Parent–Child Participation in Planning Children's Activities Outside of School in European American and Latino Families

Abstract

This longitudinal research used a sociocultural perspective to examine planning competence in the everyday experiences of European American and Latino children from 7 to 9 years of age. Data on children's participation in planning their activities outside of school, parental expectations about children's planning competence, and children's planning in the classroom were collected yearly from Grades 2 to 4 from 140 children and their mothers, and the children's teachers. Results indicate that decision-making practices and parental expectations change with development and vary by ethnicity. Decision making at home was related to children's classroom planning; however, the nature of these relations changed over middle childhood. Results are discussed in terms of cultural and parental contributions to the development of planning skills.

Sibling Behaviors and Mexican-Origin Adolescents’ After-School Activities

“…Older siblings might be particularly important source for promotive behaviors during early adolescence as they might have more experiences with activities than younger siblings. Early adolescence is a key time for developing interest in after-school activities as adolescents are given increasingly more control over choosing to participate in organized activities and activities begin to become more specialized (Gauvain & Perez, 2005;Mahoney et. al., 2006).…”

Measuring Parental Beliefs about the Developmental Significance of Preschool Children’s Daily Activities: the Children’s Daily Activities-Parental Beliefs Scale

“…The initial version comprised 36 items that were based on the literature regarding preschool children's daily activities and parental participation (Chandani et al, 1999(Chandani et al, , 2003Dunst, Hamby, Trivette, Raab, & Bruder, 2000;Gauvain & Perez, 2005;Parmar et al, 2004Parmar et al, , 2008Pierce et al, 1998;Tudge et al, 1999Tudge et al, , 2000Tudge et al, , 2006. The included items represented different types of preschool children's activities (such as play, educational, social, entertainment and work-related) evidenced both in Greek and other cultural communities' family settings.…”

“…We focused on family based child daily activities, assuming that they represent characteristic instances which involve actions that are routine and shared with parents. It is in the context of such activities that opportunities for mutual engagement and participation are more commonly created (Gauvain & Perez, 2005). …”

“…A third way in which the relationship between parental beliefs and children's daily activities has been approached is through studying the beliefs parents hold regarding the meaning and significance of specific activities (Parmar et al, 2004(Parmar et al, , 2008Savage & Gauvain, 1998;Gauvain & Perez, 2005). Here, the focus is on specific activities and their association with parental beliefs regarding the value of these same activities.…”

“…However, existing measures of parental beliefs are relevant to children's daily activities only in a broad sense, as they tend to focus on rather general parenting attitudes, values and practices regarding child-rearing, parent-child interaction and the home environment (e.g., Fox, 1994;Holden & Edwards, 1989;Pierce, Alfonso, & Garison, 1998). When applied to daily activities, existing measures place their emphasis mostly on the mutual engagement of parents and children (Chantani, Prince, & Scott, 1999) or on parental expectations about the onset of children's participation in home-based as well as in out-of-home, more formally organized activities (Savage & Gauvain, 1998;Gauvain & Perez, 2005). On the theoretical grounds that parental beliefs are important mediators of parental influences on children's everyday activities, it is therefore important to develop self-report instruments to assess what parents believe about these activities, as more parsimonious alternatives to interviews and observations.…”