 .13 .20 .13
Parent works full/part-time ⫺.13 .13 ⫺.09 .14 ⫺.09 .13
Parent education ⫺.04 .03 .04 .03 .05 .03
Home-school communication .41 ** .11 .42 ** .11 .40 ** .11
School-based involvement ⫺.28 * .12 ⫺.27 * .12 ⫺.26 * .12
Home-based learning ⫺.14 .18 ⫺.17 .18 ⫺.15 .18
Classroom level (level 2):
Classroom emotional support ⫺.36 * .16 ⫺.35 * .16
Classroom organization ⫺.03 .16 ⫺.04 .16
Classroom instructional support .24 ⫹ .12 .23 ⫹ .12
Classroom emotional support ⫻
home-school communication ⫺.26 * .09
Classroom emotional support ⫻
school-based involvement .07 .13
Classroom emotional support ⫻
home-based learning ⫺.03 .22
Random effects:
Classroom-level variance .19 * .09 .18 .09 .09 .07 .09 .07
School-level variance .06 .07 .05 .07 .03 .05 .03 .05
Residual variance 1.02 ** .10 .81 ** .08 .80 ** .08 .80 ** .08
Fit statistics:
AIC 726.84 698.70 687.97 685.00
Pseudo R2 .07 .09 .10
Note.—n ⫽ 255 students, n ⫽ 60 classrooms, n ⫽ 22 schools. Model 1 df ⫽ 251; Model 2 df ⫽ 241; Model 3 df ⫽ 43; Model 4 df ⫽ 34.
⫹
p ⬍ .10.
* p ⬍ .05.
** p ⬍ .01.
price lunch given the composition of the sample (i.e., the large majority of students
were Black and eligible for free/reduced-price lunch).
Results from Model 2 revealed that parental engagement in home-based learning
activities was not significantly related to student behavior problems. However, par-
ent reports of home-school communication were positively and significantly associ-
ated with teacher reports of student behavior problems. As such, this analysis sug-
gests that home-school communication is associated with higher rates of student
behavior problems, net of the remaining dimensions of involvement and child and
parent characteristics. In contrast, school-based involvement practices were signifi-
cantly and negatively associated with student behavior problems. This finding indi-
cates that higher rates of parents’ school-based involvement practices are associated
with lower levels of teacher-reported behavior problems, controlling for the remain-
ing two dimensions of involvement as well as child and parent characteristics.
Next, the three domains of classroom teacher practices—(1) classroom emotional
support, (2) classroom organization, and (3) instructional support—were simulta-
Discussion
Within an ecological framework, this study examined rates of parent involvement in
low-income urban schools, associations between three dimensions of parent in-
volvement and student behavior problems, and interactive effects of emotionally
supportive teacher practices and parent involvement on student behavior problems.
Low-income urban parents reported engaging in home-based learning activities
quite often. Participation in home-school communication and school-based in-
volvement, however, was less frequent. Although similar to the findings identified by
Manz and colleagues (2004), this pattern is more pronounced, and differences in
frequency of behaviors were statistically significant. Multilevel analyses, controlling
for several child and family covariates, initially revealed a positive relation between
home-school communication and behavior problems and a negative relation be-
tween school-based involvement and behavior problems. No association was found
between home-based learning and behavior problems. When considering effects of
parent involvement in varying classrooms, teacher emotional support moderated
the relation between home-school communication and student behavior problems
but not the associations between the remaining parent involvement dimensions and
Study Limitations
This study has four key limitations. First, the data used in the study are cross-
sectional and offer a descriptive snapshot of these relations at one time point. Al-
though this study offers possible explanations for the associations observed, due to
the correlational nature of the analyses, we are unable to infer causality from the
tested models. Moreover, the cross-sectional data do not allow for directional infer-
ences. Although the sample sizes at level 1 and level 2 are consistent with those
suggested by Snijders (2005), the study may be underpowered for the number of
predictors included in the models (Babyak, 2004). Additionally, it is possible that
there are unobserved variables confounding the results. An important direction for
future research is to use repeated measures to examine growth trajectories and better
identify the directionality of the associations examined in these analyses.
