Association between demographic characteristics and frequency of parent-college student communication.

1. Results:
• Bivariate correla,ons indicated that parents with lower levels of educa,on, Hispanic/La,no parents, non-White
parents, parents who had previously intervened with the university on their students’ behalf, parents whose child
a>ended a public university, and parents whose child was a first-genera,on student tended to communicate
more frequently with their children than their counterparts (Table 1).
• When parent characteris,cs were entered into a mul,ple regression, analyses indicated that parent educa,on
was the only significant predictor of parent-student communica,on frequency (Table 2).
• In the secondary analysis, students a>ending community college tend to communicate more frequently with
their families than their counterparts.
Association Between Demographic Characteristics and
Frequency of Parent-College Student Communication
Elizabeth Gardner | Human Development and
Family Studies | Emily Waterman | Meg Small
Introduc/on:
• Frequency of parent-student communica,on
is a significant predictor of high school
students’ persistence (Teachman et al., 1997;
McNeal, 1999) and academic achievement
(Muller, 1993; Chu & Willms, 1996; Epstein,
2001).
• When students leave home in the transi,on
to college, parent-student communica,on
may change.
• Different families tend to communicate at
different frequencies.
• Our goal was to determine the associa,ons of
family race and ethnicity, educa,onal
background, financial means, way of
engaging with the university, and type of
university with parent-student
communica,on frequency.
Table 1. Primary Analyses (n = 3987) of Parent-Student
Communica/on Frequency
Using the Sample of Students Living Independently
β
Highest level of educa,on
parent completed
-.105**
Parent involvement in
university ac,vi,es (e.g.
parent councils)
.011
Black/African American .026
Hispanic/La,no .065**
White -.071**
Asian -.007
Parent interven,on at the
university
.100**
Public/Private University -.085**
First Genera,on Student -.058**
Student Financial Aid Status -.071
** p < .01
Table 3. Secondary Analysis (N = 4911) of Parent-Student
Communica/on Frequency Using the En/re Sample
Communica,on frequency
Community College .048**
** p < .01
Table 2. Mul/ple Regression (n = 3987) of Parent-
Student Communica/on Frequency
Using the Sample of Students Living Independently
β
Highest level of educa,on
parent completed
-.453**
Parent involvement in
university ac,vi,es (e.g.
parent councils)
.077
Black/African American
.144
Hispanic/La,no
-.014
Other Race/Ethnicity
.060
Asian
-.052
Parent interven,on at the
university
.136
First Genera,on Student
-.023
Student Financial Aid Status
.135
** p < .01
Significance:
• By understanding communica,on frequency among families of different backgrounds, we can iden,fy what
communica,on frequency will be most helpful to students’ success. Future research will look into the content of
parent-student communica,on to be>er understand how parents can help their children thrive in an academic
environment.
• As men,oned in the introduc,on, parent-student communica,on affects a student’s resiliency and academic
achievement. McNeal (1999) found that lower SES students gain less from parent-child discussions than high SES
students even if the content is similar; students with high SES who talk to their parents about dropping out stay in
school, but students with low SES have the same conversa,on and drop out. This is an area we are interested in
exploring further.
• Universi,es could target specific families to facilitate communica,on.
Methods:
Primary Analysis
• In order to explore the communica,on
frequency while living away from home, all
students in the primary analy,c sample (n =
3987) lived independently.
• The analysis explored the correla,ons of
parents’ educa,on, students’ university type,
first genera,on student status, parents’
involvement in the university, students’
financial aid status, and parents’ race and
ethnicity with frequency of parent-student
communica,on.
• Par,cipants were part of a diverse sample
from 9 universi,es.
• Parents were recruited through email
addresses provided by the university.
• 75.4% of the respondents were women.
Secondary Analysis
• We conducted a secondary analysis to
inves,gate the associa,on between
a>ending community college and
communica,on frequency.
• Because most of the students in our sample
a>ending community college lived at home,
we included students who are residing with
their parents in our second analysis (N =
4911).