Barriers to parent involvement in middle school health education

American Journal of Health Studies, Fall, 2000 by Scott D. Winnail, Brian F. Geiger, David M. Macrina, Scott Snyder, Cynthia J. Petri, Stephen Nagy

Abstract: This study examined barriers to parent involvement in health education of children in two suburban middle schools in the Southeastern United States. A random sample of 500 households with middle school children received survey. Results showed the parent population to have unusually high socioeconomic status. Parents lacked knowledge about the health curriculum and lacked sufficient health content knowledge to comfortably address children's health-related questions. These two factors were identified as significant barriers to parental involvement in middle schoolchild health education. Additional questions were raised about the impact of multiple barriers on parent involvement. Study results and implications are discussed.

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With education reform as a primary concern during the 1990's and continuing well into the next millennium, parent involvement has taken a key position in the minds of many educators, school administrators, and politicians. Pivotal documents like Goals 2000 (National Education Goals Panel, 1995) and Code Blue (National Commission on the Role of the School and Community in Improving Adolescent Health, 1990) emphasize the importance of parent involvement in children's overall education. Over the last two decades numerous studies have documented the positive impact that parent involvement plays on test scores and student achievement (Cooper, Lindsay, & Nye, 2000; Furr, 1998), literacy (Snow, Barnes, Chandler, Goodman & Hemphill, 1991), school drop out rates (Rumberger, Ghatak, Poulos, Ritter & Dornbusch, 1990), desire to continue education after high school (Furr, 1998), and student social and emotional development (Donnermeyer, 2000; Spence, Donovan & Brechman-Toussaint, 2000). This same parent involvement has been shown to facilitate greater learning on behalf of the child while providing more positive home and living environments, through modeling and reinforcement (Edwards & Young, 1992).

Parent involvement in school health education has also been shown to positively impact youth smoking (Kurtz, Kurtz, Johnson & Cooper, 2001), improve dental care (Thomas, Tandon & Nair, 2000), improve poor diet and low physical activity (Nader, Sallis, Abramson, Broyles, Patterson, Rupp, et al., 1992), and decrease alcohol use (Komro, Perry, Williams, Stigler, Farbakhsh, & Veblen-Mortenson, 2001). Programs that involve parents in children's health education have resulted in improved parent-child communication about health topics (Komro, Perry, Williams, Stigler, Farbakhsh, & Veblen-Mortenson, 2001; Werch, Young, Clark, Garett, Hooks & Kersten, 1991), and even improved parental health behaviors (Perry, Pirie, Holder, Halper & Dudovitz, 1990). Because of these benefits, parent involvement has been highly recommended by experts in the field for inclusion in school health education programs (Allensworth & Wolford, 1989; Birch, 1996; Dryfoos & Santelli, 1992; Joint Committee on National Health Education Standards, 1995, Kurtz et al., 2001).

Parent involvement levels decrease to minimal levels as children age from elementary to high school (Dauber & Epstein, 1993; Dryfoos, 1984; Paulson & Sputa, 2000). This occurs despite the knowledge by teachers, administrators, and even some parents, that parent involvement in education is beneficial if sustained over time (Ascher, 1988).

Teachers have the potential to effectively increase parent involvement due to their exposure to the majority of young people in most communities and ultimately their indirect exposure to these childrens' parents. At times though, even teachers are in need of additional subject-specific training. Typically, teachers feel more comfortable and more effective when they have more training in a particular area (Boscarino & DiClemente, 1996; Cameron, 1991; MacGilcrist, 1996). As noted by Birch and Hallock (1999), teachers feel similarly about parent involvement in middle school health education.

Multiple barriers exist related to parent involvement in their children's education including time constraints (Leitch & Tangri, 1988), mistrust of schools (Edwards & Young, 1992), miscommunication between parents and schools, lack of knowledge about subjects that children are learning about in school (Brock & Beazley, 1995; Finders & Lewis, 1994), and lack of parent understanding of how to be involved (Bright, 1996). These barriers have been articulated by parents related to their involvement in general education, but in a very limited way in regards to health education. Parents perceptions of barriers to involvement in school health education are potentially more difficult to identify than in general education. Although some barriers to parent involvement in health and general education may be similar, additional barriers may exist for parents related to health education, due mainly to the sensitive subjects addressed in this content area.

The purpose of this study was to determine what factors middle school parents perceived as barriers to involvement in their children's health education. This research purpose is directly in line with Birch and Hallock's (1999) call for further research "to determine parental perceptions of their interests, needs, and barriers pertaining to involvement in school health education programs (p. 114)." This charge comes because of limited research on barriers to parent involvement in the health education.