Second, the current study used frequency scales to operationalize dimensions of
parent involvement. Although quantity is critical in conceptualizing the role of par-
ent involvement, scales focused on the quality of parent involvement are important
to consider. In addition, parents were not asked to provide information on whether
they initiated involvement activities. Future surveys should include questions that
ask parents to report on their reactivity to issues that arise at school. In order to
address measurement issues and further examine how teaching practices relate to
parents’ home-school communication, future research may use observational meth-
ods to assess parent-teacher interactions (e.g., parent-teacher conferences). This en-
other important factors—that effectively serve the needs of schools, parents, and
students.
Appendix A
Equations
Equation 1
In equation 1, included here in the mixed-model format, i represents students, j repre-
sents classrooms, and k represents schools. 0 is the individual-level intercept for behav-
ior problems; 1ijk, 2ijk, 3ijk, 4ijk, 5ijk, 6ijk, 7ijk, 8ijk, 9ijk, and 10ijk are level 1 slopes for
relations between child individual characteristics, parent involvement dimensions, and
behavior problems; u0jk is the group level residual, or the unique effect of classroom j on
mean behavior problems holding all predictors constant; k is the variance term that
represents the group-level residual, or the unique effect of classroom k on mean behavior
problems, holding all predictors constant; and rijk is the individual-level residual. This
model assumes that rijk is normally distributed around a mean of 0, and that the variance
components are homogenous and independent of one another:
Equation 2
Equation 2 builds on equation 1 and includes main effects, 10jk, 12jk, 13jk, 14jk, for class-
room emotional support, classroom organization, instructional support, and class size,
as well as three cross-level interactions, 15ijk, 16ijk, 17ijk, between the three dimensions of
parent involvement and classroom emotional support. A random slope, 18u, was in-
cluded for classroom emotional support as well.
Note
The research reported here was supported by the Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department
of Education, through grants R305B080019 and R305A080512 to New York University. The opin-
ions expressed are those of the authors and do not represent views of the Institute or the U.S.
Department of Education.
References
Adams, K. C., & Christenson, S. L. (2000). Trust and the family-school relationship: Examination
of parent-teacher differences in elementary and secondary grades. Journal of School Psychology,
38, 477– 497.
Aiken, L. S., & West, S. G. (1991). Multiple regression: Testing and interpreting interactions. Newbury
Park, CA: Sage.
Amato, P. R., & Cheadle, J. (2008). Parental divorce, marital conflict, and children’s behavior
problems: A comparison of adopted and biological children. Social Forces, 86, 1139 –1161.
Babyak, M. A. (2004). What you see may not be what you get: A brief, nontechnical introduction to
overfitting in regression-type models. Psychosomatic Medicine, 66(3), 411– 421.
Bandura, A. (1977). Social learning theory. In B. B. Wolman & L. R. Pomroy (Eds.), International
encyclopedia of psychiatry, psychology, psychoanalysis, and neurology (Vol. 10, pp. 126 –129). New
York: Van Nostrand Reinhold.
Bandura, A. (1988). Perceived self-efficacy: Exercise of control through self-belief. In J. P. Dauwal-
der, M. Perrez, & V. Hobi (Eds.), Annual series of European research in behavior therapy (Vol. 2,
pp. 27–59). Lisse, NL: Swets & Zeitlinger.
Blair, C. (2002). School readiness: Integrating cognition and emotion in a neurobiological concep-
tualization of children’s functioning at school entry. American Psychologist, 57, 111–127.
Bronfenbrenner, U., & Morris, P. A. (1998). The ecology of developmental processes. In W. Damon
(Series Ed.) & R. M. Lerner (Vol. Ed.), Handbook of child psychology: Vol. 1. Theoretical models of
human development (5th ed., pp. 993–1028). New York: Wiley.
Brophy, J. (1999). Perspectives of classroom management: Yesterday, today, and tomorrow. In H. J.
Freiberg (Ed.), Beyond behaviorism: Changing the classroom management paradigm (pp. 43–56).
Needham Heights, MA: Allyn and Bacon.
Brown, J. L., Jones, S. M., LaRusso, M. D., & Aber, J. L. (2010). Improving classroom quality:
Teacher influences and experimental impacts of the 4Rs program. Journal of Educational Psy-
chology, 102(1), 153–167.
Brown, K. M., Benkovitz, J., Muttillo, A. J., & Urban, T. (2011). Leading schools of excellence and equity:
Documenting effective strategies in closing achievement gaps. Teachers College Record, 113(1), 57–96.
Bulotsky-Shearer, R. J., Dominguez, X., Bell, E. R., Rouse, H., & Fantuzzo, J. W. (2010). Relations
between behavior problems in classroom social and learning situations and peer social competence
in Head Start and kindergarten. Journal of Emotional and Behavioral Disorders, 18(4), 195–210.
