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Redefining Parental Involvement: Working Class and Low-Income

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Redefining Parental Involvement: Working Class and Low-Income Redefining Parental Involvement: Working Class and Low-Income Students' Relationship to Their Parents During the First Semester of College Author: Katherine Lynk Wartman Persistent link: http://hdl.handle.net/2345/672 This work is posted on eScholarship@BC, Boston College University Libraries. Boston College Electronic Thesis or Dissertation, 2009 Copyright is held by the author, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise noted. Boston College Lynch School of Education Department of Educational Administration and Higher Education Program in Higher Education REDEFINING PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT: WORKING CLASS AND LOW-INCOME STUDENTS’ RELATIONSHIP TO THEIR PARENTS DURING THE FIRST SEMESTER OF COLLEGE Dissertation by KATHERINE LYNK WARTMAN submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy May, 2009 © Copyright by Katherine Lynk Wartman 2009 Redefining Parental Involvement in Higher Education: Working Class and Low-Income Students’ Relationship to Their Parents During the First Semester of College by Katherine Lynk Wartman Dr. Karen Arnold, Dissertation Chair ABSTRACT “Parental involvement,” a term long part of the K-12 lexicon is now included in the higher education vocabulary. Many college administrators today associate “parental involvement” with a certain pattern of behavior and describe the contemporary traditional-aged student-parent relationship with negative examples. Dubbed by the media as “helicopter parents,” this sub-population of overly involved mothers and fathers has come to represent all parents of college students, even though these examples are largely socioeconomic class-based. This qualitative phenomenological study considered the lived experience of the relationship between working class and low-income students and their parents during the first semester of college. All students in the sample were enrolled at four-year colleges and had attended an alternative high school where parental involvement was supported and encouraged. Students (n=6) participated in three open-ended, qualitative interviews and their parents (n=7) participated in two. What constitutes “parental involvement” for working class and low-income students and parents in the context of higher education? This study found that the parents had positive, emotionally supportive relationships with their students. Students were autonomous and functionally independent, but emotionally interdependent with parents. Parents in the study did not have a direct connection to their child’s college or university; students served as intermediaries in this parent-institution relationship. Therefore, this sample did not fit the current definition of parental involvement in higher education. As colleges and universities implement parent services as a reaction to the phenomenon of parental involvement, they need to consider alternative pathways for communicating with parents from lower socioeconomic groups, many of whom have not attended college. i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS As “Manny,” one student participant in this study noted, he was not the only one responsible for his success at college. It was a collective success that he shared with those who supported him in his efforts and experiences, especially his family. When he was talking about who was responsible for his success in our interview, he said, “It’s everybody that's with me…it’s a collective me.” The same can be said for my conducting and writing this dissertation study. It is not just me, but “everybody… with me” who are responsible for this final product. Who’s with me? First of all, my greatest thanks goes to my “co-researchers,” the student and parent participants in this study. Thank you for welcoming me into your into your lives and your homes, sharing your powerful stories, and allowing me to tell them. I have learned so much from each of you. To the staff at the Metropolitan Regional Career and Technical Center, particularly the five advisors with whom I worked, thank you for welcoming me into your classrooms where I felt more like a participant than an observer. To Ben Castleman and Carmen Perez, thank you for your friendship, your incredible support of this project, and above all your tireless efforts to help low-income students reach college “one student at a time.” I am grateful to my dissertation committee, Dr. Karen Arnold, Dr. Ana Martínez Alemán, and Dr. Maureen Kenny. Thank you for your sharing my enthusiasm for this project, pushing me when you knew I had room to grow, and for both recognizing my contribution to the field and helping me to see it too. To Dr. Arnold and Dr. Martínez, my work and respective relationships with each of you have been