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Parental Awarenessof Their Children'sHomework Motivationand Preference andIts Relationship toAchievementEunsook Hong a & Kit-hung Lee aa University of Nevada , Las VegasPublished online: 27 Mar 2012.

To cite this article: Eunsook Hong & Kit-hung Lee (2003) Parental Awarenessof Their Children's Homework Motivation and Preference and Its Relationshipto Achievement, International Journal of Adolescence and Youth, 11:3,231-249, DOI: 10.1080/02673843.2003.9747931

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International Journal of Adolescence and Youth, 2003, Volume 11, pp. 231-249 0267-3843/03 $10 © 2003 A B Academic Publishers Printed in Great Britain

Parental Awareness of Their Children's Homework Motivation and Preference and Its Relationship to Achievement

Eunsook Hong* and Kit-hung Lee

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

ABSTRACT

The degree of parental awareness of their children's homework motivation and preference and its relationship to homework achievement and homework attitude were investigated in 329 Chinese fifth graders (172 boys and 157 girls) and 244 seventh graders (130 boys and 114 girls) and their parents. The level of match between children's homework preferences and parents' perception of their child's homework preferences indicates that there exists a fairly high level of awareness of child's preferred way of doing homework in Chinese parents. In general, a high level of parental awareness of child's homework preferences was associated with high achievement and positive attitude toward homework in the child. While gender differences became more pronounced in the upper grade, parental awareness became less influential in achievement of teacher-rated homework assignments. In the lower grade, gender was not a major factor contributing to achievement differences, but parental awareness was a more important factor influencing children's homework achievement and attitude toward homework. Parents are often unaware of their children's preferred way of learning and studying. Without parental knowledge of individual differences in learning preferences, potentially positive parental influence could be compromised.

Although the amount of parental involvement seems to vary between fathers and mothers or among parents with varied levels of formal education, parents everywhere care for their children and want to be involved in all aspects of their children's development including their homework activities (Epstein and Sanders, 1998). Parents structure home life and create home environment, and the

*Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Eunsook Hong, Educational Psychology, University of Nevada, Box 453003, Las Vegas, NV 89154-3003. Ehong@unlv.edu

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home environment influences how children do their homework. In a study of parental involvement with their children's schooling, about half of the parents reported involvement with their children's homework on a daily basis (Smock and McCormick, 1995).

Studies on the effects of parental involvement on academic performance have indicated that parental encouragement and help in homework are important factors in the improvement of student achievement (Bracey, 1996; Gorges and Elliott, 1995; Keith, Reimers, Fehrmann, Pottebaum and Aubey, 1986; Radencich and Schumm, 1997; Sui-Chu and Willms, 1996; Wang and Wildman, 1995). A homework intervention program for parents on home­work problems showed overall improvement in children's homework achievement during treatment evaluation and three­month follow-up assessment (Loitz and Kratochwill, 1995). Keith and his associates (1993) also reported increased homework com­pletion by students with more parental involvement, indicating that parental involvement is indeed an important influence on student achievement.

Children also believe they do better in school when their parents are involved with their homework (Balli, 1998). Nonetheless, children expressed mixed perceptions about how much they enjoyed working with their parents, especially about the extent to which parents facilitated or confused students' understanding of homework concepts, and about the positive or negative affect associated with parent-child interactions.

Educators likewise consider homework as one of the important factors contributing to academic achievement. However, articles on homework share varying views ranging from strong criticism of the use of homework to claims that proper use of homework can yield an increase in the level of academic achievement (e.g., Cooper, 1989; Gill and Schlossman, 1996; Walberg, 1984, 1985). Evidence on the effects of homework on achievement is equivocal as well. While the use of homework had a significant, positive effect on academic achievement at the high school and college levels (e.g., Cooper, Lindsay, Nye and Greathouse, 1998; Fehrmann, Keith and Reimers, 1987; Keith, 1998; Keith and Benson, 1992; Keith and Cool, 1992; Keith et al., 1986), at the elementary and middle school levels, the findings were mixed (e.g., Chen and Stevenson, 1989; Cool and Keith, 1991; Cooper et al., 1998; Paschal, Weinstein and Walberg, 1984).

