The Research Problem Parental involvement in their children's academic activities has been frequently examined in younger students, yet relatively little is known about the college years. At younger ages "appropriate" parental involvement is seen as both positive and protective. However, what type and level of parental involvement is "appropriate" during late adolescence and young adulthood? What exactly constitutes parental involvement in academic activities, according to college students? Does parental involvement (or the absence of parental involvement) in their children's academic activities during late adolescence and young adulthood really matter? What connections - if any - do college students see between parental involvement in academics (the presence or absence) and their actual performance on exams in their Psychology 110 courses? Do associations exist between other important types of functioning (family, mood) and parental involvement in academics and students' thoughts about this parental involvement? It is my hope that the results of this research project can yield practical information that can be shared not only with the faculty and staff at UWSP, but perhaps also with parents of UWSP students. Instructors of Psychology 110 courses may wish to communicate with their future students the findings of this study, in hopes of facilitating their students' exam performance. Updated April, 2009

Project Summary Parental involvement in their children's academic activities is something that is relatively easy to understand when children are young. For example, does the parent attend school events such as plays or recitals or teacher conferences? When children are adolescents and young adults, many may be enrolled in course subjects that exceed a parent's abilities (e.g., a foreign language, advanced mathematics, etc.). Would we then want to conclude that a parent is no longer involved in their children's academic activities? No. This research project is an attempt to address some of the unanswered questions about parental involvement in academic activities during late adolescence and young adulthood. My prior research on this topic has yielded some surprising findings, such as how common it is for UWSP college students to consider their academic activities to be shared with their parents. Even with such a high frequency being reported, some students have poignantly stated that they desired even more parental involvement. Certain types of parental involvement viewed as intrusive (e.g., being told what major to declare, etc.) were infrequently reported, but when they occurred were linked to conflict. In these research studies I attempted to find out whether how college students consider parental involvement in their academic activities to be similar to how researchers and educators view it. Additionally, I was interested in learning if students perceived connections to exist between parental involvement in their academics (or the lack thereof) and their actual performance on Psychology 110 exams as well as other aspects of their functioning (family, mood). Updated April, 2009

Background & Additional Information Guiding this work was the Social Contextual Model (Berg, Meegan, & Deviney, 1998); this approach suggests many everyday tasks, problems, and goals that may be viewed as not just one person’s alone but, as shared to some degree with another person or even multiple people. Ratelle, LaRose, Guay, & Senecal published an article in the Journal of Family Psychology where they highlighted the importance of perceived parental support to college students. Please see the link below to access their article. "Parental involvement wanted." The link provided below connects to an article where the author(s) summarized a variety of information regarding current college students. While a negative connotation exists between those parents who are nicknamed "helicopter" parents and the associated connections with intrusiveness and interference in functioning and development, many students want parental involvement in their lives, as demonstrated by recent empirical studies. Strage and Swanson Brandt have also shown the importance of parenting behaviors for college students' achievement and functioning. Please see the link below to access their article. I presented a lecture as part of UWSP's inaugural College of Letters and Science lecture series on February 19th, 2009 entitled "Parental involvement in academic activities: What's a parent to do and what do students want?" The link below will lead you to a website where if you scroll down the page you will be able to click to gain access to the video recorded presentation. Updated April, 2009 Ratelle et al. article Strage and Swanson Brandt article Parental Involvement Wanted Link to video of lecture

