Two Studies

Study 1: This study aimed to assess if there was a relationship between the parent and child’s genders and the academic achievement of the child. The study design for this research was correlational. All parents in this study are single parents. The researchers’ hypothesis was that children who live with the parent of the same gender will have higher academic achievement than their counterparts.

Participants for this study were randomly selected from the source population of the US Educational Longitudinal Study—ELS:2002. This population reflects all segments of the United States. After filters were used to produce the randomized sample, the participants were 1755 high school sophomores (150 male and 99 female students living with a single father and 706 male and 800 female living with a single mother).

Data was collected through ELS:2002. This study contained a wide array of student academic performance information, specifically looked at in this study were reading and math grades and reading and math teachers’ evaluations of the student behavior.

Reading and math grades were analyzed through test scores reported to the ELS:2002 study. ELS:2002 had teacher’s evaluate students with a questionnaire. The format of the questionnaire was a five-point Likert-type scale. This data was analyzed using Cronbach’s Alpha.

Conclusions included that the hypothesis did not hold to be reliable and there were no academic benefits for adolescents living with same-gender parents. In fact, results indicated that there were advantages of living with the opposite-gender parents for adolescent girls. In the four sample sets (girls living with fathers, girls living with mothers, boys living with fathers, and boys living with mothers), girls living with fathers tended to have the highest academic achievements.

Because the researchers clearly stated a goal to examine correlation between the two variables (parent and child gender and academic achievement of child), I believe they designed their research accordingly, yielding valid results. The independent variable of academic achievement was clearly examined.

Study 2: This purpose of this research was to study the differences in educational aspirations of adolescents being raised in single-parent families (headed by mothers) compared to those who were growing up with two parents. Because of the goal of the study is to compare two different groups with one variable, the research design in comparative.

Participants for this study were randomly selected from the National Youth Science Project population. The selected sample population was 3432 junior high and high school students. 41.2% were males from intact families, 9.1% males from single-parent homes, 39% females from intact families, and 10.7% were females from single-parent families. Only students between the ages of 12-20 were included in the study.

Data was collected through questionnaires completed by the student. The questionnaire contained items assessing general demographics, achievement/school work, attitudes toward and perceptions of education and schooling, parental background, and other general family information. Though the questionnaire was self-administered, members of the research team were available to answer questions.

Data was analyzed through the answers of the questions on the questionnaire using a 1 (less than high school graduation) to 9 (beyond high school graduation) range for educational aspirations; 1 (mostly below D) to 8 (mostly A) range for grades; alpha coefficient for self-perceptions of learning environment; 1 (less that high school graduation) to 9 (beyond the first university degree, master’s or higher) range for parental education; alpha coefficient for perceived family cohesiveness; alpha coefficient for parental school involvement; 1 (never) to 5 (always) range for parent concern for school; 1 (does not care) to 8 (at least a university degree) for perception of parental expectations after high school; coded categorically (intact family and single-parent family) for family structure; and 1 (none) to 5 (all) range for peer-school related influences.

The study concluded that adolescents from single-parent families tended to fare worse than adolescents from intact families on the factors (academic self-schema, perceived family involvement, background, and having academically-oriented peers) that affect educational aspirations that were outline by a previous study. Academic self-schema (the combination of perceived grades, learning experience, and parental educational expectations) explained a majority of the variance of educational aspirations in adolescents from single-parent and intact families.

Because the researchers clearly stated a goal to compare the educational aspirations of adolescents from a single-parent family to those from a two-parent family, I believe they designed their research accordingly, yielding valid results. Throughout the research, the focus stayed on the variable (educational aspirations) and the factors that contributed to the variable that was being compared.

Garg, R., Melanson, S., & Levin, E. (2007). Educational aspirations of male and female adolescents from single-parent and two biological parent families: A comparison of influential factors. Journal Of Youth & Adolescence, 36(8), 1010-1023.

Sang Min, L., & Kushner, J. (2008). Single-parent families: the role of parent's and child's gender on academic achievement. Gender & Education, 20(6), 607-621.