Literature review of parent education and guidance research

PARENTAL EDUCATION & GUIDANCE

Parental Education

The author of this article has been asked to conduct a literature review of three articles related to the seventh NCFR substance item, that being parental education and guidance. A total of three articles will be reviewed. There will be a review, summary and critique of each of the articles. While the interventions and assistance of the school systems and surrounding community are very helpful in the upbringing of a child, nothing can replace a sound foundation of parental guidance and education.

The first article was published in 2013 and relates to parental education and the ensuing/resulting gender gap at the college level in Europe. It would seem that the college population demographics in Europe is noticeably shifting towards the female gender and the study seeks to find out the influence of parental upbringing and educational level as an influence on how male and female children end up getting educated or not getting educated at the college once they reach the applicable age. The study looked at pool data from the European Social Survey from 2002 to 2010 with a focus on three different generational stripes, those being for parents with birth years from 1955 to 1964, from 1965 to 1974 and from 1975 to 1984. The study found that the level of parental education did not affect male or female children any differently. While the educational level of the parents certainly has an effect on whether or when the children go to college, the affect is not different between genders (McDaniel, 2013).

The author of this report is not surprised by the findings of the report. It is certainly worthwhile to find out what is causing the swing of females outstripping males in terms of who is going to college but it is probably not a gender-specific issue of any sort. This may have been the case for children coming up in the 1940's and 1950's where gender roles and expectations were much more hardline but many things have changed since then, with the 1990's and 2000's being much different than the preceding decades. There might be some gender identity/role issues in play in the grand scheme of things, but it would probably have more to do with career choice and family planning than it would on whether the child goes to college in the first place.

Article Two

The second article pertains to parental education and involvement as it relates to the education and upbringing of Latino adolescents. Of course, Latinos have unique challenges as it relates to language barriers of the children and/or the parents as well as culture clashes. The study notes that Latino youth are among the least educated demographics in the United States and the effects of this fact are wide-ranging and often destructive as Latinos adults are also among the poorest and most destitute. However, the study notes that parental involvement is far and away the best way to break this vicious cycle just as it is with other demographics. However, the added layer of a language barrier makes rising above the aforementioned challenges all the more difficult. The study points to four major dimensions of parental involvement that can make all the difference. These four dimensions are sacrifice, discussions of the future/academic socialization school involvement and home involvement (Cebello, Maurizi, Suarez & Aretakis, 2013).

This study also points to a pressing and important question in the United States as being uneducated and/or being in poverty in general is such a slippery slope that can lead anyone, not just Latinos, into economic despair and this can lead to some very damaging decisions including criminal behavior and having to work entirely too many work hours at the expense of being able to be involved in the children's lives. What is being said in this article, in large part, can and should be applied to people of all stripes and sources but it goes double for people with language and/or cultural clashes because this can disrupt one's arc even more than normal. Proper educational performance and planning, family planning and other proper life choices are integral to having a fulfilled and comfortable life and this message should be parlayed to Latinos just as loudly as it is to anyone else with an ear to listen.

Article Three

The third and final article focuses on the parental educational effect on the language production of children. The study found that new parents with a four-year degree and a child under two years of age were able to impart language skills to their children with a much higher level of efficacy and performance than parents who did not have a four-year degree. However, it was not uniform for all households with at least one parent with a four-year degree and in a surprising way. Households with one, but not both, parents with a four-year degree actually performed better than households where both parents had a four-year degree. The study's authors surmised that the reason for this was that a wider array of educational levels in the house was actually a benefit because there was a disparate level of education and thus different perspectives from each parent. This subject is notably important given that language development and function in general is heavily linked to socioeconomic development throughout life (Hupp, Munala, Kaffenberger & Hensley-Wessell, 2011).