"Talk to me": Parent-teacher background similarity, communication quality, and barriers to school-based engagement among ethnoculturally diverse Head Start families.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: Primary caregivers (e.g., parents, grandparents, other family members) from low-income and ethnically minoritized families tend to face a host of barriers when participating in their children's school activities. Research suggests that demographic match and quality communication between caregivers and teachers could support minoritized families' school-based engagement. This study examined the associations among caregiver-teacher demographic match, caregivers' perceived communication quality with the teacher and caregivers' perceived barriers to school-based engagement. METHOD: Caregivers (n = 565) from 49 Head Start classrooms completed the parent-report versions of the surveys Barriers to Family Engagement, reporting resource, cultural/relational, and program/context barriers to school-based engagement; and Family-Teacher Communication, reporting communication quality with their children's lead and assistant teachers (n = 102). Caregivers and teachers also completed demographic surveys to provide information about their family background, such as race/ethnicity, primary language, and education level. RESULTS: Multilevel modeling results showed that among the three demographic match variables (i.e., race/ethnicity, primary language, formal education), only language match was associated with caregivers' perception of fewer cultural/relational barriers. Latine and Black non-Latine caregivers reported more cultural/relational and program/context carriers than White, non-Latine caregivers. Finally, caregivers who perceived better communication with their children's teachers reported fewer cultural/relational and program/context barriers. CONCLUSIONS: Primary language match and high-quality communication between families and teachers appear essential in creating a welcoming preschool environment that could alleviate some of the barriers to engagement typically faced by ethnically minoritized and low-income families. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).