Relationships Among Parenting Knowledge, Quality of Stimulationin the Home and Child Academic Perfonnance
ROZUMAH BAHARUDINDepartment of Human Development and Family Studies
Faculty of Human EcologyUniversiti Putra Malaysia
43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor,Malaysia
Key words: parenting, child development knowledge, home environment, academic performance,children, family background
ABSTRAK
Kajian ini telah menentukan perkaitan di an tara pengetahuan keibubapaan, kualiti rangsangandi rumah, dan prestasi akademik kanak-kanak. Subjek kajian terdiri daripada 60 orang ibuMelayu dengan anak mereka yang berumur di antara 8 hingga 9 tahun, yang mana telah dikenalpasti menggunakan persampelan rawak berlapis. Data dikumpulkan melalui temubual danpemerhatian di rumah responden. Pengetahuan keibubapaan telah diukur menggunakaninstrumen khas yang telah dibentuk sendiri oleh penyelidik. Kualiti persekitaran rumah telahdiukur menggunakan inventori HOME oleh Caldwell dan Bradley (1984). Maklumat berkaitanpencapaian akademik anak telah diperolehi daripada laporan kad kemajuan sekolah. Hasilkajian menunjukkan terdapat perkaitan signifikan di antara variabel tumpuan. Pengetahuankeibubapaan mempunyai perkaitan yang signifikan dengan kualiti rangsangan di rumah, yangmana mempunyai perkaitan signifikan pula dengan prestasi akademik kanak-kanak. Analisisselanjutnya menunjukkan bahawa terdapat perkaitan signifikan di an tara faktor latarbelakangkeluarga (pendidikan, pendapatan keluarga, dan bilangan anak) dengan pengetahuankeibubapaan, dan kualiti rangsangan di rumah. Implikasi hasil kajian dibincangkan.
ABSTRACT
The present study determined the relationships among parenting knowledge, quality of stimulationin the home, and children's academic performance. Subjects were 60 Malay mothers withchildren aged 8 to 9 years, who were identified using stratified random selection. Data werecollected by interview and observation in the home of the respondents. Parenting knowledge wasmeasured using an instrument that was specially developed by the researcher. The quality ofstimulation in the home was assessed using Caldwell and Bradley's (1984) HOME inventory.Information on the children's academic achievement was obtained from their school reportcards. Results show significant associations among the variables of interest. Parenting knowledgewas significantly related to the quality of stimulation in the home, which in turn, was significantlyrelated to the academic performance of the children. Additional analyses show significantassociations between family background factors (education, family income, and number ofchildren) and parenting knowledge, and quality of stimulation in the home environment.Implications of the findings are discussed.
INTRODUCTION
Parenting is an art and a science, as well as aresponsibility that comes with being part of a
family. Most parents want to be "good" parents:doing what is most helpful, nurturing andencouraging their children's growth and
Rozumah Baharudin
development. However, parenting is a complexand an intellectually challenging task. Parentsneed to have accurate and adequate childdevelopment and parenting knowledge in orderto become competent parents. Today's complexand fast changing world may also demand parentsto demonstrate higher levels of efficacy to ensurethat their children can function effectively andcope successfully with the challenges of modernliving. Parenting today is realized as even morecomplicated than yesteryears, and thus possessingaccurate information and providing qualitychildrearing environment are vital for producingchildren with excellent capabilities.
Past research has provided evidence of theinterrelationships among parenting knowledge,the quality of the home environment and childdevelopment (Stevens, 1984; Parks & Smeriglio,1986; Stern & Alvarez, 1992). In general, thesestudies indicated that good understanding ofchildcare and development could increase aparent's ability to provide stimulatingenvironment in the home, which subsequently,increase his/her child's developmental outcomes.Notwithstanding, other studies have shown thatpoor parenting knowledge is associated withpoor parenting adjustment, dissatisfaction withparenting role, less positive child stimulationand contact, and greater use of physicalpunishment (Altman-Klein & Cordell, 1987;Culp, Applebaum, Osofsky, & Levy, 1988;Chamberlain, Szumoski, & Zastowny, 1980).Lower acquisition of parenting information andnegative caretaking behaviors have both beenshown to be related to negative child outcomes(Culp, Applebaum, Osofsky, & Levy, 1988; Elsteret aI., 1983; Stevens, 1984). Siti Nor et.aI.'s(1992) study provided evidence that supportedthe significant associations between parentingknowledge, parenting practices and childoutcome. The study focused on 30 mothers withchildren aged 5-6 year-old. Findings from thestudy indicated that the level of parentingknowledge acquired by the mothers issignificantly related to their childcare practices,and which in turn, is significantly related to thecognitive abilities of their children.
