Hong Kong parents and their children’s academic achievement: The impact of music training
Creators: name: Tai, Dianne Man
Publisher: name: Monash University
Year: 2017
Subjects: subject: 170103 Educational Psychology
subject: FOS: Psychology
subject: FOS: Psychology

description: Today, many Hong Kong Chinese parents actively encourage their children’s music training. Music training occurs outside of their child’s regular schooling and these parents believe that this type of training directly enhances their child’s opportunities for academic advancement and their academic achievement. Although a common occurrence, the research in this thesis is the first to test parental beliefs regarding the perceived benefits of music training. Taking a predominantly quantitative approach, the research models the interrelationships between parental involvement in their children’s music training, the extent and quality of the music training, children’s motivation for music training and their academic achievement in Chinese, English and mathematics. <br> <br> Students in Primary 4, 5 and 6 from one government school in Hong Kong and their parents were invited to participate in the research. A complete data set of nearly 300 responses was obtained with parents completing the Parental Involvement in their children’s Music Training Questionnaire (PIMTQ) to measure variability in their involvement in their children’s music training. Students completed the Achievement Task Value Questionnaire (ATVQ), an instrument that measured their perceptions of the importance of, interest in and usefulness of their academic subjects, including music, and the extent and quality of their music training. Each child’s academic achievement in Chinese, English and mathematics were supplied by the school. <br> <br> The measurement properties of the PIMTQ and ATVQ were established using Rasch modelling. Rasch modelling of the PIMTQ showed that five factors <i>(parental support toward music training, parental expectations, home music environment, music program support and attitude toward music)</i> reflected the involvement of Hong Kong Chinese parents in their children’s music training. Similarly, the ATVQ was able to distinguish students on the basis of their responses to the perceived importance of, interest in and usefulness of their school subjects. <br> <br> Structural equation models were built to test the four main research questions. For Question 1, parental involvement in the child’s music training includes <i>listening/assisting with practice and/or performance, paying for child’s lesson, providing music instruction materials and observing child.</i> Furthermore, parental involvement significantly predicts academic achievement in Chinese, English and mathematics. However, there are differences in the relationship, depending on the gender of the child. <br> <br> For Question 2, the students perceived music as more important than Art and PE, but less important than Chinese and English. Likewise, the only subject less interesting to students is Chinese. Finally, music is more useful than Art, but less useful than all other subjects. The results are in broad agreement with other findings, reflecting the utilitarian views of Hong Kong students and their families. <br> <br> For Question 3, children’s perceived value of music negatively predicts academic achievement in Chinese, English and mathematics. The modeling shows that both boys and girls view music as increasingly important, but at the expense of academic achievement. Furthermore, there are gender-based differences, particularly in relation to mathematics, with the decline in mathematics achievement for girls being unrelated to the perceived value of music. <br> <br> In relation to Question 4, structural equation models show that the extent and quality of music training is positively linked to academic achievement. Again, there are gender-based differences in this relationship: For girls the relationship is moderated by age, lending support to the possibility that parents’ messages to their daughters is that music training enhances English and Chinese but not mathematics. For boys, in contrast, age does not moderate the relationship. <br> <br> In conclusion, the research demonstrated that parental involvement in their children’s music training is fully mediated by the extent and quality of their children’s music training and the perceived achievement value of music. Although the conclusions are based on the parents and children from one school in Hong Kong and a limited range of student age, the findings support the popular notion amongst Hong Kong Chinese parents that music training is important. Moreover, the gender-based differences are likely to reflect cultural stereotypes, especially in relation to mathematics. Although parents (and schools) need to be aware that their children (and students) may not value the study of music, the positive link between music training and academic achievement establishes the importance of music training. In particular, girls need to be encouraged to believe that music training enhances Chinese and mathematics achievement and not just English. Of course, the reasons for the gender-based differences should be the subject of future research.