Evidence of Student Learning & Methods of Analysis This project involves two separate studies using UWSP students enrolled in Psychology 110 courses as participants during the 2008-2009 academic year. The first study was completed in fall, 2008 and involved a total of 20 students and was conducted in two parts. The second study in spring, 2009 is ongoing; as of April 8th a total of 5 students have participated in the first part. First, I will describe the methods and measures for the first study completed in Fall, 2008. After IRB approval was obtained, I posted the study to the Psychology Department's Human Subjects Pool website so that Psychology 110 students could learn about and then sign up to participate in both parts of the study. A total of 20 students (5 males, 15 females) with an average age of 19.26 years participated. The students were mostly Freshmen (13), though there were also Sophomores (4), Juniors (2), and a Senior (1). All but one student self-identified as Caucasian, with the other student self-identifying as Asian. The students were welcomed and then were given an informed consent form to read and sign if they agreed to participate. Next students were asked to complete a series of questionnaires (please see the attached file which contains all the measures described below) presented via computer. The first questionnaire contained items inquiring about their personal characteristics (e.g., gender, age, ethnicity) and other information (e.g., educational background) about their mother and father, where applicable. After the preliminary demographic items were answered, participants provided information regarding their definition of parental involvement in academics, and how their mothers' and fathers' behaviors compared to the definitions they provided. Additionally, the participants were asked what connection (if any) they believed existed between the parental involvement they experienced and their performance on Psychology 110 exams. Next, the students completed the 30-item FACES II (Olsen, Sprenkle, & Russell, 1983) questionnaire about their family's functioning in terms of cohesion (e.g., "Family members feel very close to each other") and adaptability (e.g., "Your family tries new ways of dealing with problems") (please see the attached file) using a Likert-type scale with 1 = Almost Never and 5 = Almost Always as the minimum and maximum responses, respectively. Then, participants completed the 20-item CES-D (Radloff, 1977) measure about depression symptoms (e.g., "I was bothered by things that don't usually bother me") from the past week using a Likert-type scale with 0 = rarely or none of the time, less than 1 day to "most or all of the time, 5-7 days as the minimum and maximum responses, respectively. Finally, the students completed the 20-item PANAS (Kovacs et al., 1990) measure of positive (e.g., inspired) and negative (e.g., distressed) emotions from the past two weeks using a Likert-type scale with 1 = Not at All and 5 = Extremely as the minimum and maximum responses, respectively. Updated April, 2009 Measures part 1 study 1 fall 2008

Evidence of Student Learning & Methods of Analysis: Study 1 Continued Students were reminded that, just like the first time, they would be completing questionnaires (please see the attached file containing all of the questionnaires) using the computer. The students were told that they would be shown their previous responses to some selected questions from the first questionnaire as well as the complete items from the FACES II, CES-D, and PANAS. The students were asked to think about whether their prior responses were still applicable or any responses needed to be modified. If modifications were necessary, they were told to edit as they wished; if no modifications were needed, they were instructed that was fine as well. Finally, I obtained the students' Psychology 110 exam grades from the Psychology 110 instructors. Updated April, 2009 Debriefing statement part 1 study 1 fall 2008 Measures part 2 study 1 fall 2008

Evidence of Student Learning & Methods of Analysis: Study 2 In this second study, students in Psychology 110 courses were given the opportunity to sign up to participate in order to receive credit towards a departmental research requirement. In addition, students who complete both phases of this study will have their names entered in to a drawing for the chance to win an IPOD shuffle. Thus far, 5 students have completed the first phase of the study. This study requires students to complete two videotaped focus group sessions where they answer a short series of questions about parental involvement in academic activities. The first focus group sessions took part in the first half of this semester. The second focus group session is scheduled to take place in the last portion of this semester. Please see the attached files for the entire set of questions for each focus group session. Updated April, 2009 Focus group items study 2 phase 2 spring 2009 Focus group items study 2 phase 1 spring 2009