Based on available literature, the presentstudy determined the relationships amongparenting knowledge, the quality of stimulationprovided in the home environment and theacademic achievement of children. The studyfocused specifically on Malay mothers and their
8-9 year-old children. Fathers were not includedin the present study for it has been shown thatmothers are traditionally more involved thanfathers in the everyday activities of their children,and hold major impact on their children'sdevelopment (Sroufe, Cooper & Dehart, 1996).
Besides determining the relationships amongthe three variables of interest, this study alsodetermined the relationships between familybackground factors (age of mother, education,family income and number of children) andparenting knowledge, quality of stimulation inthe home, and the child academic performance.A review of the literature indicated that thereare substantial relations between familybackground factors and the levels of parentingknowledge, quality of home stimulation and thelevel of achievement children possessed. Intheir study, Park and Smeriglio (1986) foundsignificant associations between familybackground and parenting knowledge, homeenvironment and child outcome. The studyshowed that among low socioeconomic statusfamilies, parenting knowledge was significantlyrelated to quality of stimulation in the home,that in tum, is related to a child's developmentalperformance. Park and Smeriglio (1986)observed that the mothers parenting practicescould be influenced by their knowledge of therelationship between childrearing practices andchild outcomes.
Research findings by Tsao (1994) isconsistent with Park and Smeriglio (1986)findings. In the study, Tsao examined therelationships between several family backgroundfactors including education, occupation andincome and parenting knowledge, knowledge ofchild development, and childrearing involvementof 145 Taiwanese parents (55 fathers and 90mothers). The study found that parents' levelsof education, occupation, and annual incomeare positively related to the parents' level ofparenting knowledge, knowledge of childdevelopment and childrearing involvement.Negative relationship was however, foundbetween the parents' age and their level ofparenting knowledge and childrearinginvolvement. Older parents were shown to havebetter information on childrearing, and are moreinvolved in caring for their children.
A recent study by Doshi and Rozumah(1997) provided evidence that support thesignificant associations between family factors
12 PertanikaJ. Soc. Sci. & Hum. Vol. 7 No.1 1999
Relationships in the Home and Child Academic Performance
and parent's knowledge, attitude and childcarepractices (KAP). The study sample consistedprimarily of low-income parents (.11 =80) from aFELDA scheme in Negri Sembilan. Althoughthe study found small relations between selectedfamily background factors and parenting KAP, itdemonstrated that family context do influenceparenting KAP. Results of the study showed thatrespondents' age and levels of parental educationare significantly related to parenting knowledge.Parents who were older in age and completedmore years of formal education showed betterparenting than other parents in the study. Thestudy also found that more educated parentshave better parenting attitude than other parents.In addition, the findings indicated significantand positive correlation between family incomeand parenting practices.
The primary purpose of the present study isto determine the relationships among parentingknowledge, the quality of stimulation in thehome, and child's academic performance. Thestudy expected that there are significant andpositive correlations among these three variables.Also of interest to the present study is therelationships between selected family backgroundfactors and parenting knowledge, the quality ofstimulation in the home, and child academicperformance. The study expected the followingvariables to be related to the three dependentvariables focused on in the present analyses: ageof mother, education, family income and numberof children. Findings from this study may createawareness among parents on the importance ofacquiring appropriate knowledge in childdevelopment and of providing proper guidanceand stimulation for children to reach their fullpotentials. In addition, the information obtainedmay help to further refine the understanding offactors that influence parenting and childdevelopment.
METHODOLOGY
Sample
Sample for the study consists of 60 Malay mothersand their 8-9 year-old children. The samplingtechnique adopted was stratified randomsampling, i.e .. a number of Third Grade maleand female students from Sungai KaparElementary School, Semanggol, Perak whofulfIlled the study criteria (Malay, 8-9 year-old,and staying in two-parent families) were initiallyidentified and selected at random. Mothers of
these children were then included as respondentsfor the study. Table 1 shows the demographiccharacteristics of the sample.