Burchinal, M., Howes, C., Pianta, R., Bryant, D., Early, D., Clifford, R., & Barbarin, O. (2008).
Predicting child outcomes at the end of kindergarten from the quality of pre-kindergarten
teacher-child interactions and instruction. Applied Developmental Science, 12(3), 140 –153.
Carson, R. L., & Templin, T. J. (2007). Emotion regulation and teacher burnout: Who says that the
management of emotional expression doesn’t matter? Paper presented at the American Education
Research Association Annual Convention, Chicago.
Caspi, A., Moffitt, T. E., Newman, D. L., & Silva, P. A. (1996). Behavioral observations at age three
years predict adult psychiatric disorders: Longitudinal evidence from a birth cohort. Archives of
General Psychiatry, 53, 1033–1039.
Catsambis, S. (1998). Expanding knowledge of parent involvement in secondary education: Effects
on high school academic success (Report 27). Retrieved from http://www.csos.jhu.edu/crespar/
techReports/Report27.pdf
Cohen, J., Cohen, P., West, S., & Aiken, L. S. (2004). Applied multiple regression/correlation analysis
for the behavioral sciences. New York: Erlbaum.
Cooley, P. C., Turner, C. F., O’Reilly, J. M., Allen, D. R., Hamill, D. N., & Paddock, R. E. (1996).
Audio-CASI: Hardware and software considerations in adding sound to a computer-assisted
interviewing system. Social Science Computer Review, 14(2), 197–204.
Cooper, C. E. (2010). Family poverty, school-based parental involvement, and policy-focused pro-
tective factors in kindergarten. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 25, 480 – 492.
Cote, S. M., Borge, A. I., Geoffroy, M., Rutter, M., & Tremblay, R. E. (2008). Nonmaternal care in
infancy and emotional/behavioral difficulties at 4 years old: Moderation by family risk charac-
teristics. Developmental Psychology, 44, 155–168.
Couper, M. P., Singer, E., & Tourangeau, R. (2003). Understanding the effects of Audio-CASI on
self-reports of sensitive behavior. Public Opinion Quarterly, 67(3), 385–395.
Crosnoe, R. (2009). Family-school connections and the transitions of low-income youth and Eng-
lish language learners from middle school into high school. Developmental Psychology, 45(4),
1061–1076.
Crosnoe, R., Leventhal, T., Wirth, R. J., Pierce, K. M., Pianta, R. C., & NICHD Early Child Care
Research Network. (2010). Family socioeconomic status and consistent environmental stimu-
lation in early childhood. Child Development, 81(3), 972–987.
Domina, T. (2005). Leveling the home advantage: Assessing the effectiveness of parental involve-
ment in elementary school. Sociology of Education, 78, 233–249.
Drake, D. D. (2000). Parents and families as partners in the education process: Collaboration for
the success of students in public schools. ERS Spectrum, 18(2), 34 –39.
Dubow, E. F., Boxer, P., & Huesmann, L. R. (2009). Long-term effects of parents’ educational and
occupational success: Mediation by family interactions, child aggression, and teenage aspira-
tions. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 55(3), 224 –249.
Duch, H. (2005). Redefining parent involvement in Head Start: A two-generation approach. Early
Child Development and Care, 175(1), 23–35.
Duncan, G. J., Dowsett, C. J., Claessens, A., Magnuson, K., Huston, A. C., Klebanov, P., . . ., Japel,
C. (2007). School readiness and later achievement. Developmental Psychology, 43, 1428 –1446.
Eccles, J., & Roeser, R. (1999). School and community influences on human development. In M. H.
Bornstein & M. E. Lamb (Eds.), Developmental psychology: An advanced textbook (4th ed., pp.
503–554). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
El Nokali, N. E., Bachman, H. J., & Votruba-Drzal, E. (2010). Within- and between-child parent
involvement and academic and social skills in elementary school. Child Development, 81, 988 –
1005.
Epstein, J. (1988). Homework practices, achievements, and behaviors of elementary school students
(Report No. 26). Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University, Center for Research on Elementary and
Middle Schools.
Epstein, J. L. (2001). School, family, and community partnerships: Preparing educators and improving
schools. Boulder, CO: Westview.
Eyberg, S. M., & Pincus, D. (1999). Eyberg Child Behavior Inventory and Sutter-Eyberg Student
Behavior Inventory: Professional manual. Odessa, FL: Psychological Assessment Resources.
