Premium
Associations of parent and staff factors with parent engagement in after‐school programs
Author(s) -
Malm Esther K.,
Hufsteler Schell M.,
Dietz Stephanie L.,
Malikina Mariya V.,
Henrich Christopher C.
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
journal of community psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.585
H-Index - 86
eISSN - 1520-6629
pISSN - 0090-4392
DOI - 10.1002/jcop.21859
Subject(s) - psychology , student engagement , developmental psychology , association (psychology) , clinical psychology , pedagogy , psychotherapist
This 2‐study research examined staff and parent predictors of parent engagement in after‐school programs. A parent engagement measure tailored to after‐school programs was developed based on existing theory and literature. Two distinct factors, parent engagement and parent participation, emerged from factor analyses and were subsequently tested. A 2‐level model was run on 4 program/staff and 6 parent predictors using staff and parent data from 26 after‐school program sites (Study 1) and nine sites (Study 2). Program quality, staff educational levels, and length of employment in the after‐school program were significantly associated with parent engagement and parent participation but in opposite directions, with other findings contrary to hypotheses. For parent factors of engagement and participation, there was a significant positive association between parental age and parent engagement, while having more than 2 children in a program was significantly and positively associated with parent participation only. Results and implications are discussed.