Multiple dimensions of family engagement in early childhood education: Evidence for a short form of the Family Involvement Questionnaire☆
Section snippets
Development of FIQ-Short Form
To develop the FIQ-SF, an exploratory factor analysis was conducted on a representative sample of families drawn from early childhood programs in a large city in New York State (Taylor et al., 2010). These programs were using the 42-item FIQ as part of their routine data collection. This development sample (N = 527) was 51% male, 22% Caucasian, 51% African-American, 21% Hispanic, and 7% of other ethnic backgrounds, according to self-reports. All participants were parents of children ages 3–4
Participants
The validation sample to confirm the factor structure of the FIQ-Short Form consisted of parents or primary caregivers of 590 children (48.6% girls) (Table 2). Children's ages ranged from 3 to 5 years-old with a M = 3.94 and a SD = 0.48. Participants were drawn from 40 Head Start classrooms, which were randomly selected from over 400 classrooms in a large urban school district in Pennsylvania as part of a larger research project directed by the first author. For this study, preschool classrooms
Measures
Parent Satisfaction with Educational Experiences Scale (PSEE, Fantuzzo, Perry, & Childs, 2006). This is a 12-item scale that asks primary caregivers of young children (i.e., parents, other family members, or legal guardians) to rate their level of satisfaction with their experiences and interactions with their child's early childhood education. The PSEE scale consists of three subscales that indicate parent satisfaction with Teacher Contact Experiences (α = .82), classroom contact experiences (4
Data collection
Trained research assistants conducted data collection for all phases of the study. Packets containing the FIQ-SF and PSEE were distributed to parents in each classroom. Parents who were willing to participate completed consent forms and a demographics questionnaire along with the FIQ-SF and PSEE. Research assistants collected packets as they were completed, with an overall participation rate of 85%.
The LE was administered to each individual child by a trained assessor during a single session
Data analysis
To determine the construct validity of the FIQ-Short Form, a three-dimensional confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was performed with EQS (Bentler, 1995). Maximum likelihood estimation for categorical data was used with the raw data matrix as input, since the FIQ-SF's 4-point Likert format is ordinal in nature (Bartholomew, Steele, Moustaki, & Galbraith, 2002). Items comprising the different dimensions of the scale were totaled, and raw scores were transformed into T-Scores by area conversion (
Construct validity
Model fit of the FIQ-SF was evaluated. The normed fit index (NFI) is .98 (Bentler, 1995); the non-normed fit index (NNFI) is .99 (Hu & Bentler, 1999); and the comparative fit index (CFI) is .99 (Bentler, 1990), and the root mean-square error of approximation (RMSEA) is .048 with a 90% confidence interval ranging between .041 and .054 (Hu & Bentler, 1999). These results indicate a good model fit according to criteria from Hu and Bentler (1999): NFI > .95, NNFI > .95, and RMSE < .06. Home-School
Discussion
The primary aim of the present study was to develop and validate a shortened version of the 42-item FIQ for use in preschool. This research is in response to the need for cost-effective, scientifically based measurement for program monitoring and evaluation in early childhood education. Evidence from exploratory factor analysis of the original FIQ was used to select the items for the new 21-item short form of the FIQ. The FIQ-SF was tested systematically to avoid the pitfalls associated with
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2022, Children and Youth Services ReviewCitation Excerpt :For example, in a national study of parent involvement by school-level socio-economic status (SES), González & Jackson (2013) found that staff efforts to increase parent volunteerism and decision-making was associated with improved academic outcomes but only in higher SES schools; in contrast, these efforts had a negative or null effect on academic outcomes in lower SES schools. Other studies in urban, low-income, preschool populations have found no relationship between parents’ school-based involvement activities and children’s early language, literacy, or math skills (Dove et al., 2015; Fantuzzo, et al., 2004; Fantuzzo et al., 2013; McWayne et al., 2004). Many authors have explored the complexities of school-based parent engagement in populations at greatest social and economic risk for educational disparities (e.g., Delale-O’Connor et al., 2019; Ishimaru & Takahashi, 2017; Iruka et al., 2011; Rattenborg et al., 2019).
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2022, Early Childhood Research QuarterlyCitation Excerpt :At the same time, ECCE center staff also benefits from connecting with families by learning more about children's experiences and backgrounds, which can help them accommodate instruction and curricula to make children's learning more meaningful (Ferrara & Ferrar, 2005). Both home- and center-based family engagement are key to supporting children's development starting at a young age (Fantuzzo et al., 2013). Family engagement in stimulating activities at home has been linked to several cognitive, as well social-emotional processes.
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This research was supported by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, the Administration for Children and Families, the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, and by the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (Grant Nos. P21 HD043758-01 and R01HD46168-01).