Fan, X. T., & Chen, M. (2001). Parental involvement and students’ academic achievement: A
meta-analysis. Educational Psychology Review, 13, 1–22.
Fantuzzo, J., Bulotsky-Shearer, R., McDermott, P. A., McWayne, C., Frye, D., & Perlman, S. (2007).
Investigation of dimensions of social-emotional classroom behavior and school readiness for
low-income urban preschool children. School Psychology Review, 36, 44 – 62.
Fantuzzo, J., McWayne, C., & Perry, M. A. (2004). Multiple dimensions of family involvement and
their relations to behavioral and learning competencies for urban, low-income children. School
Psychology Review, 33, 467– 480.
Galindo, C., & Sheldon, S. B. (2012). School and home connections and children’s kindergarten
achievement gains: The mediating role of family involvement. Early Childhood Research Quar-
terly, 27(1), 90 –103.
Gonzalez-DeHass, A. R., Willems, P. P., & Holbein, F. D. (2005). Examining the relationship
between parental involvement and student motivation. Educational Psychology Review, 17(2),
99 –122.
Green, C. L., Walker, J. M., Hoover-Dempsey, K. V., & Sandler, H. W. (2007). Parents’ motivations
for involvement in children’s education: An empirical test of a theoretical model of parental
involvement. Journal of Educational Psychology, 99, 532–544.
Grolnick, W., & Slowiaczek, M. (1994). Parents’ involvement in children’s schooling: A multidi-
mensional conceptualization and motivational model. Child Development, 65, 237–252.
Gutman, L. M., & McLoyd, V. C. (2000). Parents’ management of their children’s education within
the home, at school, and in the community: An examination of African-American families
living in poverty. Urban Review, 32, 1–24.
Hamre, B. K., & Pianta, R. C. (2001). Early teacher-child relationships and the trajectory of chil-
dren’s school outcomes through eighth grade. Child Development, 72(2), 625– 638.
Hamre, B. K., & Pianta, R. C. (2005). Can instructional and emotional support in the first grade
classroom make a difference for children at risk of school failure? Child Development, 76(5),
949 –967.
Hamre, B. K., Pianta, R. C., Downer, J. T., Hakigami, A., Mashburn, A. J., Jones, S., Brown, J.,
Cappella, E., Atkins, M. S., Rivers, S. E., & Brackett, M. A. (2013). Teaching through Interac-
tions: Testing a developmental framework of teacher effectiveness in over 4,000 classrooms.
Elementary School Journal, 113, 561–587.
Hamre, B. K., Pianta, R. C., Mashburn, A. J., & Downer, J. T. (2007). Building a science of classrooms:
Application of the CLASS framework in over 4,000 U.S. early childhood and elementary classrooms.
New York: Foundation for Child Development.
Hill, N. E., & Tyson, D. F. (2009). Parental involvement in middle school: A meta-analytic assess-
ment of the strategies that promote achievement. Developmental Psychology, 45(30), 740 –763.
Hoover-Dempsey, K. V., & Sandler, H. M. (1997). Why do parents become involved in their
children’s education? Review of Educational Research, 67, 3– 42.
Hoover-Dempsey, K. V., Walker, J. M. T., & Sandler, H. M., (2005). Parents’ motivations for
involvement in their children’s education. In E. N. Patrikakou, R. P. Weisberg, S. Redding, &
H. J. Walberg, (Eds.), School-family partnerships for children’s success (pp. 40 –56). New York:
Teachers College Press.
Howes, C., Burchinal, M., Pianta, R., Bryant, D., Early, D., Clifford, R., & Barbarin, O. (2008).
Ready to learn? Children’s pre-academic achievement in pre-kindergarten programs. Early
Childhood Research Quarterly, 23(1), 27–50.
Izzo, C. V., Weissberg, R. P., Kasprow, W. J., & Fendrich, M. (1999). A longitudinal assessment of
teacher perceptions of parent involvement in children’s education and school performance.
American Journal of Community Psychology, 27, 817– 839.
James, D. W., Jurich, S., & Estes, S. (2001). Raising minority academic achievement: A compendium
of education programs and practices. Washington, DC: American Youth Policy Forum.
Jennings, P. A., & Greenberg, M. T. (2009). The prosocial classroom: Teacher social and emotional
competence in relation to child and classroom outcomes. Review of Educational Research, 79, 491–
525.
