Family Involvement and Trust in Kindergarten and School Airi Niilo, Eve Kikas, Marika Veisson, Maris Hinn, Kerstin Kööp

Definitions Trust is (Adams & Christenson, 2000): confidence that another person acts in a way to benefit or sustain the relationship implicit goals of the relationship to achieve positive outcomes for students Family involvement is a multifaced construct with three dimensions (Fanruzzo et al. 2000): home-based involvement school-based involvement home-school conferencing

Earlier studies: relations with other factors Trust Declines with age Is associated with the frequency and quality of contact (Adams & Christenson, 2000) Involvement Higher collaboration in classes with higher trust (Tschannen-Moran, 2001). Declines with age (Fantuzzo et al. 2000) Lower in families with many children (Manz et al. 2004) Differs in kindergartens and schools with different programs (Fantuzzo et al. 2000)

Aims Adapt questionnaires for assessing trust and family involvement in Estonia Investigate the level of these constructs in kindergarten and elementary school Examine their relations with family and kindergarten characteristcs

Hypotheses-1 The level of trust and involvement is higher in kindergarten and lower in school, with the exception of home-related involvement, which is the highest in first grades in school. Trust is associated with the frequency and quality of parents’ contacts with teachers. Trust is associated with parental involvement with the highest correlations with home-school conferencing

Hypotheses-2 (kindergarten) Trust and involvement are higher in kindergartens using Step by Step methodology than in those who do not use it systematically Mothers of families’ with only or the eldest child trust teachers less than other parents

Participants and procedure 860 parents: 645 from kindergarten 206 from school (104 I level, 99 II level) 720 mothers: 546 from kindergarten 148 using Step by Step approach 398 others 174 from school (84 I level, 90 II level) Data were collected in 2006

Questionnaires Trust was assessed with a questionnaire adapted from Adams and Christenson (2000). Family involvement was assessed with a questionnaire adapted from Family Involvement Questionnaire for Early Childhood (Fantuzzo et al. 2000) and Family Involvement Questionnaire for Elementary School (Manz et al. 2004)

Results of mothers Kindergarten-school comparisons Associations among different dimensions of trust and involvement Kindergarten results: relations of trust and involvement with family and kindergarten characteristics

School-based involvement Home-based involvement Home-school conferencing Trust Frequency of contact Satisfaction with contact

Mothers of Step by Step kindergarten trust kindergarten teachers more Mothers of Step by Step kindergarten evaluate their frequency and quality of contact higher

Mothers of Step by Step kindergarten are less involved with educating their children at home

Mothers of the only child are more involved in their child’s education at home than mothers of the youngest and middle child

Conclusions These were our prelimenary results. As this study is a part of a larger project we can follow these families from kindergarten to school. It would be interesting to see whether the differences between these parents remain the same or become more similar as the context and teachers have changed.