Results From Study 1 All the participants were reporting on their biological mothers and the vast majority (95 percent) were reporting on their biological fathers as well. Most students reported living in a residental hall (63 percent) though a substantial proportion of the students stated they were living with at least one parent (21 percent), with fewer students reporting living off-campus but not with a parent (16 percent). Students reported that their parents were highly educated, with many mothers (53 percent) and fathers (37 percent) having earned either a two-year or four-year college degree. Additionally, some mothers (5 percent) and fathers (26 percent) had some educaton beyond a college degree. Other students stated that their mothers (32 percent) and fathers (16 percent) had completed some college. The remaining students said that their mothers (10 percent) and fathers (21 percent) had either earned a high school diploma or a GED. The themes that occurred multiple times in students' definitions of parental involvement in academics included verbal discussions, providing specific assistance, knowledge, and curiosity. Most (60 percent) students' definitions contained multiple themes. Verbal discussion (e.g., "A parent can be involved by asking you how classes are going . . .") was the most frequentlyoccuring theme and was mentioned by 12 students (60 percent). Providing specific assistance (e.g., "They should also try their best to help with homework if they can") was the second most frequently occurring theme and was mentioned by 11 students (55 percent). Knowledge (e.g., "I think the main thing is that they know what is going on . . .") was mentioned by 3 students (15 percent). Curiosity (e.g., "Parental involvement to me is being curious about their child's academic activities . . .") was mentioned by 2 students (10 percent). The majority (58 percent) of students believed that their mothers' involvement in their academics could have a positive effect on their Psychology 110 grades, whereas the remaining students (42 percent) believed that their mothers' involvement in their academics could have a neutral effect on their Psychology 110 grades. No student expressed a belief that their mothers' involvement could have a negative effect on their Psychology 110 grades. Students, however, had a different perception about their fathers' involvement in their academics and the potential connection with their Psychology 110 grades. The majority of students (56 percent) felt that their father's involvement in their academics would have a neutral effect on their Psychology 110 grades, whereas the remaining students (44 percent) thought that their fathers' involvement in their academics would have a positive effect on their Psychology 110 grades. As with their response about their mothers, no students expressed that their fathers' involvement in their academics would have a negative effect on their Psychology 110 grades. A majority (68 percent) of students perceived similarities in the potential effects of their mothers' and fathers' involvement in their academics on their Psychology 110 grades. Sixteen percent of students perceived differences in the potential effects of their mothers' and fathers' involvement in their academics on their Psychology 110 grades. Sixteen percent of students either stated "not applicable" or did not answer this question in regards to their fathers.

Results From Study 1 Continued The students' overall average score on their Psychology 110 exams was a 68.5 percent (with a standard deviation of 10.7 percent). Most students took four exams during the semester, with much fewer taking five exams. There was only one statistically significant difference (p < .05) in the individual exam scores. The students who perceived that their fathers' involvement in their academics would have a netural effect on their Psychology 110 grades had signficantly lower scores (mean = 61 percent, standard deviation = 8.5 percent) on exam 2 compared to the students who perceived that their fathers' involvement in their academics would have a positive effect on their Psychology 110 grades (mean =76.14 percent, standard deviation = 16.23 percent). The students' self-reported depression scores on the CES-D measure were statisticaly, significantly lower in the second part of the study (mean = 14.2; standard deviation = 7.9) than in the first part of the study (mean = 17; standard deviation = 8.6). No other statistically signficant differences were found in the measures of family functioning (adaptability and cohesion) or positive or negative mood in the first part of the study compared with the second part of the study. Additional comparisons were made of the students who believed that parental involvement in their academics had a neutral effect with the students who believed that parental involvement in their academics had a positive effect. Students who believed that their mothers' involvement in their academics had a positive effect reported statistically, significantly (p < .05) higher (mean = 3.53, standard deviation = .38) family functioning adaptability scores in part 2 of the study than the students who believed that their mothers' involvement in their academics had a neutral effect (mean = 3.09, standard deviation = .45). No other statistically significant differences emerged in terms of the students' reports of family functioning (cohesion), depression, or mpositive or negative mood. Updated April, 2009

