Factors associated with parental non-/participation in child-development research

Background: It is always a challenge to involve parents in child-development research, and there are a number of reasons why parents do not participate in such research. These include: inadequate invitations to take part, lack of time or long-term absence of the parent, the character of the study, problem behaviour occurring in the family, and parental involvement in the child ́s life. In many “family studies”, it is often the case that only the mothers’ opinions are represented, and, in fact, the need to recruit fathers in research has subsequently increased in recent years, as it can present different views to those only including mothers. In terms of optimizing data collection as well as for interpreting and generalising the findings, it is crucial to know whether children whose parents participate in research differ in important characteristics from those whose parents do not participate. Adults who volunteer to take part in research, have been found to have some specific characteristics, some of which have a socio-demographic basis. The present study provides the potential reasons and the differences between the children of participating and non-participating parents. Aim: The aim of this study was to uncover the above differences with respect to (1) socio-demographic indicators; such as gender and the financial situation of the family, (2) health-risk behaviour (alcohol use, smoking, drunkenness) and problem behaviour, (3) parental processes (parental disclosure, solicitation, knowledge, monitoring/rules-setting) and parent-child relationships (companionship, conflict, intimate disclosure, affection, reassurance of worth, satisfaction, antagonism, punishment and relative power). This research also aims to identify what might increase the probability of parental participation in child development research. In general, it can be hypothesised that mothers are more likely to respond. With regards to the gender of the child, it is expected that there would be a higher rate of response from the parent of the same sex as the child. Parents with a higher socioeconomic status are also hypothesized to be more likely to participate in the research. Parents who care about the activities of their child and show the positive aspects of the parent-child relationship are also hypothesized to be more involved in child development research. On the other hand, parents with problems occurring in their family might be hindered in providing any personal information. Methods: The research sample consisted of 810 early adolescents from Slovakia (mean age= 12.78, SD=.72), 49.9% were girls. The children were administered a paper-pen questionnaire to monitor risky behaviour alcohol use, drunkenness, smoking (Hibell et al, 2012), permitted smoking and alcohol use by parents; problematic behaviour; parental processes (Stattin & Kerr, 2000; subscales: child disclosure, parental solicitation, parental knowledge, parental monitoring/rules) and relationships (The Network of Relationships Social Provision Version, Furman & Buhrmester, 1985; subscales: companionship, conflict, antagonism, intimate disclosure, affection, reassurance of worth, satisfaction with relationship, punishment, relative power). A total of 401 mothers (51.88% Človek a spoločnosť [Individual and Society], 2020, Vol. 23, No. 1, pp. 17-30. Factors associated with parental non-/participation in child-development research 18 of all mothers whose children reported they lived with a mother or a step-mother) and 242 fathers (36.1% % of all fathers whose children reported they lived with a father or a step-father) were willing to participate in the research after sealed envelopes with questionnaires were delivered to them through their children. A chi-square test of independence and Mann-Whitney U test were used to analyse the data in SPSS 21. Results: Just over half of the mothers and one third of the fathers asked to participate in this research were willing to do so. According to the results, fathers were more likely to participate if their daughter was in the research rather than their son, χ (1, n=669)=6,38, p=0,012, phi=-0,101. There were no significant differences found in the perception of the family’s financial situation between the children of participating and non-participating parents (mothers: U=64402, Z=-1.166, p=.24; fathers: U=43783, Z=-0.065, p=.95). However, there were significant differences in school achievement (mothers: U=57697.5, Z=-4.002, p<.001; fathers: U=35036, Z=-4.566, p<.001), problem behaviour (mothers: U=54604.5, Z=-3.554, p<.001; fathers: U=32719.5, Z=-4.615, p<.001), maternal punishment (U=52816.5, Z=-2.589, p<.05) and the relative power of the father (U=28470, Z=-1.980, p<.05), with higher scores in children whose mother/father did not participate in the research. Furthermore, there was a difference in parental knowledge (mothers: U=55343, Z=-2.345, p<.05) and monitoring/setting rules (fathers: U=35239.5, Z=-2.120, p<.05) with a higher score in children whose mothers/fathers were involved in the research. The other variables did not show significant differences. Conclusions: There is little known about the differences between the children of parents or parents themselves who participate in research and those who do not. The current results show that important indicators of parental participation in research appear to be: better school achievement of their child, better parental knowledge and a greater level of monitoring. In addition, less problematic and health-risk behaviour, lower maternal punishment and the lower relative power of the father might increase the probability of parental participation in research. These findings highlight the trend that the parents of less problematic children with more appropriate forms of parenting and parent-child relationships are more likely to participate in research. These findings need to be taken into account when interpreting the results related to parental data. Similarly, these findings may be useful in the process of increasing the probability of parental participation in research.