Maternal homework involvement : links to adolescents’ task avoidance and academic achievement across the transition to lower secondary school

Abstract

The aim of this dissertation was to examine associations between maternal homework involvement, adolescents’ task avoidance and academic achievement across the transition from primary to lower secondary school. The dissertation is part of the longitudinal STAIRWAY research project following early adolescents (n = 848) and their mothers (n = 680) across the educational transition. The data were collected from questionnaires during the fall terms of Grades 6 and 7. Information on adolescents’ achievement was received from school registers. Study I examined the correspondence between adolescents’ and mothers’ perceptions of the quality of homework involvement (autonomy support and psychological control) and the relative importance of various maternal and adolescent factors in these perceptions. The results showed that the congruence between adolescents and mothers’ perceptions of autonomy support was low, in contrast to a moderate congruence between their perceptions of psychological control. Adolescent (e.g., task avoidance) and maternal factors (e.g., emotions) played different roles in these perceptions. Study II examined the interplay between maternal homework involvement (quantity, quality, source of initiative), adolescents’ task avoidance, and achievement across the educational transition. The results showed that mothers with poor-achieving adolescents exhibited high levels of psychological control and self-initiated monitoring, which in turn were associated with higher levels of adolescents’ task avoidance and poorer achievement. Finally, Study III applied a person-oriented approach to examine the stability and change in maternal homework involvement patterns during the transition. Four distinct and relatively stable patterns of maternal homework involvement were identified across the transition, and these stabilities were predicted by adolescents’ task avoidance and prior achievement. Overall, the results of this dissertation suggest that mothers with poor-achieving and highly task-avoidant adolescents are at risk of exhibiting highly psychologically controlling and intrusive homework involvement practices, which further play a detrimental role in adolescents’ task avoidance and achievement. Thus, mothers would benefit from knowledge and understanding for how to provide autonomy support to struggling adolescents during the educational transition.