Parental involvement of low-income Hispanic parents in a preschool education program and their children's cognitive development

The purpose of this study waas to determine whether or not there was a significant difference in cognitive growth between Hispanic children whose parents were involved in their preschool program and Hispanic children attending a similar preschool program without parental involvement. Two preschools with an identical curriculum, both administered by the researcher and coordinated by a head teacher, provided a controlled environment for the study.;Analysis of covariance was used to determine significance of the results (p ;It was concluded that parental involvement, as defined in the study, was associated with significantly higher gains in the cognitive development of children in a preschool program than were experienced by children who attended a similar preschool program without parental involvement. Parental involvement did not appear to be associated with significant increases in children's receptive vocabulary or parents' attitudes toward involvement, as measured by the selected instruments.;The sample for the study (n = 39 families) was recruited from a pool of Hispanic families with children three to five years of age who resided in a low income school district of a Southwestern city. The sample families were randomly divided into an experimental group (n = 20), in which parents were required to work in the preschool, attend regular meetings and participate in home visits, and a control group (n = 19) in which children received a similar preschool education program with no parental involvement. Both groups of children were pre- and posttested using the Slosson Intelligence Test for Children and Adults (1985) and the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (Revised 1981). Parents in both groups were pre- and posttested on the Parent as a Teacher Inventory (1984).