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Home Environment

Chapter · January 2013

DOI: 10.4324/9781351257848-9

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Burkhard Gniewosz Jacquelynne S Eccles

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 Home Environment

Burkhard Gniewosz & Jacquelynne S. Eccles

Introduction

Theoretical and empirical approaches to the investigation of learning processes and

educational achievement have been profoundly enriched by adding an ecological perspective,

which examines the multiple effects and interrelatedness of social elements in an

environment. Learning and its outcomes do not occur in a vacuum. Processes leading to

positive or negative academic outcomes are embedded in multiple contexts. The school is one,

admittedly very important, context among others, such as the peer group or the home

environment. Educators probably have experienced the difficulties emerging in the family or

peer context that can often hamper their influences on learners. It is important to understand

the complex interactions working within and between the contexts to provide an optimal

learning environment. In this entry, the focus is on the home environment as being an

important context for students' academic achievement (see also Eccles, 2007; Wigfield,

Eccles, Schiefele, Roeser, & Davis-Kean, 2006).

Research Evidence

Who the Parents/Caregivers Are. When we look at the parental background

characteristics that affect children's academic achievement, the socioeconomic background is

of tremendous importance. A meta-analysis based on the review of 74 samples (> 100,000

students) by Shin (2005) provided strong evidence for the link between (a) parental income,

education, and occupation and (b) various academic achievement outcomes (domain-specific
grades, GPA, general, and domain-specific achievement). The aim was to explain

achievement differences between students by the parental social background. About 9% of

these differences were due to differences in the social status of the parents. One interpretation

of this association is that the financial and social background of a family determines the

opportunity structure through which parents can positively affect their 89 children's academic

development. Many of the ways in which parents might benefit their children are a lot easier

to provide if the parents have financial and social resources. Moreover, if the parents have to

work two jobs to support their family, the stress level can be increased and the time available

to support the children becomes limited. Both stressors are linked to a less supportive home

environment. The parents' socioeconomic background is linked to educational transitions,

such as the change from elementary to secondary school, as well. In ability tracked systems,

such as the German school system, these transitions serve as selective filters for college-

bound or vocational educational tracks. There is evidence that parental socioeconomic status

is related to the probability of being admitted for the college-bound school track, even if

achievement, migration status, and other student characteristics are the same (Ditton,

Krüsken, & Schauenberg, 2005). The likelihood of attending the college-bound track is higher

for students from better-off families, independent of their grades and achievements.

Although largely ignored by educators, parents affect their children through genetic

transmission, as well. Academic success is to a considerable extent explained by

interindividual differences in cognitive competences and personality characteristics-all of

them highly heritable (Petrill & Wilkerson, 2000). Johnson, McGue, and Iacono (2006), for

example, showed strong genetic influences on achievement development through

adolescence. However, this genetic predisposition interacts with the environment. There is no

deterministic relationship of genetic predisposition and academic success. Students' academic

outcomes can be promoted, regardless of genetics. Nonetheless, the initial differences

between students can be explained, in part, by within-family genetic transmission.

 What Parents Believe. Parents' general attitudes, beliefs, and values play a very

important role as effects on students' academic development within the home environment. If

parents think that education is important and useful their offspring are more likely to also

value schooling (e.g., Jodl, Michael, Malanchuk, Eccles, & Sameroff, 2001; Noack, 2004).

Social learning processes are assumed to lead to this intergenerational transmission of values.

Parents can communicate their beliefs in several ways. They can directly communicate the

importance of doing homework and learning. Furthermore, if parents behave in ways

consistent with their values, they communicate by being a role model and social learning

processes can result in the intergenerational transmission of academic values. Subsequently, if

students' value education highly they will engage more in learning activities and thus

achievement can be improved.

Parents' child-specific beliefs and expectations can also affect students' academic

development through their impact on their children's developing self-perceptions. Students at

the same achievement level whose parents hold positive competence perceptions about their

children will have more favorable competence beliefs themselves than students with less

confident parents (e.g., Gniewosz, 2010). In turn, these competence beliefs are strongly linked

to subsequent academic engagement and achievement (see Wigfield et al., 2006).

The beliefs held by the parents are affected by their gender-related domain-specific

stereotypes. Oftentimes, parents expect higher performances in the mathematical domain for

their sons, while they consider daughters as more competent in the verbal domain,

independent of the children's actual performances (e.g., Tiedemann, 2000). Considering the

above mentioned impact of the parental child-specific beliefs on the students' self-perceptions,

parents' stereotypes influence the students' academic development. The same processes are

likely to be associated with other socially defined group memberships.