Kohl, G. O., Lengua, L. J., McMahon, R. J., & the Conduct Problems Prevention Research Group.
(2000). Parent involvement in school: Conceptualizing multiple dimensions and their relations
with family and demographic risk factors. Journal of School Psychology, 28, 501–523.
Kuperminc, G. P., Darnell, A. J., & Alvarez-Jimenez, A. (2008). Parent involvement in the academic
adjustment of Latino middle and high school youth: Teacher expectations and school belong-
ings as mediators. Journal of Adolescence, 31(4), 469 – 483.
Ladd, G. W., & Burgess, K. B. (2001). Do relational risks and protective factors moderate the
linkages between childhood aggression and early psychological and school adjustment? Child
Development, 72, 1579 –1601.
Lareau, A. (1989). Home advantage. London: Falmer.
Lasky, S. (2000). The cultural and emotional politics of teacher–parent interactions. Teaching and
Teacher Education, 16, 843– 860.
Little, R. J. A., & Rubin, D. B. (1987). Statistical analysis with missing data. New York: Wiley.
Lucas-Thompson, R. G., Goldberg, W. A., & Prause, J. (2010). Maternal work early in the lives of
children and its distal associations with achievement and behavior problems: A meta-analysis.
Psychological Bulletin, 136, 915–942.
Manz, P. H., Fantuzzo, J. W., & Power, T. J., (2004). Multidimensional assessment of family
involvement among urban elementary students. Journal of School Psychology, 42(6), 461– 475.
Marcon, R. A. (1999). Positive relationships between parent school involvement and public school
inner-city preschoolers’ development and academic performance. School Psychology Review,
28(3), 395– 412.
McCartney, K., Burchinal, M., & Bub, K. L. (2006). Selection, detection, and reflection. In K. McCart-
ney, M. Burchinal, & K. L. Bub (Eds.), Best practices in quantitative methods for developmentalists.
Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 71(3). Boston: Blackwell.
McClowry, S. G., O’Connor, E., Cappella, E., & McCormick, M. (2011, March). A preliminary
examination of the efficacy of INSIGHTS in enhancing the academic learning context. Paper pre-
sented at the Society for Research on Educational Effectiveness Conference, Washington, DC.
McDermott, P., & Rothenberg, J. (2000). Why urban parents resist involvement in their children’s
elementary education. Qualitative Report. Retrieved from http://www.nova.edu/˜QR/QR5-3/
mcdermott.html
McNeal, R. B. (1999). Parental involvement as social capital: Differential effectiveness on science
achievement, truancy, and dropping out. Social Forces, 78(1), 117–144.
McNeal, R. B. (2012). Checking in or checking out? Investigating the parent involvement reactive
hypothesis. Journal of Educational Research, 105(2), 79 – 89.
McWayne, C., Hampton, V., Fantuzzo, J., Cohen, H. L., & Sekino, Y. (2004). A multivariate
examination of parent involvement and the social and academic competencies of urban kin-
dergarten children. Psychology in the Schools, 41(3), 363–377.
Muthén, L. K., & Muthén, B. O. (2009). Mplus 5.21: Statistical analysis with latent variables. Los
Angeles.
New York City Department of Education. (2011). New York City Department of Education 2010 –
2011 updated class size report. Retrieved from http://schools.nyc.gov/AboutUs/data/
classsize/classsize.htm
No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, Pub. L. No. 107-110, 115 Stat. 1425 (2002). Retrieved from http://
www.ed.gov/legislation/ESEA02/
Nzinga-Johnson, S., Baker, J., & Aupperlee, J. (2009). The quality of teacher-parent relationships in
fostering school involvement among racially and educationally diverse parents at kindergarten.
Elementary School Journal, 110, 81–91.
O’Connor, E. E., Rodriguez, E., Cappella, E., Morris, J., Collins, A., & McClowry, S. (2011). Child
disruptive behavior and parenting sense of competence: A comparison of the effects of two
models of INSIGHTS. Journal of Community Psychology, 40, 555–572.
Pianta, R. C., Belsky, J., Vandergrift, N., Houts, R., & Morrison, F. J. (2008). Classroom effects on
children’s achievement trajectories in elementary school. American Educational Research Jour-
nal, 45, 365–397.
Pianta, R. C., La Paro, K. M., & Hamre, B. K. (2008). Classroom Assessment Scoring System manual.
Baltimore, MD: Brookes.
