Child competencies and family processes in homeschool families

Master of EducationThis is a study of homeschooling families. It examines firstly, specific family processes as they act as resources for the children in these families and, secondly, specific competencies of children in these families. The report begins by briefly describing the history of schooling in Australia and outlining some of the major influences on the changes that have occurred to schooling since the establishment of the very first schools. Homeschooling theory is then briefly discussed, mainly as it relates to the views put forward by its best known advocate, John Holt. Research into homeschooling is then considered, particularly as it relates to family characteristics, academic achievement and social development. This section concludes with a discussion of the problems associated with homeschooling research generally. The report then focuses on a variety of family process resources which have been identified as important for the development of children generally, and to the development of certain child competencies in particular. The empirical research associated with this report is then described. Thirteen homeschool families participated in the study. The eldest homeschool child within each family was asked to complete an interview schedule which focused on how their family functioned and a questionnaire measuring self-esteem. One parent from each family was asked to complete an interview schedule which asked them to describe their eldest homeschool child and each parent was asked to complete a set of questions which measured social-environmental aspects of their family. Effect sizes were calculated to provide a measure of the difference in mean scores between the homeschool group and a group of families with conventionally schooled children. The homeschool children scored substantially above the conventionally schooled children for two of the five child competency measures - Life Skills and Independence. In terms of family processes the homeschool families rated substantially different on seven of the eleven measures. The largest difference in means was for Mother Support, which rated much higher in homeschool families than in families of conventionally schooled children. The remaining six measures, in descending order of difference, were: Child Autonomy, Family Cohesion, Mother Punishment (negative effect size), Sibling Relations, Father Support and Father Punishment (negative effect size). The data from the present study partially supports the view that there is a relationship between child competencies and family processes. Generally low child competency scores are matched by generally low family process scores, although a similarly strong link is not evident between high competency scores and high family process scores. The strongest link can be found between Mother Support and child competence. When Mother Support is low, child competence is usually low and when Mother Support is high, child competence is usually high. With respect to social-environmental characteristics, large effect sizes occurred for six of the ten variables. The largest difference was for Achievement Orientation where homeschool families scored well below families of conventionally schooled children. Large positive effect sizes occurred for Intellectual-Cultural Orientation, Cohesion and Expressiveness, and large negative effect sizes occurred for Control and Organization. The many differences in mean scores between the present group of homeschoolers and the families of conventionally schooled children suggests that these homeschoolers have a range of characteristics which together identifies them as part of a distinctive group in the total population