Mothers' involved in this study could beconsidered as relatively young. Their age rangedfrom 25 to 50 years, with a mean of 37.7 years.Almost all of the respondents had someschooling, average educational attainment was 7years, and ranged from 0 to 14 years. Quite alarge proportion of the respondents havechildren between 4 to 8. Mean number ofchildren was 5.
Slightly more than half of the respondentsindicated they were unemployed, for those whowere employed, most were in blue-collar jobs(e.g., farmers & laborers). The average familyincome for the sample was over RM800 (median= RM600) per month. Total family income wasdetermined by adding the husband's, wife's andother incomes (such as from part-time jobs orcontributions from older children who arealready working). Overall, respondents in thisstudy could be considered as coming from lowincome families. Given that the respondentswere not living in urban or metropolitan areaof the country, the amount of family incomethey have may be adequate.
Half (51.7%) of the children involved in thestudy were male, and the rest (49.3%) werefemale. Their age ranged from 96 months to120, with a mean of 108.5 months.
Instrurnentation
Parenting Knowledge was assessed using a Likerttype scale that was specially developed by theresearcher for the study. The instrumentcontains 20 items measuring the mothers' childrearing/child development knowledge. Theseitems were developed based on fmdings in theresearch literature, child development theories,and experts' opinions. This method of scaledevelopment therefore, provides evidence for itscontent validity. Internal consistency reliabilitythat was calculated for the scale produced acoefficient alpha of .60.
In order to avoid reponse bias, items in thescale were arranged in a mixture of positive (11)and negative (9) statements. Examples of positiveand negative items are as follows: "Parents needto give their child opportunity to voice out his/her opinion" (positive); "Children need to betreated like adults so that they mature quickly"(negative).
Pertanika.J. Soc. Sci. & Hum. Vol. 7 No.1 1999 13
Rozumah Baharudin
TABLE IDemographic characteristics of sample
228.3 358.4
850.7 650.0
Age (years)Less than 3030-40More than 40
Education (years)Less than 44-10More than 10
OccupationProfessional & TechnicalAdministration & ManagementClericalSalesFarmers/labourersNot working
IncomeLess than 500500-1000More than 1000
Family IncomeLess than 1000500-1000More than 1000
No. of childrenLess than 44-8More than 8
Age of child (months)Less than 105105-ll5More than 115
Sex of childGirlsBoys
Note. SD = Standard Deviation
N %
6 10.034 56.720 33.3
10 16.734 56.716 26.7
6 10.73 5.0I 1.75 8.3
10 16.735 58.3
50 83.35 8.35 8.3
45 75.09 15.06 10.0
II 18.343 71.7
6 10.0
18 30.029 48.313 21.7
29 48.331 51.7
Mean
37.7
7.2
5.4
108.5
SD
6.8
3.8
2.7
6.8
Mothers' responses for this scale rangedfrom 3 (strongly agree) to 0 (strongly disagree) .
egatiye items were recoded before scoring sothat high scores represent high knowledge inparenting. Mean score obtained by therespondents on the parenting knowledge scalewas 61.4 (SD = 3.3), and the range span from 56to 70.
Quality of Stimulation in the Home wasmeasured using the elementary version of theHome Observation for Measurement of theEnvironment (HOME) scale (Caldwell & Bradley,1984). The scale consists of 59 items, which aregrouped into 8 categories: 1. Emotional andVerbal Responsitivity, 2. Encouragement ofMaturity, 3. Emotional Climate, 4. Growth
14 PertanikaJ. Soc. Sci. & Hum. Vol. 7 No.1 1999
Relationships in the Home and Child Academic Performance
Note. PK = Parenting knowledge; QS = Quality ofstimulation in the home; AP = Academic performance ofchildren. *p <.05, **p <.01, ***p<.OOI
TABLE 2Zero-order correlations among parenting knowledge, quality of stimulation in the home, and
academik performance
in the home and the academic performance ofchildren. Likewise, the quality of stimulationparents provide for their children in the homeis significantly related to the academicachievement scores of the children. Thesefindings tend to suggest that parents who knowmore about caregiving structure their homeenvironment in ways that are stimulating for thechildren's to excel in school.
As noted earlier, the second objective of thepres~nt study is to determine the relationshipsbetween selected family background variables(specifically, age of mother, education, familyincome and number of children) and parentingknowledge, quality of stimulation in the home,and child academic performance. It wasexpected that all of these family backgroundvariables included in the analyses will besignificantly related to the three dependentvariables. The data were consistent with thisexpectation. Table 3 shows the zero-ordercorrelations among the variables used in theanalyses: family background (age of mother,education, family income, and number ofchildren), parenting knowledge, quality ofstimulation in the home, and academicachievement of children. Most of the correlationscoefficients were statistically significant, and smallto moderate in size.
