Canadian Filipino Adolescents Report on Parental Socialization for School Involvement

Abstract/Resume Different parental socialization practices tend to predict the academic behaviours of European and Asian-Canadian adolescents. This study explored the processes whereby parental socialization practices lead to Filipino adolescents' school involvement. Filipino students from Winnipeg (N= 400, both genders, grades 7-12) completed questionnaire measures of parenting styles, parent involvement, importance of family reputation, attribution of success, and student involvement. Adolescents described their parents to be high in involvement and low in authoritarian behaviours and neglect, and themselves to be high in concern about family reputation and internal attribution. Path analyses supported a hypothesized path model where parent involvement fostered concern about family reputation and internal attribution, authoritative parenting fostered internal attribution, and internal attribution predicted student involvement. Les differentes pratiques de socialisation parentales semblent predire les comportements academiques des adolescents canadiens d'origine europeenne et asiatique. Cette etude explore les processus au moyen desquels les pratiques de socialisation parentales ont amene des adolescents philippins participer aux activites scolaires. Les etudiants philippins de Winnipeg (N = 400, garcons et filles de Ia [7.sup.e] a la [12.sup.e] annee) ont rempli un questionnaire sur les styles parentaux, Ia participation des parents, l'importance de Ia reputation de Ia famille, l'importance accordee au succes et Ia participation des etudiants. Les adolescents ont decrit leurs parents comment ayant des comportements tres participatifs, peu autoritaires et peu negligeants ; ils se sont decrits comme tres concernes par Ia reputation de leur famille et l'attribution interne. Les analyses de pistes causales ont appuye l'hypothese du modele ou Ia participation des parents porterait les jeunes se soucier de Ia reputation de leur famille e t l'attribution interne; le style autoritaire nourrissait l'attribution interne etcelle-ci predisait Ia participation de l'etudiant. INTRODUCTION The Need to Study Filipino Adolescents The present study examined ethnic-specific family-socialization factors predicting the school involvement of Filipino-Canadian adolescents. Even though visible-minority adolescents will account for an increasing share of the Canadian population (about 25% in 2016 according to Statistics Canada, 1995), research on minority adolescents in the United States (McLoyd and Steinberg 1998, P. vii) and especially in Canada has been very scarce. There are several reasons why it is important to have more information about visible-minority adolescents: The increasing proportion of such minority adolescents in Canadian schools implies not only that minority adolescents must learn to interact with the European-Canadian majority, but also that European-Canadian students and teachers must deal with minority adolescents. It is therefore important that teachers and other professionals working with minority students understand the school-related attitudes and behaviours of such adolescents. Failure to do so can lead minority a dolescents to experience misunderstanding, conflict, and depressed school performance (Perry & Clifton, 1985). For instance, Buduhan & Oandason (1981) found it necessary to prepare a paper to help educators in Manitoba schools understand and appreciate cultural differences in school-related attitudes and motivations. Finally, some developmental psychologists have stressed the need to understand the culture-specific processes which affect the development of competencies of minority children and adolescents (Garcia Coil, Lamberty, Jenkins, McAdoo, Crnic, Wasik, & Vazquez Garcia, 1996). The presence of an increasing number of Asian students in American and Canadian schools poses a serious challenge to educators and social scientists (Slaughter-Defoe, Nakagawa, Takanishi & Johnson, 1990, p. …