| The current study examined how parenting stress, motivational constructs, such as self-efficacy beliefs and task values, as well as beliefs and attitudes about the parenting role and parents' expectations for their children's education were associated with minority, low-income mothers' involvement in their children's early education. This study focused on a Latino and African American sample because these children continue to experience the highest school failure rate in the U.S. today (Hao & Bonstead-Bruns, 1998; Sue & Okagaki, 1990).; Results from regression and path model analyses showed that mothers' literacy-related task values, parenting stress, and parenting efficacy were significant predictors of involvement in their children's education. Specifically, controlling for mothers' education, ethnicity, and family size mothers' literacy-related task values was significantly predictive of involvement. Moreover, controlling for mothers' education, ethnicity, and family size parenting stress was indirectly related to involvement through mothers' parenting efficacy beliefs.; These findings can be interpreted to suggest that mothers' perception of their parenting abilities and how important, useful, and enjoyable involvement in early educational activities are with their children, motivate them to initiate and maintain such activities, which in turn may help foster the appreciation and enjoyment of educational activities in their own children. Study findings can also be interpreted to suggest that mothers' parenting efficacy beliefs buffer against the negative effects that parenting stress has on mothers' motivation to become involved in their children's early education.; These findings provide new insight about mothers' involvement in their children's education that had not been previously examined in the motivation literature. Specifically, no previous studies examined the relation between mothers' literacy-related task values and involvement nor had previous research examined mothers' efficacy beliefs and their literacy-related task values in an integrative model of involvement until now. However, more work is needed to further test the dynamics of this relationship. |
