Predicting Latinx Family-School Connections: The Role of School Cultural Climate

Karalynn Brown & Donna Chen Author

04/04/2021 Added

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This study explored the factor structure of a measure of school cultural climate for parents of Latinx students referred for social-behavioral difficulties. It also examined the relationship between parents' perceptions of school cultural climate and their interactions and relationships with teachers.

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[00:00:01.210]Hello, and thank you
[00:00:02.210]for viewing our presentation
[00:00:03.790]on Predicting Latinx Family-School Connections,
[00:00:06.510]The Role of School Cultural Climate.
[00:00:09.620]My name is Karalynn Brown and I'm a doctoral candidate
[00:00:12.340]in the School Psychology Program
[00:00:13.940]in the Department of Educational Psychology.
[00:00:16.690]Also presenting with me is Donna Chen
[00:00:18.830]who is a doctoral candidate in the Quantitative,
[00:00:21.400]Qualitative and Psychometric Methods Program
[00:00:24.160]in the Department of Educational Psychology.
[00:00:27.020]We also had a team of people working on this project with us
[00:00:30.440]from the Nebraska Center for Research on Children,
[00:00:32.460]Youth, Families, & Schools.
[00:00:36.650]Research shows us that positive family-school connections
[00:00:39.890]benefit children in a wide variety of ways,
[00:00:42.520]including academically, behaviorally, and socially.
[00:00:46.930]However, not all families experience
[00:00:49.280]positive connections with schools.
[00:00:51.340]Some families may experience conflicts
[00:00:53.380]or marginalization in interacting with school personnel.
[00:00:57.130]For example, the literature shows that families of children
[00:00:59.980]with social behavioral difficulties
[00:01:02.160]might disengage with schools over time
[00:01:04.410]and experience discordant relationships with teachers.
[00:01:08.170]Furthermore, Latinx parents have reported in the literature
[00:01:11.840]having poor relationships with teachers
[00:01:14.140]and at times feeling unwelcome in schools.
[00:01:18.790]There is a critical need to examine school contexts
[00:01:22.150]through a cultural-ecological lens
[00:01:24.280]to help identify aspects that might promote
[00:01:26.600]family-school connections
[00:01:27.980]among minoritized parents.
[00:01:30.590]Parents' perception of school climate
[00:01:33.580]are linked to their engagement
[00:01:35.210]with their children's schools,
[00:01:36.640]but they're not often measured,
[00:01:38.440]likely due to the absence of measures
[00:01:40.520]tapping this construct.
[00:01:42.820]Furthermore, little is known about the link
[00:01:45.240]between school cultural climate
[00:01:46.990]and family-school connections for Latinx students,
[00:01:49.720]especially those who experience
[00:01:51.240]social-behavioral challenges.
[00:01:54.350]Therefore, we had two aims with the study.
[00:01:57.220]First, we wanted to explore the factor structure
[00:02:00.240]of a measure of school cultural climate
[00:02:02.170]for parents of Latinx students
[00:02:03.620]with social-behavioral difficulties.
[00:02:06.380]We also wanted to use that factor structure
[00:02:08.950]to examine how school cultural climate
[00:02:11.660]relates to Latinx parents relationships with teachers
[00:02:14.570]and their interaction quality with teachers.
[00:02:18.540]Our sample is drawn from an ongoing,
[00:02:20.850]randomized controlled trial
[00:02:23.480]testing the efficacy of a family-school partnership
[00:02:26.800]intervention for Latinx students.
[00:02:30.380]Parents of Latinx students from 45 schools
[00:02:33.960]in the Midwestern and Western United States participated.
[00:02:38.570]Teachers referred students for social-behavioral concerns
[00:02:42.270]and participants had to meet certain criteria
[00:02:44.700]on a behavioral screener in order to be part of the study.
[00:02:50.640]In this presentation, we were interested
[00:02:53.000]in looking at three different outcomes,
[00:02:55.630]school cultural climate, relationships with teachers
[00:02:59.170]and interaction quality with teachers.
[00:03:01.970]So for school cultural climate
[00:03:04.030]we used the Parent Perceptions about School measure
[00:03:07.700]And this is an unpublished measure
[00:03:10.280]initially developed from previous studies.
[00:03:13.120]These items are specific to the experiences
[00:03:15.680]of Latinx families in schools
[00:03:17.700]and were added based on an expert panel review.
[00:03:22.400]It includes 12 items rated on a 5-point Likert scale,
[00:03:26.570]assessing the degree to which parents agree with statements
[00:03:30.460]about them and their child's experience
[00:03:33.140]with the school cultural climate.