All of the family background variables, withexception of mothers' age, were found to besignificantly related to the mothers' level ofparenting knowledge. Mothers who have hadhigher levels of education and family incometended to have higher knowledge in parentingthan other mothers in the study. These mothersalso had fewer children at the time of the study.
r I'
AP
0.44***
1.00
QS
0.53*** 0.41 ***
1.00
PKI'
1.00Parenting knowledge
Home stimulation
Academic performance
Variables
Fostering Materials and Experiences, 5. Provisionfor Active Stimulation, 6. Family Participation inDevelopmentally Stimulating Experiences, 7.Paternal Involvement, and 8. Aspects of thePhysical Environment. Information for eachitem of the scale was obtained by bothobservation and interview in the home at a timewhen the target child is awake and can interactwith the mother. Each item is scored 'yes' (1)or 'no' (0), and a total score is obtained for allitems in the 8 subscales. High scores indicatethe availability of "high" quality stimulation inthe home. The mean score on the HOME forthe present sample was 42.8 (SO = 6.2).The respondents' scores ranged-from 25 to 55.
Data on the reliability and validity of theHOME are widely published. The HOME hasbeen used in several countries and acrossdifferent cultural groups. Bradley et al.'s (1988)data revealed a coefficient alpha of .90 for theelementary HOME. For the present study, theHOME scale total score coefficient alpha was.82.
Academic Performance of the children wasdetermined by adding their second-semesterexamination (1994) scores on 4 basic subjects(i.e., Malay Language, English Language,Mathematics, and Islamic Studies). The highestscore attainable for each subject was 100 points,and thus, the 4 subjects totalled to 400 points.The mean score of the children on the fouracademic subjects used in the analyses was 248.2(SO=81.8). Median score was 259, and rangedfrom 47 to 374.
RESULTS
Correlational analyses were done to determinethe extent of associations among parentingknowledge, quality of stimulation in the home,and the child's academic performance. Table 2presents the zero-order correlation: among ~e
three variables. All of the correlat.lons were 111
the expected directions, and moderate inmagnitude.
Consistent with expectations, there weresignificant and positive correlat~ons a.mo~g
parenting knowledge, quality of stImulatIon 111
the home and child's academic performance.These findings are consistent with past studies(e.g., Steven, 1984; Park & Smeriglio, 1986; Doshi& Rozumah, 1997). Parenting knowledge issignificantly related to the quality of stimulation
Pertanika.J. Soc. Sci. & Hum. Vol. 7 No.1 1999 15
Rozumah Baharudin
TABLE 3.Zero-order correlations between family
background variables and parentingknowledge, quality of stimulation in the home,
and child academic performance
PK QS APVariables r r r
Age of mother -0.26 0.05 0.12
Education 0.49*** 0.59*** 0.41***
No. of children -0.33*** -0.36** -0.27*
Note. PK = Parenting knowledge; QS = Quality ofstimulation in the home; AP = Academic performance ofchildren. *p <.05, **p <.01, ***p<.OOl
As shown in Table 3, three out of the fourfamily variables were significantly related to thequality of stimulation in the home. Motherswho have had more years of schooling, higherfamily income and fewer children seemed toprovide better quality stimulation for theirchildren. In addition, these mothers have higherlevels of parenting knowledge compared to othermothers.
With exception of the mothers' age, thefamily background variables were found to besignificantly related to the children's academicperformance. The study found that childrenwho do well in school appeared to come fromfamilies that have higher levels offamily income,and fewer children in the households. Thesechildren also tended to have mothers whocompleted more years of education. Additionally,these mothers have higher levels of parentingknowledge and provide the children with betterquality stimulation in the home.
Predictors of Parenting Knowledge, Quality ofStimulation and Child's Academic Performance
Several stepwise multiple regression analyses,using the forward selection procedure were alsoperformed in the present study to determinewhich of the selected independent variablesuniquely predict the mothers' parentingknowledge, the quality of stimulation the mothersprovide, and the academic performance of thechildren. Results of the analyses are shown inTable 4. The F values for all the regressionmodels were found to be highly significant (p<.001).
