Exploring Predictors of Parent Involvement for Rural Head Start Children

In the present study we examined parent participation in an extrafamilial context (Head Start) and the family and child development conditions that predicted such participation. Participants included 3-, 4-, and 5-year-olds and their pa rents in the Northern Utah and Southeastern Idaho areas. The families were grouped according to the ch il d's previous Head Start experience: those who had received home-based services in year one followed by center-based services in the second year ( l-IB to CB); those who had received no services in year one and home-based services in year two (HB only); and those families who had received no services in year one and center-based services in year two (CB only). Pa rent involvement was measured using the Family Involvement Questionnaire {FIQ) which measured parent involvement according to three factors: home-based involvement (II Bl), school-based involvement (SBJ), and home-school conferencing (1-lSC). The children's development assessments included the Ages and Stages Questionnaire: Social-Emotional Scale (ASQ:SE) and the Developmental Indicators for the Assessment of Learning-Third Edition (DIAL 3). Through using the FIQ, this study investigated the predictors of the type and quantity of parental involvement using class grouping (l-IB to CB, l-IB only, & CB only), family demographics. and children's ASQ:SE, and DIAL 3 scores as independent variables. Our study revealed that even though the class grouping had no significant relation to parent involvement, there were a few independent variables that were beneficial in predicting parents' involvement. The most significant finding was that the child 's ASQ:SE score could be used to help predict the variance in both home-based involvement and school-based involvement activities. This study found that the higher the number of the ASQ:SE score, the parents were less likely to participate in home-based and school-based activities. Other interesting findings included that as the number or children increased, the amount of home-based parent involvement decreased. In addition to this, we found that if the parents were European-American and married, they were more likely to report being involved in home-school conferencing activities.