[00:03:36.810]The second measure is the Parent-Teacher Relationship Scale,
[00:03:41.740]on which parents rated their agreement with statements
[00:03:44.800]about the quality of the relationship
[00:03:46.840]with their child's teacher.
[00:03:49.370]In a previous study,
[00:03:50.880]we looked specifically at a Latinx sample
[00:03:54.930]and found that this measure has four underlying factors:
[00:03:58.850]Mutual Support, Relationship Barriers,
[00:04:02.580]Respect and Expectations, and Communication-to-Other.
[00:04:08.190]Our final scale is the Interaction Quality Scale,
[00:04:11.560]which measures the degree to which parents
[00:04:13.730]used engagement type behaviors,
[00:04:15.840]such as active listening or sharing information,
[00:04:19.800]during a recent meeting with a teacher.
[00:04:22.680]The two underlying factors for this scale
[00:04:25.550]are Problem-Solving Skills and Communication Quality.
[00:04:30.890]English or Spanish versions of each questionnaire
[00:04:33.360]were available based on parent preference.
[00:04:40.890]To address both of our aims
[00:04:43.750]we used different types of analyses.
[00:04:46.610]So for aim one, we use an exploratory factor analysis
[00:04:51.230]to determine the underlying latent factors of the PPS.
[00:04:56.770]And then we followed that up
[00:04:58.560]with a confirmatory factor analysis
[00:05:01.560]to ensure that the factors we found in the EFA
[00:05:05.210]really were still showing in another sample.
[00:05:10.380]To address our aim two,
[00:05:12.150]we used a multivariate path analysis
[00:05:14.870]to estimate the linear relationship
[00:05:17.150]between PPS and parents' interaction quality
[00:05:20.240]and relationships with teachers.
[00:05:27.940]So for aim one, we found that there are two
[00:05:30.720]underlying factors for the PPS measure.
[00:05:34.840]The first factor we refer to
[00:05:37.010]as the General Perception of School,
[00:05:40.010]and this involves items such as,
[00:05:42.910]"This is a very good school,"
[00:05:45.140]or, "You feel welcomed at this school."
[00:05:49.290]The second factor we refer to
[00:05:51.770]as the Perception of Cultural Context,
[00:05:54.600]and this is more culturally specific.
[00:05:57.580]So one of the items is, "This school celebrates the holidays
[00:06:01.430]of your culture or origin."
[00:06:09.890]For our aim two, we looked at a multivariate path analysis.
[00:06:15.840]And this analysis suggests
[00:06:17.620]that parents' general perceptions of school,
[00:06:20.540]related to parent reports of the four aspects
[00:06:24.300]of the parent-teacher relationship.
[00:06:26.940]So in particular, we see that parents' general positive
[00:06:30.470]perceptions of school related to higher mutual support,
[00:06:35.480]respect and expectations, and communication with teachers.
[00:06:39.890]Whereas it related to lower relationship barriers
[00:06:42.940]with teachers.
[00:06:48.500]Results indicated
[00:06:49.680]that Latinx parents perceptions of school cultural climate
[00:06:52.910]may include a general component
[00:06:54.590]and a specific cultural component.
[00:06:56.960]However, the PPS measure may not have covered
[00:06:59.690]all aspects of the school cultural climate
[00:07:01.980]that are relevant to Latinx parents.
[00:07:04.500]Further research could utilize approaches
[00:07:06.720]that invite Latinx parents to share their perceptions
[00:07:09.250]of school cultural climate.
[00:07:11.620]Among parents of Latinx students
[00:07:13.150]with social-behavioral difficulties,
[00:07:14.990]their overall impression of the school cultural climate
[00:07:17.410]significantly related to all aspects of parents' report
[00:07:20.730]of their relationships with teachers.
[00:07:23.110]Researchers and school-based personnel
[00:07:25.430]who are concerned about equity
[00:07:26.900]should consider how the school cultural climate
[00:07:29.010]may be perceived by Latinx parents.
[00:07:31.550]Furthermore, interventions that are aimed at enhancing
[00:07:34.000]the parent-teacher relationship among Latinx parents,
[00:07:36.760]may consider targeting school-wide factors.
[00:07:39.940]Finally, we only looked at parent perceptions in this study.
[00:07:43.190]Further research could examine the relationship
[00:07:45.530]between school cultural climate and child outcomes.
[00:07:51.260]We'd like to acknowledge our coauthors in this presentation
[00:07:53.900]from the Nebraska Center for Research
[00:07:55.500]on Children, Youth, Families in Schools.
[00:07:57.460]Those include Lorey Wheeler, Matt Gormley,
[00:07:59.750]Susan Sheridan, Libby Brower, and Kristen Derr.
[00:08:02.640]Thank you.

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Predicting Latinx Family-School Connections: The Role of School Cultural Climate

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