the true highlight of my doctoral experience. I cannot thank you enough for your mentorship. ii To my “partners in crime,” Harry Dumay and Susan Marine. We did it! With you, the doctoral experience felt much less like a solo endeavor and much more like a team effort. From our first class, through comprehensive exams, until we finally hit submit, you challenged my best as well as helped me to recognize what was “good enough.” I was helped a great deal by my own family, both the Lynks and Wartmans, through their unconditional love and support. To my mother Bev and mother-in-law Sue, especially, for sharing in my passion and enthusiasm for my work as well as engaging in the tedious task of editing my drafts. And finally to Dave, (now the other Dr. Wartman), my partner in this and all other of life’s tasks, who helped me to navigate through the many choices I encountered along the way and consistently reminded me, “it must be done.” iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter One: Introduction Statement of the Problem………………………………………………………… 1 Significance of the Study………………………………………………………… 3 Definition of Terms……………………………………………………………… 8 Parent/ Parenting ………………………………………………………… 8 Parental Involvement…………………………………………………….. 8 Socioeconomic Status……………………………………………………. 9 Theoretical Grounding…………………………………………………… 11 Experience With the Topic………………………………………………………. 12 Overview of the Study …………………………………………………………... 13 Chapter Two: Review of Literature Overview…………………………………………………………………………. 14 History of the Student-Parent Relationship………………………………………. 14 Current Climate: “Helicopter Parents”…………………………………… 14 “Millennials”……………………………………………………………… 16 Institutional Response to Parents…………………………………………. 19 In Loco Parentis………………………………………………………….. 20 Legal History…………………………………………………………….. 23 College Students: Children or Adults? ………………………………….. 28 What Do Students Think? ……………………………………………….. 29 Student Development Literature…………………………………………………. 31 Separation-Individuation………………………………………………… 31 Secure Attachment……………………………………………………….. 32 Attachment and Gender………………………………………………….. 35 Combining Theories……………………………………………………… 37 Measured Effects of Attachment………………………………………… 38 Attachment and Residential Status………………………………………. 40 Low-Income, First-Generation Students and Their Parents……………………… 42 Parental Involvement K-12………………………………………………. 42 Class Differences in Parenting…………………………………………… 46 Class Differences in Parent-Institution Relationship……………………. 47 Low-Income, First-Generation Students- Pre College………………….. 48 Student Experience of Parents’ Role in College Transition……………. 52 Parent Experience of Students’ Transition to College…………………… 55 The First Semester……………………………………………………….. 57 Summary…………………………………………………………………………. 58 Chapter Three: Methodology Methodology……………………………………………………………………… 60 Qualitative Research……………………………………………………… 60 Phenomenology………………………………………………………….. 62 Sample……………………………………………………………………………. 63 Population Site………………………………………………………….... 64 iv Sample……………………………………………………………………. 67 Data Collection…………………………………………………………………… 74 Pilot Study………………………………………………………………………... 79 Data Analysis…………………………………………………………………….. 80 Rigor and Validity……………………………………………………………….. 82 Positionality………………………………………………………………………. 84 Limitations……………………………………………………………………….. 89 Chapter Four: Findings Parent-Student Communication………………………………………………….. 92 Communication Frequency……………………………………………… 92 Communication Mode…………………………………………………… 95 Communication With Mothers vs. Fathers……………………………… 96 Communication Content: Need vs. Non Need-Based………………….... 98 Role Reversal With Parents……………………………………………… 100 Communication Content: Limited Topics……………………………….. 101 Communication Content: Expectations of Persistence………………….. 104 Autonomy and Individuation…………………………………………………….. 105 Students are Autonomous………………………………………………… 105 Students Are Not Sheltered………………………………………………. 107 Financial Responsibility………………………………………………….. 109 Always Independent……………………………………………………… 110 Children or Adults?..................................................................................... 113 Parents Do Not Hover……………………………………………………. 114 Collective Success……………………………………………………….. 116 Persistence: Struggles and Supports……………………………………………... 117 Struggles: Financial……………………………………………………… 117 Struggles: Academic……………………………………………………... 121 Struggles: Social/Personal………………………………………………... 123 Parental Support: “Whatever I Can Do, I Do”............................................ 124 Support: Family and Friends....................................................................... 127 Support: Campus-Based.............................................................................. 128 Support: The Met........................................................................................ 131 Parent-Student-Institution Relationship.................................................................
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