Study 1: Relavence & Implications of the Results The finding that the most consistently mentioned theme in students' defiinitions of parental involvement in their academics was verbal discussion, while perhaps not all that surprising, is somewhat encouraging. That is, we can communicate this finding to parents. If parents are unsure as to how they may be able to maintain involvement in their children's academic activities when they are college students - particularly if they themselves never attended college - simply having conversations may be a relatively easy action they can take. The finding that the second most frequently mentioned theme in students' definitions of parental involvement in their academics was providing specific assistance is more complicated for us to consider. That is, we may wish to advise both parents and students about acting out the students' definitions. We can suggest ways parents may provide advice in a manner that does not intrude or stifle the students' self-reliance or the development of problem-solving abilities. For instance, if a student asks for their parent to proofread a paper perhaps the parent does it one time, but helps their child consider other resources they can access in the future (i.e., tutoring center, roommate). We educators may wish to explain to the student that having a parent willing to assist is a good and comfortable source of help, but that it is perhaps unrealistic and not appropriate to always rely on a parent. The finding that no student perceived their parents' involvement in their academics to have a negative influence on their Psychology 110 exam grades suggests how powerful parental involvement in our students' academics to still be, even if it is a perception, not necessarily connected to their actual exam performance. That students perceived their mothers' impact to be more likely positive than their fathers' impact may be consistent with prior work in the fields of Developmental and Educational Psychology that has demonstrated mothers are more involved in daily caregiving than are fathers. Perhaps this trend continues in to the college years and perceptions formed earlier about parental roles in the context of education may be maintained. However, as most students perceived similarities in the connections between their mothers' involvement and their fathers' involvement to their Psychology 110 exam performance we may wish to emphasize consistencies rather than inconsistensies. Although students' performance on Psychology 110 exams were not significantly different if they perceived their mothers' involvement to have a positive or neutral influence, that was not the case with their perceptions about fathers with regards to exam 2. Although more work needs to be conducted (this applies to all the findings currently being presented), perhaps it is significant that performance differences were observed for the second exam and not the others. Receiving feedback in the form of the first exam score in Psychology 110 may have somehow lead to the students who perceived their fathers' influence to be positive to behave differently than did the students who perceived their fathers' influence to be neutral. Maybe the former group actively solicited advice or specific assistance from their fathers, whereas the latter group did not. Or, maybe for the former group simply believing if they did have involvement from their fathers was enough to spur them to have better performance than the latter group of students. That students did not differ in terms of their family cohesion functioning or mood or depression levels based on how they viewed their parents' involvement as having a neutral or positive effect may mean the students who participated were all doing relatively well in the aspects in which they were evaluated and the students' perceptions about their parents' involvement in their academics is indicative of positive interrelatedness with their families. It might be useful for educators for us to understand more about the finding that students demonstrated significantly higher depression levels in the beginning of the semester than in the latter portion. Perhaps this is to be expected given the adjustment to new schedules and activities and experiences, in particular for those who are beginning their first semester of college. Maybe the approaching end of the term can be expected to be associated with a decline in depression as the winter break approaches and students feel more accustomed to their college experiences. As educators we may need to prepare students for the ups and the downs of such adjustments, and also communicate such expectations to parents and faculty/staff. While we can expect some changesit is important to be sensitive to the possibility students who may require intervention for particular difficulties with depression. The finding about differences in students' reported family adaptability functioning based on their perceptions about their mothers' involvement in their academic activities influencing their Psychology 110 exam performance might mean that when students perceive their families can adapt to changing circumstances that includes their progression in to college. So although students' actual performance on Psychology 110 exams did not actually connect to their perceptions about their mothers' involvement it may be more relevant to aspects of family functioning than academic functioning.

Career Relevance & Impact My participation at Faculty College and Summer Institute was valuable and useful to me in terms of career development and the refinement of my research ideas in regards to SOTL issues. At Faculty College it was very inspiring to be able to interact with colleagues from multiple disciplines and specialties. Every individual I interacted with had a passion and dedication to provide quality education to their students. To be in the presence of so many great ideas and to receive constructive insight strengthened my own resolve to always strive to improve my skills. I established new ties with faculty from other UW institutions and gained deeper connections with faculty from my own campus. Summer Institute provided the opportunity to receive immediate comments from other Fellows and Scholars and WTF/WTS leaders; this was invaluable. Not only did my research project become solidified, but I was provided unique perspectives on it. Furthermore, learning how different processes such as promotion, retention, and tenure occur at the different UW institutions was enlightening. The presentations on work-life balance in academia were quite useful. This opportunity was meaningful during this past year as I applied for promotion to Associate Professor status and tenure. Being a Teaching Fellow allowed me to further demonstrate an ability to successfully engage UWSP undergraduate students in research as my assistants. I believe that participating in this program helped to facilitate me receiving the University Scholar award this year at UWSP. It is my hope the findings contribute to the SOTL knowledge base. Updated April, 2009