Theses and Dissertations from UMD

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New submissions to the thesis/dissertation collections are added automatically as they are received from the Graduate School. Currently, the Graduate School deposits all theses and dissertations from a given semester after the official graduation date. This means that there may be up to a 4 month delay in the appearance of a give thesis/dissertation in DRUM

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    BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE: AN ANALYSIS OF THE IMPACT OF PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT AND MIDDLE SCHOOL CULTURE ON EIGHTH GRADERS' ACADEMIC PREPAREDNESS FOR COLLEGE BY THE TWELFTH GRADE
    (2012) Bibo, Erin Ward; Cabrera, Alberto F; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    This study used a general two-level model to explore data from the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988-1992 to determine the extent to which student-level (parental involvement) and school-level (school culture of college preparedness) factors individually and collectively influenced eighth grade students' eventual academic preparedness for college by the time they reached the twelfth grade. The study's models supported my foundational hypothesis that the middle school years play a critical role in preparing students for college. That said, the impacts of both parental involvement and school culture, at the middle school level, appear to have a very trivial influence, on average, on students' eventual levels of academic readiness for college. The study's models' random effects results, however, paint a slightly more complex picture. These resulted indicated that, at some schools within the study, some or all of the four parental involvement variables had a statistically significant impact on students' eventual ACRES scores. While I was unable to determine whether these significant effects were mostly positive or negative, it certainly supports the notion that parental involvement indeed plays an important role in preparing students to be academically prepared for college. Additionally, the study determined that students' middle school grades had the most positive influences on ACRES scores, and student poverty levels and first-generation status were associated with the most negative impacts on students' academic preparedness for college. The study concludes by calling on policymakers, educational leaders, teachers, and parents to focus their time, attention, and resources on the middle school years to improve students' eventual academic readiness for college.
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    MATERNAL EDUCATION, MATERNAL LANGUAGE ACCULTURATION, PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT, AND MATERNAL SOCIAL SUPPORT AS PREDICTORS OF THE ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT AND SOCIOEMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT OF ASIAN AMERICAN CHILDREN
    (2009) Wang, Xiaofang; Koblinsky, Sally A.; Family Studies; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    Asian American families are one of the fastest growing groups of the American population. Although multiple studies point to the importance of parents in children's development, there are few empirical studies of the role of mothers and family members in the academic achievement and socioemotional development of Asian American children. Therefore, this study examined the role of maternal education, maternal language acculturation, maternal and family member involvement in home and school activities, and maternal social support in predicting the reading skills, mathematical thinking skills, peer relations, externalizing behavior problems, and internalizing behavior problems of Asian American children. The sample included 311 third grade Asian American children who had biological mothers of Asian heritage and whose families were participants in the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten Class of 1998-1999 (ECLS-K). Mothers were interviewed by telephone or in person, and direct assessments were made of children's academic skills, peer relations, and behavior problems. Secondary data analyses included descriptive statistics, bivariate correlations, and hierarchical multiple regressions. Findings revealed that higher maternal education predicted better child reading and mathematical skills, poorer peer relations, and fewer internalizing behavior problems. Higher maternal language acculturation predicted poorer child mathematical thinking skills and better peer relations. Greater maternal and family involvement in school activities predicted fewer child internalizing problems. Maternal social support was not a significant predictor of any child outcomes in this group of Asian American children. Implications of the findings for developing interventions aimed at mothers of Asian heritage to enhance their children's academic achievement and socioemotional development are discussed.