The studies of homework effects on school achievement and attitude have focused on the characteristics of the homework itself (e.g., type, quality, amount, and feedback approach). However, the

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cognitive and personality characteristics of the person doing the homework (e.g., individual preferences of time, place, conditions) and other influences on the process of learning outside of school (e.g., the impact of culture, subculture, parents, siblings) received relatively little attention. In the current study, we examined parental awareness of their children's preferred way of doing

· homework in Chinese culture. In-school learning style differences among individuals from diverse cultural backgrounds have been evidenced in numerous studies (e.g., Claxton, 1990; Ewing and Yong, 1992; Griggs and Dunn, 1996; Hong and Suh, 1995; Milgram, Dunn and Price, 1993; Smith, 1992). Different patterns of home­work style have also been found in different cultures.

Although researchers have suggested the importance of parental involvement in the homework process, the level of parental awareness of their children's homework behavior and its effects on achievement have rarely been investigated. Hoover-Dempsey, Bassler and Burow (1995), in their research on homework as the most common point of intersection among parent, child, and school activities, indicated that parents often felt limited in knowledge or restrained by competing demands for their time and energy. One strategy that could help parents in assisting their child's homework without feeling limited or restrained, but still have positive influence on the child's homework accomplishment would be learning their child's homework preferences and home­work behavior. Once parents are aware of them, they can help their child by accommodating home environment to match it with their child's preferred way of doing homework and then observe whether the match effort has an effect on the child's homework completion.

Hong et al. (1995) compared the level of parental awareness of their child's homework style between Korean and U.S. parents. For example, Korean parents, more so than U.S. parents, understood the child's need for appropriate lighting, an aspect of the learning environment that parents can easily adjust for their children. In both cultures, the positive effect of parent understanding of children's preferred conditions for learning at home was indicated by stronger positive homework attitudes of children whose parents shared an understanding with their children, compared to children whose parents did not. However, the effect on homework achieve­ment was not statistically significant.

Gender differences were indicated in some components of homework preference (Hong and Milgram, 1999); female students preferred to do homework with more light and in a certain order than males, whereas males were more parent-motivated, preferred

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more authority figures present when doing homework and were more tactile and kinesthetic than female students.

Studies on ethnic group differences in parental involvement, expectations, and values in education indicate that Asian and Asian-American parents tend to place a high value on education overall, hold high standards, and have high educational expectations for their children (Chao, 1996; Chen and Stevenson, 1995; Ellinger and Beckham, 1997; Mau, 1997; Okagaki and Frensch, 1998; Peng and Wright, 1994). Ebbeck (1996) reported that Chinese parents in Hong Kong want their children to be given a large amount of homework (about 40% of parents wanted their children's homework to be three hours or more or as much as possible each day). Furthermore, over 40 percent of parents in Beijing, China, actually gave their children extra homework (Xie, Seefeldt, and Tam, 1996), and this phenomenon has also been seen in Chinese-American families (Siu, 1994).

The current study examined homework preferences and home­work behaviors of Chinese fifth and seventh graders in Hong Kong. An investigation on homework with these children is of interest because Chinese parents' attitudes toward homework are quite different from attitudes of parents in western cultures and because of Chinese students' high academic achievement in the international studies (TIMSS International Study Center, 1998). Students with different age groups (fifth and seventh graders) were studied to determine if any developmental changes occur in these middle grades.

Specifically, the study investigated (1) the degree of parental awareness of their children's preference in the way of doing home­work and (2) the relationships of parental awareness and student gender with homework achievement and homework attitude. It was predicted that a range of parental-awareness level would reveal in these parents and that there would be grade differences in parent awareness in some components of homework preference categories. It is further predicted that students whose parents report a high level of awareness of their homework preference would show higher achievement and more positive attitude toward homework than their counterparts. Although student gender-parent awareness interaction effects are not expected, gender differences were predicted in math homework achieve­ment.

