Publication Date

12-6-2025

Document Type

Student Project

First Advisor

Pittman, Laura

Second Advisor

Jatoi, Fatima

Third Advisor

Sadek, Sarah

Degree Name

B.A. (Bachelor of Arts)

Department

Department of Psychology

Abstract

The parent–child relationship has been found to be a predictor of children’s academic and socio-emotional outcomes, with parent-child closeness linked to motivation and persistence (Mo & Singh, 2008; Silinskas & Kikas, 2022) and parent-child conflict associated with emotional and behavioral difficulties (Dotterer et al., 2008; Pinquart, 2017). The homeschooling context may increase these associations since children spend more time with their parents, who have caregiving and instructional roles (Padilla, 2021; Thomas, 2016). Even with growing research on academic and socio-emotional outcomes, few studies have examined whether the strength of the parent–child relationship is influenced negatively or positively by schooling type. This study investigates whether parent–child closeness and conflict are differentially associated with academic achievement, internalizing symptoms, and externalizing symptoms across homeschooling and traditional schooling contexts, and whether the results are more pronounced for homeschoolers. We hypothesized that parent-child closeness would be positively associated with academic performance and negatively associated with internalizing and externalizing symptoms, while parent-child conflict would have the opposite effect. These associations were expected to be stronger among homeschooled children due to increased parent–child interaction and instructional involvement. Participants included 102 mother–child dyads (51 homeschooled, 51 traditionally schooled) in Grades 1–5. Parents completed validated measures of closeness and conflict, and children reported on their socioemotional functioning and completed standardized assessments of reading, math, and writing and answered measures of socio-emotional functioning. The results indicate that none of the associations between parent–child relationship quality and child outcomes differed by schooling type, suggesting that the links between closeness, conflict, and children’s adjustment operate similarly in homeschool and public-school contexts. On a scholastic level, public-school students scored significantly higher than homeschool students in writing achievement, and marginally significantly higher in reading and writing achievement. There were no group differences in internalizing or externalizing symptoms. Across the full sample, higher parent–child conflict was modestly associated with children’s academic and socio-emotional functioning. Parent-child closeness was not associated with any outcomes.

Publisher

Northern Illinois University

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Included in

Psychology Commons

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