Article: Personality, socio-economic status and education: factors that contribute to the degree of structure in homeschooling by Oz Guterman and Ari Neuman, published in Social Psychology of Education: An International Journal, v21 n1 p 75 – 90, Feb 2018.
Did you know that a relationship may exist between parental factors and homeschooling structure? In this intriguing research review, researchers examine the role of parents’ personality, socio-economic status and education on how we choose to structure our homeschool environment.
Overview
The authors’ goal of this study was to to identify personality and socio-economic factors that play a role in determining the degree of homeschooling structure in the home.
The authors first reviewed the two types of categories in which homeschools are traditionally defined: structured and unstructured. Structured can be thought of as “school at home”, where an extremely structured one may have rows of desks, a blackboard, a salute to the flag, teacher lectures, and formal tests. An unstructured environment is quite the opposite, often known as “unschooling”. It refers to allowing children to learn and experience the world with minimal intervention from their parents.
The authors then defined the types of personality traits and socio-economic traits they measured as they measured their effects on the degree of homeschooling structure. These factors are listed in the instruments section below.
Participants
The study included 139 parents of homeschooled children (103 women, 36 men). The children’s ages ranged from 6 – 12. Most of the participants were married (103). Though the number of children in each family ranged from 1 to 7, the average was 2.36 children.
Instruments
The authors administered a survey called the Big Five Inventory questionnaire. It measures the five personality traits of neuroticism, openness to experience, extraversion, conscientiousness, and agreeableness . The participants rated how accurately each statement described their personality on a seven-point scale ranging from “very inaccurate” (1) to “very accurate” (7).
In order to determine their attachment patterns (anxious or avoidant), the participants also completed the Experience in Close Relationships scale. This is a self-reporting questionnaire consisting of 36 items in which respondents rate how much they agree with a statement (“strongly disagree” to “strongly agree”, 1 – 7, respectively).
Finally, the participants completed a demographics questionnaire to provide other information. These details included
- gender
- number of children in their family
- monthly income
- years of parents’ formal education
- the degree of structure of their daily home routine
- the average number of hours per week devoted to organized instruction
The most significant results found are below:
1. Mother’s Education is related to number of hours devoted to teaching
In other words, the higher the mother’s education, the greater the number of hours devoted to teaching. Mothers with higher education may feel more comfortable in the classroom setting. Because of this, they engage their children for longer periods of time in learning activities. Also, they may have gained more orderly learning habits during their advanced learning, leading to a more orderly homeschooling structure in their own home.
2. Family Income and Conscientiousness are related to Daily Schedule and Number of Hours Devoted to Teaching
Results from the study suggest that the more income a family makes and the more conscientious the parents are, the higher the level of homeschooling structure. Families who make more money and are more conscientious have a stricter daily schedule and spend more time homeschooling activities.
One way to explain this is that some homeschooling parents may hold alternative worldviews. People with these views often place less importance on formal education and more importance on holistic approaches to education. These parents may engage in employment suitable for their personalities that traditionally pays less, such as art, therapies, or instruction. This could explain why a parents who make less money may have a lower degree of homeschooling structure.
Additionally, lower economic status may be due to non-traditional working hours, lack of instructional resources, or financial difficulties or tension. These could be potential reasons behind less structured homeschooling environments or fewer hours devoted to teaching.
Attachment anxiety led to more hours of teaching, but only for the mothers with higher education levels. It can by hypothesized that the sharing of teaching and learning activities builds and strengthens relationships between parents and children. This validation is important for parents with attachment anxiety, and thus they spend more hours teaching during the homeschool day.
Looking Forward
The authors point out that the only personality trait found to be significant in this study was conscientiousness. So what exactly is conscientiousness? It includes high levels of thoughtfulness, impulse control, and goal-directed behavior. Conscientious people are prepared, stay on task until a job is complete, finish important tasks immediately instead of putting them off until later, and enjoy a set schedule. Conscientiousness is such an important trait that further research needs to be conducted on its role in determining the degree of homeschooling structure.
Finally, the researchers considered only a few socio-economic and personality traits for this study, but certainly not all. The researchers should look into other traits, as well, to gain a better understanding of how parents’ personalities affect their homeschooling structures.
What are your opinions on this research? Where do you fall on the spectrum of homeschooling structure? Your comments are welcome!