Table 4.
Mean Differences by Ethnicity for Family and Demographic Variables and Parent Involvement Factors
| Caucasian |
African American |
|||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Variable | M | SD | M | SD | t | p |
| Risk factors | ||||||
| Mother’s and father’s education |
0.05 | 0.92 | 0.35 | 0.78 | −2.14 | .03 |
| Maternal depression | 14.50 | 11.06 | 17.80 | 9.97 | −1.89 | .06 |
| Single—parent status (0 = couple, 1 = single)a |
.00 | |||||
| Parent involvement factors | ||||||
| Parent—Teacher Contact | 1.24 | 0.51 | 1.03 | 0.53 | 2.48 | .01 |
| Parent Involvement at School |
1.29 | 0.75 | 0.83 | 0.59 | 4.14 | .00 |
| Quality of Parent—Teacher Relationship |
2.72 | 0.78 | 2.44 | 0.85 | 2.11 | .04 |
| Teacher’s Perception of Parent |
2.41 | 1.12 | 1.60 | 1.11 | 4.39 | .00 |
| Parent Involvement at Home |
2.19 | 0.81 | 2.07 | 0.85 | 0.91 | .37 |
| Parent Endorsement of School |
3.15 | 0.92 | 3.01 | 0.83 | 1.01 | .32 |
Note. Sample size for the Caucasian group was 77. Sample size for the African American group was 69. Parent Involvement Factor scores ranged from 0 to 4, with 4 being the highest level of involvement.
a
Because single—parent status is a dichotomous variable, descriptive statistics are not given. 27% of Caucasian parents and 74% of African American parents were single parents. Group differences were analyzed using a chi—square difference test χ2(1, N = 170) = 35.81, p > .001.