Escala de Apoyo Parental: Nuevos estudios de estructura interna y su relación con variables socioeconómicas / Parental Support Scale: New studies of internal structure and its relationship with socioeconomic variables

RESUMEN

En la literatura se destacan numerosas variables que contribuyen a predecir el rendimiento académico. En tal sentido, el apoyo parentales considerado como una causa distal temprana del mismo. Sin embargo, existen resultados contradictorios en cuanto a su contribución, debido a los diferentes modos de operacionalizar dicho constructo. El objetivo del trabajo que se informa consistió en continuar los estudios de adaptación de la Escala de Apoyo Parental, iniciados por Aparicio y Cupani (2008). Específicamente se obtuvo evidencia de estructura interna y se exploró la contribución explicativa que realiza el apoyo parental en el rendimiento académico de los estudiantes, considerando el tipo de institución a la que asisten (pública o privada) y el nivel socioeconómico de sus padres. Los resultados indican que se logró replicar la estructura original de cuatro factores de la Escala de Apoyo Parental (Sehee & Hsiu-Zu, 2005). El estudio de consistencia interna indicó valores aceptables para tres de las cuatro escalas definidas teóricamente. Tanto en instituciones educativas públicas como privadas se observó que la percepción de apoyo parental se incrementa cuando el desempeño de los alumnos es bajo. Particularmente, la aspiración educacional de los padres y la supervisión que realizan sobre sus hijos contribuyeron a explicar el rendimiento académico de los estudiantes, en colegios públicos y privados, respectivamente. Con respecto al nivel socioeconómico, las familias de nivel medio-alto participan más activamente en la educación de sus hijos. Se discuten los resultados, se sugieren posibles estrategias de intervención y se destacan las limitaciones del estudio realizado.

ABSTRACT

One of the main purposes in literature related to the field of education has been to identify the variables that contribute to predict academic performance. Particularly, parental support is considered as a distal factor that operates early over time (Byrnes & Miller, 2007). Nevertheless, studies have not identified how parental support triggers the students' academic performance due to the different ways in which this construct has been operationalized. Since in our context it is available an adapted Scale of Parent Support (Aparicio & Cupani, 2008), the present work aims to continue the psychometric studies of the instrument. Specifically, a study of internal structure (confirmatory factor analysis) was developed and explanatory contributions to the academic performance of students were investigated, considering the socioeconomic status of parents and type of institution attended by the students. In this article, participants were 403 adolescents (male and female). They were attending to the third year of high school, in public and private schools of the city of Córdoba (Argentina), and they were between ages 13 to 17 (M = 14.27; SD = .93). The instruments were a questionnaire on socioeconomic status (Comisión de Enlace Institucional, 2006) and a Scale of Parental Support (Aparicio & Cupani, 2008). The students' academic performance was operationalized by the average achieved in the Mathematics during the two semesters of the school year. The results replicated the original four-factor structure of the Scale of Parental Support (Sehee & Hsiu-Zu, 2005). The analysis showed satisfactory internal consistency values for three of the four scales theoretically defined (Communication .82; Supervision .77; Parent Educational Aspiration .77, and Involvement .61). Both in public and in private schools, it was observed that the perception of parental support increases when student's performance is low. In particular, the educational aspirations of parents and the supervision of their children help to explain the academic performance of students in public and private schools, respectively. With regard to socioeconomic status, it was observed that the families of medium-high status participated more actively in the education of their children. Note that one of the limitations is the way in which the academic performance is measured in Argentina. Indeed, qualifications came from informal assessments designed by the teachers, so that they can be influenced by the particular guidelines of each institution and/or the educational framework of each teacher. Whereas the variables involved in student learning are numerous -among them, not only parental support perceived by students but other propensity factors (personality traits, skills, self-efficacy beliefs, for example) and even the characteristics of the institution-, the results of this study allow an approximation of how the support received by the parents, particularly the Monitoring and Aspiration, contribute to the academic performance of students. These observations have an impact on education because they might be useful to develop programs to maintain and enhance parental involvement in the education of their children. For example, it would be important to work with parents before the school year to encourage communication and participation in their children's educational process.