In the first set of the regression analyses,shown in the first column of Table 4, parenting
TABLE 4.Stepwise multiple regression analyses on
predictors of parenting knowledge, quality ofstimulation in the home, and academic
performance
PK QS APVariables B B B
Age of mother .04***
Education .28* .54***
Family Income .38** .29**
No. of children -.30**
PK .26*
QS NI .29*
AP NI NI
R2 .34 .55 .26
F value 14.51 16.54 9.76
Sig. Level .001 .001 .001
Note. Betas reported are standardized beta. Betas are notreported for variables that failed to enter a model. PK =Parenting knowledge, QS=Quality of stimulation in thehome, AP=Academic performance, NI=Not included inthe model. *p <.05. **p<.Ol, ***p <.001
knowledge was the dependent variable and thefamily background variables (age of mother,years of education, family income, and numberof children) were used as the independent !
variables. The four family background variablesaccounted for 34% of the variance in themothers' parenting knowledge scores. Of thefour variables, only mothers' education and levelsof family income were significant predictors ofthe mothers' parenting knowledge when otherfactors were controlled.
In the second set of the regression analyses(see second column of Table 4), quality ofstimulation in the home was used as thedependent variable and the family backgroundvariables including parenting knowledge was theindependent variables in the analyses. Table 4shows that only family income did not enter theprediction equation. The results show thatmothers' age, education, levels of family incomeand parenting knowledge were all significantlyrelated to the quality of stimulation mothersprovide for their children at home when otherfactors were statistically controlled. The predictorvariables accounted for 55% of the variance inthe HOME scores.
16 PertanikaJ. Soc. Sci. & Hum. Vol. 7 No.1 1999
Relationships in the Home and Child Academic PeIiormance
Results of the final set of the regressionanalyses are shown in the th ird column of Table4. In this analysis, the dependent variable wasthe academic achievement scores of the children.Independent variables used in the analysis werefamily background, parenting knowledge, andHOME scores. Together the predictor variablesaccounted for 26% of the variance in theachievement scores of the children. Aftercontrolling for other factors, only two variablesemerged as unique predictors of the children'sachievement: family income and HOME scores.
DISCUSSION AND IMPLICATIONS
Results of the bivariate analyses indicated thatparenting knowledge is significantly related toquality of stimulation in the home, and children'sacademic attainment. Similarly, quality ofstimulation in the home is significantly relatedto the children's school performance. Clearly,the results suggest that acquiring appropriateand adequate child development knowledge isimportant for competent parenting. The qualityof parenting children received will subsequentlydetermine how well they do in school. Lowerlevel of knowledge in child development maytherefore result in poor home environment andpoor child functioning. Thus, parenting mustbe regarded as a process that need preparationand learning, and not as a natural instinct. Itseems advisable for those engaged in parentingeducation to emphasize the importance ofsystematic understanding of child developmentand caregiving for stimulating children towardstheir optimum development.
The study found that several selected familybackgroud factors (specifically, age of mother,education, family income, and number ofchildren) are related to the mothers' parentingknowledge, quality of stimulation she providesin the home, and children's academicperformance. Mothers who completed moreyears of schooling, have higher family incomeand fewer children to care for achieved higherscores on the parenting knowledge scale thanother mothers in the study. These mothers werealso found to provide better quality stimulationin the home, and have children who achievedgood grades in school.
When the family background factors werestatistically controlled, only two factors (i.e.,education and family income) were found to besignificantly related to the mothers' levels of
parenting knowledge. More educated mothersand mothers with higher familv income werefound to have higher parenting knowledge.These findings seemed to imply that moreeducated mothers, and mothers with higherfamily income have the means to obtain moreinformation on child-rearing. Being moreeducated these mothers may have read morebooks related to child care and development,and attended more seminars, workshops orcourses on children.
Four variables were found to be uniquepredictors of the quality of stimulation mothersprovide for their children in the home: age ofmother, education, number of children, andparenting knowledge. Consistent with previousresearch (Ragozin et aI., 1982; Stevens, 1984;Menaghan & Parcel, 1991) mothers who wereolder in age, completed more years of education,had fewer children to care for, and had higherlevels of parenting knowledge were found to bemore able to prepare a home environment thatare cognitively conducive for their children.These findings show that over the years moremature mothers may have gathered greaterinformation and experience on ways to stimulatetheir children's learning, thus, they scored higheron the HOME inventory.
