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Exploring lived experiences of African American adults who attended inner city schools about the role of parenting styles, practices and family culture on their academic achievement levels and socio-economic status
Dissertation   Open access

Exploring lived experiences of African American adults who attended inner city schools about the role of parenting styles, practices and family culture on their academic achievement levels and socio-economic status

Jacqueline Banks Jones
Doctor of Education (Ed.D.), Drexel University
Dec 2014
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17918/etd-6880
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Abstract

African American parents African American students Urban schools Education
The purpose of this qualitative, phenomenological study will be to explore the lived experiences of African American adults about their perceptions of the potential influences of parenting style, parenting practices and family culture on their academic and career success. Major inner city communities in America are plagued with several problems that can be linked to its educational system-high dropout rates, high unemployment rates, high crime rates, and high poverty rates. However, despite such dire data, there are graduates of the inner city school district who have achieved much success in life. Although there is a lack of definitive research on parenting styles and African American achievement, there is a significant body of research that has determined there is a direct correlation between parenting style and student achievement. Furthermore, psychologists have determined that there is a connection between the early cognitive development of children and their development of higher order thinking capabilities. For this research, the participants are African American adult alumni of an inner city school district who were interviewed who described their perceptions of the role that parenting styles, parenting practices and family culture played in their academic achievement and current socio-economic status. Another selection criteria for participants was that the socio-economic factor of median income of the participants exceeded the level for their state. Furthermore, using a semi-structured interview format, the data was coded and analyzed for themes that provide rich, descriptions that may be useful to other districts. The central research question is "How do African American adults who attended a selected inner city school describe their perceptions about the value of parenting style, parenting practices and family cultural differences in parenting on their cognitive development, educational achievement levels and socio-economic status?" The findings indicate that their relationship with their parents did have an impact on what they have become.

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