Pianta, R. C., La Paro, K. M., Payne, C., Cox, M. J., & Bradley, R. (2002). The relation of kinder-
garten classroom environment to teacher, family, and school characteristics and child out-
comes. Elementary School Journal, 102, 225 – 238.
Pomerantz, E. M., Moorman, E. A., & Litwack, S. D. (2007). The how, whom and why of parents’
involvement in children’s academic lives: More is not always better. Review of Educational
Research, 77(3), 373– 410.
Ponitz, C. C., McClelland, M. M., Matthews, J. S., & Morrison, F. J. (2009). A structured observa-
tion of behavioral self-regulation and its contribution to kindergarten outcomes. Developmen-
tal Psychology, 45, 605– 619.
Preacher, K. J., Curran, P. J., & Bauer, D. J. (2006). Computational tools for probing interaction
effects in multiple linear regression, multilevel modeling, and latent curve analysis. Journal of
Educational and Behavioral Statistics, 31, 437– 448.
Pressley, M., Roehrig, A., Raphael, L., Dolezal, S., Bohn, C., Mohan, L., Wharton-McDonald, R.,
Bogner, K., & Hogan, K. (2003). Teaching processes in elementary and secondary education. In
W. Reynolds & G. Miller (Eds.), Handbook of psychology: Vol 7. Educational psychology (pp.
153–176). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
Raudenbush, S. W. (2009). Adaptive centering with random effects: An alternative to the fixed
effects model for studying time-varying treatments in school settings. Journal of Education,
Finance and Policy, 4(4), 468 – 491.
Raudenbush, S. W., & Bryk, A. S. (2002). Hierarchical linear models (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA:
Sage.
Raudenbush, S. W., Bryk, A. S., Cheong, Y. F., Congdon, R. T., & du Toit, M. (2011). HLM 7:
Hierarchical linear and nonlinear modeling. Chicago: Scientific Software International.
Raver, C. C., Jones, S. M., Li-Grining, C. P., Metzger, M., Champion, K. M., & Saldin, L. (2008).
Improving preschool classroom processes: Preliminary findings from a randomized trial im-
plemented in Head Start settings. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 23(1), 10 –26.
Rimm-Kauffman, S. (1999). Patterns of family-school contact in preschool and kindergarten.
School Psychology Review, 28, 426 – 438.
Rubin, D. B. (1987). Multiple imputation for nonresponse in surveys. New York: Wiley.
Sheldon, S. B., & Epstein, J. L. (2005). School programs of family and community involvement to
support children’s reading and literacy development across the grades. In J. Flood & P. Anders
(Eds.), The literacy development of students in urban schools: Research and policy (pp. 107–138).
Newark, DE: International Reading Association.
Singer, J. D., & Willett, J. B. (2003). Applied longitudinal data analysis: Methods for studying change
and event occurrence. New York: Oxford University Press.
Snijders, T. (2005). Power and sample size in multilevel linear models. In B. S. Everitt & D. C.
Howell (Eds.), Encyclopedia of statistics in behavioral science (Vol. 3, pp. 1570 –1573). Chicester:
Wiley.
Thelen, E., & Smith, L. B. (2006). Dynamic systems theories. In W. Damon & R. M. Lerner (Eds.),
Handbook of child psychology (6th ed., Vol. 1, pp. 258 –271). New York: Wiley.
Walker, M., & MacLure, M. (2005). Home-school partnerships in practice. In G. Crozier & D. Reay
(Eds.), Activating participation: Parents and teachers working towards partnerships (pp. 97–110).
Stoke-on-Trent: Trentham Books.
Webster-Stratton, C., Reid, M. J., & Stoolmiller, M. (2008). Preventing conduct problems and
improving school readiness: Evaluation of the incredible year teacher and child training pro-
grams in high risk schools. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 49(5), 471– 488.
Wechsler, D. (1989). Manual for the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence—Revised.
San Antonio, TX: Psychological Corp.
Woodcock, R. W., McGrew, K. S., & Mather, N. (2001). Examiner’s manual. Woodcock-Johnson III
Tests of Achievement. Itasca, IL: Riverside.
Yuan, Y. C. (2010). Multiple imputation for missing data: Concepts and new development. Proceed-
ings of the SAS Users Group International Conference, Paper No. 267-25.
Yuan, Y. C. (2011). Multiple imputation using SAS software. Journal of Statistical Software, 45(6),
1–25.