It is noteworthy that mothers with morechildren are less able to provide stimulatingenvironment for their children at home. Thisfinding is consistent with past studies (Blake,1989; Menaghan & Parcel, 1991). Perhaps forthese mothers, providing the children with theirbasic daily needs (e.g., food and clothing) maybe more important for the children's survival.Moreover, caring for more children may demanda lot of time and energy; so the mothers mayhave very little time and energy left forconstructing a more stimulating horneenvironment.
The fact that family income did not turnout as an important predictor may be largelydue to the HOME measure, that also includesitems assessing qualitative types of stimulation(i.e., aspects of parent-child interaction whichdo not require objects/materials to bepurchased) available in the home environment.Another alternative explanation is that the effectsof family income may have been more indirectvia education or parenting knowledge.
Consistent with expectations, parentingknowledge significantly predicts the quality of
Pertanika.J. Soc. Sci. & Hum. Vol. 7 No.1 1999 17
Rozumah Baharuclin
stimulation provided by mothers at home. Parksand Smeriglio (1986) also found similarrelationships. This finding imply that motherswho know more about childrearing wouldstructure their home environments in ways thatpromote positive development in their children.
After partialling out other factors in thestudy, only family income and quality ofstimulation in the home emerged as uniquepredictors of children's performance. Childrenwho came from families with higher incomes,and provided with better quality stimulationperformed well academically. This finding mayindicate that families with higher income havethe ability to provide their children with resources(human and non-human) that are important fortheir children's cognitive development. Humanresources such as the mother's education andknowledge are definitely at a higher level inhigh income than low income families, thushaving mothers with these characteristics benefitsthe children socially and genetically.Furthermore, higher income families generallyhave fewer children than lower income families.Therefore, in terms of parental time, attention,and communication (non-human resources),children with fewer siblings may be gaining moreof these resources than children with largernumber of siblings.
As expected the study found that qualitysimulation in the home significantly predictedthe children's academic achievement. Thisfinding is consistent with earlier studies(Rozumah & Luster. 1992; Gottfried & Gottfried,1984). The result shows that a home that isenriched with educational materials (e.g., games,books, etc.), and that allows children to learnand explore will encourage positive developmentin children. Furthermore, a home in whichparents are always available and responsivetowards their children's needs, will be acognitively stimulating home for children.
Although in the multiple regression analysesmothers educational level, parenting knowledge,and number of children were not significantpredictors of the children's achievement scores,this does not imply that these factors have noinfluence on the children's outcomes. Earliercorrelational analyses showed that these factorshave significant relationships with academicachievement (see Table 4). Thus, these findingsmay suggest that the effect of education,parenting knowledge, and number of children
may more likely to be indirect, i.e., via thequality of stimulation provided in the home.
The findings discussed so far may imply thatthose who work with families need to considerthe contributions of numerous factors withinthe family ecosystem on parents ability to provideoptimum care. Practioners may need to developintervention strategies that are appropriate forfamilies at different background orsocioeconomic status. Low socioeconomicfamilies, particularly may need ampleopportunities to learn about child care anddevelopment. Living in stressfiul life conditions(e.g., job instability, low income, large familysize, poor housing) may sometimes hinderparents ability to focus on the developmentalneeds of their children or the quality of parentchild interaction. Family support or interventionprograms that are appropriately design can helpchildren and families to overcome factors thatundermine their optimum functioning.
CONCLUSION
Results from the present study showed significantassociations among parenting knowledge, qualiryof stimulation in the home, and children'sacademic performance. The study also revealedthat at the bivariate level, family backgroundfactors including mothers' education, familyincome, and number of children are significantlyrelated to the mothers' parenting knowledge,quality of stimulation she provides in the home,and children's academic performance. However,different factors were shown to predict the threemajor variables focused on in the study after theeffects of other factors were statisticallycontrolled. The significant predictors forparenting knowledge were education and familyincome; for quality of stimulation in the homewere age of mother, education, number ofchildren, and parenting knowledge; and forchildren's performance were family income andquality of stimulation in the home.