 What Parents Do. Parents' values and beliefs are strongly linked to the extent to which

parents get involved in their children's' school matters. If parents value academics highly, they

will spend more time with their children in academic activities (Noack, 2004). In addition to

these indirect effects, parental behaviors directly affect students' motivation and achievement

through the provision of important resources. One example is that parents provide learning

materials or private tutoring if needed. Here, the parental financial background becomes an

obvious factor in a child's academic success. It is much easier for better-off families to pay for

these materials or the tutoring. In this case, the question about "what parents do" becomes the

question "what parents can afford to do."

Not all of the resources that are provided by the parents are tangible. The way parents

interact with their children can be understood as resource, as well. An authoritative parenting

style, characterized by warmth, support for the child's autonomy, and clear rules, enhances

students' motivation and strategy use in learning activities (Aunola, Stattin, & Nurmi, 2000).

Providing students with a supportive home environment in a general sense satisfies the

students' need for autonomy. This basic need is of tremendous importance for the students'

motivation to learn, especially during adolescence. If the general parenting style supports the

students' needs then the students will be more academically engaged, which consequently will

result in better achievement in terms of grades or test results.

Moreover, the direct involvement of parents in their children's schooling and learning

is important for their academic outcomes. Parents differ in the nature of their involvement.

This involvement of parents can be categorized into personal, cognitive, and behavioral

(Grolnick & Slowiaczek, 1994). Personal involvement means that the parents can elicit the

affective experience in their children that their parents care about education and school

matters. The children of personally involved parents enjoy parent- child interactions around

school leading to a positive feeling toward school. Parents who show a high cognitive
involvement expose their children to intellectually stimulating activities, such as book reading,

museum trips, or solving Sudoku puzzles. This can covey the intrinsically rewarding qualities

of education-related activities. Moreover, students can have mastery experiences in these

stimulating activities, improving their ability and value beliefs within an out-of-school setting.

These decontextualized educational experiences are important for the development of

students' valuing of intellectual academic activities and thus subsequently affect achievement.

Parents who are behaviorally involved participate in parent-teacher interactions, join the PTA,

take part in school activities, and so on. Thus, parental involvement in school matters conveys

a notion about their valuing of education. High parental involvement indicates that the parents

value school, which can be linked to the students valuing school through intergenerational

value transmission. In terms of social learning, the parental academic involvement can serve

as a positive role model, and thus reinforce the students' academic involvement that, in turn,

affects academic engagement and performance.

Summary and Recommendations

A meta-m1alysis by Jeynes (2007) combined the results of 52 studies (in sum >

300,000 students) on home environment predictors of students' academic achievement

(operationalized as grades m1d test scores in secondary school). Several dimensions were

compared regarding their association with academic achievement outcomes. Unfortunately,

this study did not distinguish between longitudinal and cross-sectional studies. Therefore, it is

not possible to determine if home environment variables affect achievement or vice versa.

However, comparing the effect sizes allows for a differential evaluation of the strength of

association. Parental educational expectations turned out to be the best predictor of academic

achievement. If the student's parents maintained high expectations of the student's ability to

achieve at high levels, students' showed better performances. The second strongest Source of
influence was parenting style (see above) followed by homework support (an indicator of

personal Horne Environment 91 involvement). The communication between parents and

students about school activities predicted the achievement as well. Furthermore, whether and

how frequently parents attended and participate in school functions and activities was

associated with higher achievement levels of the students, as well (indicators of behavioral

involvement). The associations of the home environment characteristics and the achievement

outcomes were by and large the same for European American and minority students.

As outlined above, there are several ways for the home environment to affect students'

academic development. The described routes of influence are not independent of each other or

independent of influences from other contexts. For example, if schools do not provide

opportunities for parents to participate in school activities or teacher-parent interaction, then

there will be little chance to influence the students' academic development positively through

behavioral involvement. On a macro level, there are societal factors that determine the ways

parents can be part of students' education. Societies differ in their social norms about the

extent that parents should participate in their children's education. Thus, values that are shared

within a society affect the parents' va1ues, which in turn predict their individual involvement.

Finally, as noted at the start of this entry, if parents' have few economic resources and their

Jives are stressed due to other factors linked to their health, their socioeconomic or historical

constraints, or to characteristics of their children or other family-related constraints, then their

ability to provide opportunities for their children are likely to be constrained as well.

References

Aunola, K., Stattin, H., & Nurmi, J. (2000). Parenting styles and adolescents'

achievement strategies. Journal of Adolescence, 23(2), 205-222.

 Ditton, H., Krüsken, J., & Schauenberg, M. (2005). Bildungsungleichheit- der Beitrag

von Familie und Schule [Educational disparities and the contribution of family and school].

Zeitschrift für Erziehungswissenschaft, 8(2), 285-304.

Eccles, J. S. (2007). Families, schools, and developing achievement-related

motivations and engagement. In J. E. Grusec & P. D. Hastings (Eds.), Handbook of

socialization (pp. 665-691). NewYork: Guilford.

Gniewosz, B. (2010). Die Konstruktion des akademischen Selbstkonzeptes: Eltern und

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