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Financial Strain, Major Family Life Events, and Parental Academic Involvement During Adolescence

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Abstract

Parental academic involvement—whether through school participation and communication, or supervision and assistance at home—often has been cited as a way to enhance academic achievement. Yet, little is known about how the financial and life pressures faced by families can compromise parents’ ability to become involved in their adolescents’ education. In the current study, these dynamics were examined among Mexican-origin families, who often may face challenging financial and familial circumstances, and whose students may have more difficulty in secondary school. Parents of Mexican-origin ninth and tenth grade students from two high schools in Los Angeles (N = 428; 50 % female) completed quantitative interviews. The results revealed that financial strain predicted less involvement at school, and major family life events predicted less involvement at home, even after controlling for potentially confounding factors. Moreover, both of the associations between parental stress and parental academic involvement were mediated by lower levels of relationship quality between parents and adolescents, but not by conflict within the parent–adolescent dyad or parental depressive and somatic symptoms. The findings suggest that stress may limit parents’ ability to become involved their adolescents’ education, and highlight the importance of understanding family dynamics when examining parental academic involvement among Mexican-origin families.

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Acknowledgments

The research was supported by funding from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (R01-HD057164) and the UCLA California Center for Population Research, which is supported by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (R24-HD041022). The content does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development or the National Institutes of Health.

Author Contributions

Daisy E. Camacho-Thompson participated in the design, performed the statistical analysis and interpretation of the data, as well as helped draft the manuscript. C.G.I. participated in the design and coordination of the study and helped revise the manuscript. N.A.G. conceived of the study, participated in its design and coordination, and helped revise the manuscript. A.J.F. conceived of the study, and participated in its design and coordination, interpretation of the data, and helped draft the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Daisy E. Camacho-Thompson.

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Daisy E. Camacho-Thompson declares that she has no conflict of interest. Cari Gillen-O’Neel declares that she has no conflict of interest. Nancy A. Gonzales declares that she has no conflict of interest. Andrew J. Fuligni declares that he has no conflict of interest.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. The study complied with APA ethical standards in the treatment of our human sample.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Camacho-Thompson, D.E., Gillen-O’Neel, C., Gonzales, N.A. et al. Financial Strain, Major Family Life Events, and Parental Academic Involvement During Adolescence. J Youth Adolescence 45, 1065–1074 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-016-0443-0

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