Results from the present study should beviewed cautiously for it was exploratory andcorrelational in nature. Moreover, the samplesize may have underestimated the effects of theselected variables on the outcomes of interest.Future researchers may therefore want to furtherexamine the effects of these variables using alarger sample. Other parenting factors such asparental beliefs, goals and expectations may alsobe interesting to explore in future studies. In
18 Pertanika.J. Soc. Sci. & Hum. Vol. 7 No.1 1999
Relationships in the Home and Child Academic Performance
addition, parental influence on other aspects ofchild outcomes such as social and emotionaldevelopment may be the focus of future research.Several findings from the present study may berelevant to policy-makers and practitionersinvolved in programmes or activities that arerelated to parenting and child development.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The author wishes to thank Nor Azemah Azemanfor her assistance in the data collection.
REFERENCES
ALTMAN-KLEiN, H. and A. CORDELL. 1987. Theadolescent as mother: Early risk identification.Journal of Youth and Adolescence 16: 47-58.
BLAKE,]. 1989. Family Size and Achievement. Berkeley:University of California, Press.
BRADLEY, R. H., B. CAl.OWELL, S. L. ROCK, H. M.Hamrick and P. Harris. 1988. Homeobservation for measurement of theenvironment: Development of a homeinventory for use with families having children6 to 10 -years old. Contemporary EducationalPsychology 13: 58-71.
CALDWELL, B. M. and R. H. BRADLEY. 1984. HomeObservation for Measurement of the Environment.Little Rock, AR: University of Arkansas at LittleRock, Center for Child Development andEducation.
CHAMfiERIAlN, R. W. and E. K. SZUMOWSKl. 1980. Afollow-up study of parent education in pediatricoffice practices: Impact at age two and a half.AmericanJournal of Public Health 70: 1180-1188.
CULP, R., M. A!'PEl.fiAUM, ]. OSOFSKY, and]. LEVY.1988. Adolescen t and older mothers:Comparison between prenatal maternalvariables and newborn interaction measures.Infant Behavior and Development 11: 353-362.
DOSHI, A. and B. ROZUMAH. 1997. Relationshipsbetween selected socioeconomic factors andparenting knowledge, attitude and practicesamong FELDA settlers. Paper submitted forpublication to PertanikaJ. Soc. Sci. & Hum.,UPM.
ELSTER, A., E. MeA AMEY, M. LAMB. 1983. Parentalbehavior of adolescent mother. Pediatrics 71:494-503.
GoTTFRIED, A. W., A. E. GoTTFRIED. 1984. Homeenvironment and cognitive development inyoung children of middle-socioeconomic-statusfamilies. In Home Environment and EarlyCognitive Development: Longitudinal Research, A.W. Gottfried (Ed.) Orlando, FL: AcademicPress. (p. 57-115).
MENAGHAN, E. G., and T. L. PARCEL. 1991.Determ ining children's home environments:The impact of maternal characteristics andcurrent occupational and family conditions.Journal of Marriage and the Family 53.- 41 7431.
PARKS. P. L. and V. L. SMERIGLlO. 1986. Relationshipsamong parenting knowledge, quality ofstimulation in the home and infantdevelopment. Family Relations 35: 411-416.
RAcOZLN, A. S., R. B. BASHAM, K. A. CMIC, M. T.GRI,ENBERG and N. M. ROfifNSON. 1982. Effectsof matemal age on parenting role.Developmental Psychology 18: 627-634.
ROZU~1AH B. and T. LUSTER. 1992. Factors related tothe quality of the home environment andchildren's achievement. Paper presented atthe National Council ofFamily Relations Conference,Orlando, Florida, Nov. 4-1 1.
SITI NOR Y., ROZUMAH B., and SUHEIR MY. 1992.Mothers' knowledge, attitude, and practices inchildrearing and children's cognitivedevelopment. Paper presented at the WorldOrganization of Early Childhood Seminar (OMEP)for the Asia and Pacific Region, OMEP, Tokyo,Japan, p. 159-165.
SROUFE, L. A., R. G. COOPER and G. B. DEHART.1996. Child Development: Its Nature and Course.3rd ed. New York: McGraw- Hill, Inc.
STEVENS,]. H. 1984. Black grandmothers and blackadolescents mothers knowledge aboutparenting. Developmental Psychology 20: 10171025.
STERN-M. and A. ALVAREZ. 1992. Knowledge of childdevelopment and caretaking attitudes: Acomparison of pregnant, parenting, and nonpregnant adolescents. Family Relations 41: 297302.
TSAo, LI-YOU. (1994). Factors related to parentingknowledge, knowledge of child development,and child rearing involvement among parents.Unpublished Master's thesis, The University ofArizona.
