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Multiculturalism and Social Work | San Francisco State University

Relations among Aspects of Parental Control, Children s Work-Related Social Skills and Academic Achievement.

Author: Cooney, Ramie Robeson
Author Background:
Date 1/1/98
Type research publications
Journal Title:
Volume/Pages
Publisher
Subject Matter African American
Population
Pedagogies
Abstract This research sought to separate aspects of parental control from parental warmth and to investigate the impact of parents control to child outcomes related to literacy and work-related social skills at the start of kindergarten. Family rules, limits,and disciplinary practices were explored as predictors of cognitive and social school preparedness. Participating were 198 kindergarten children and their families from Greensboro, North Carolina. The sample was evenly divided by gender and the racialcomposition was 78 percent White and 21 percent African-American. Data were collected by means of a parent self-report questionnaire, a parenting questionnaire assessing the amount of parental control, the teacher-completed Cooper-Farran Behavior RatingScale to measure behaviors involved in the successful completion of academic tasks, and academic skills (letter recognition, receptive vocabulary on the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-Revised, and reading on the PIAT- R). Results of regression analysesindicated that social skills predicted 19 percent of the variance in letter recognition, 14 percent in vocabulary, and 8 percent in reading recognition. There was a significant positive relationship between parental control and work-related skills. Therewas a marginally significant tendency for parental rules/limits/discipline to predict letter recognition, receptive vocabulary, and reading recognition. With the effects of work-related social skills removed, the tendency for literacy outcomes to berelated to parental control. was no longer apparent. Thus, children s social skills acted as a mediator between parental control and literacy outcomes at the beginning of kindergarten. (Contains 11 references.)
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