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METHOD

Participants

The participants were 329 Chinese fifth graders (172 boys and 157 girls) and 244 seventh graders (130 boys and 114 girls) and their parents. The students were from a school which housed Kinder­garten through high school in Hong Kong, where all of the students are from a Chinese ethnic background. Participants largely consisted of middle to upper middle class students. All fifth- and seventh-grade students in this school who were present on the day the investigation was conducted participated.

Measures

Homework Preference Questionnaire (HPQ) (Milgram and Hong, 1996)

The HPQ was employed to measure students' preferred way of doing homework. The HPQ provided a comprehensive assessment of the conditions under which each participant preferred to study at home. It consisted of 80 items that were rated on a five-point scale indicating degree of agreement. The questionnaire yielded 20 scores that corresponded to the 20 postulated components of the homework motivation and preference model (Hong and Milgram, 2000). Each of the 20 component scores consisted of 4 items.

The conceptual components of the model are divided into two categories-motivation and preference. The first category postu­lates the source and strength of the motives that explain the initial activation of the process of doing required homework assignments (i.e., self-motivated, parent-motivated, teacher-motivated, per­sistence, and responsibility). The second category, preference, influences the degree to which the learner will proceed and continue homework efforts until finished. The preference category is divided into four subcategories--organizational, surroundings, perceptual-physical, and interpersonal-each with several sub­components. The HPQ developed to assess the model's com­ponents was validated through a series of construct validation studies including factor analysis, internal consistency and test­retest reliability, item analysis and refinement, group difference, and concurrent and discriminant studies (Hong and Millgram, 2000).

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For 14 components, a high score indicated high level of motivation or preference (self-motivated, parent-motivated, teacher­motivated, persistence, responsibility, structure, order, authority figures, auditory, visual, tactile, kinesthetic, intake, mobility). For example, structure refers to the learner's preference for the kinds of home­work assignments or homework instructions that the teacher gives regarding how the homework is to be done. Homework may be highly structured, well defined and highly specific, or homework tasks may be unstructured and open-ended. A high score on structure indicates that the learner prefers structured homework. The order component refers to the learner's preference regarding the order in which she or he prefers to do homework assignments in various subjects. For example, some children prefer to do the tasks that are easiest for them first and others prefer to tackle the different assignments to begin with. A high score on this component indicates that the learner prefers to maintain a stable, unchanged order pattern on a regular basis.

Six components of homework preference were scored on a bipolar continuum from low to high, with high scores indicating preference for the second pole cited (silence/sound, dim/bright illumination, cool/warm temperature, informal/formal design, alone/peers, change place/same place). For example, some learners like formal furniture such as a desk and chair when doing their homework, while others prefer an easy chair or couch on which they can relax and work. A high score in this component indicates that the learner prefers formal furniture design. Table 1 presents the internal consistency estimates (Cronbach alpha), means, and standard deviations of the HPQ component scores for fifth and seventh graders. The median internal consistency was. 73 and .77 for fifth and seventh grade, respectively.

The HPQ used for students was employed to measure parental awareness of their children's homework motivation and pref­erence. The sample item and questionnaire items were the same as those of the student version HPQ. However, the instructions were modified. Parents were asked to respond to each item as they think their child would answer them and to fill out without discussing with their child. The median internal consistency was .68 and .71 for the parent ratings of fifth and seventh graders, respectively. See Table 1 for the internal consistency estimates, means, and standard deviations of parental ratings of their children's homework preference.

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Perceived homework achievement and attitude

Four items that assessed participants' self-perception of their homework achievement and four items for homework attitude were added to the HPQ. The eight items were interspersed in the HPQ to avoid any response set problem. Participants were rated on a five-point scale indicating degree of agreement. Examples of the homework achievement and attitude items were: "If grades were given for homework, I would get a high grade" and "What I learn from doing my homework helps me in school," respectively. The internal consistency estimates of the students' and parents' perceived homework achievement and attitude ranged from .60 to .79 (see Table 1).

Teacher-rated homework achievement

The participating mathematics and Chinese language teachers rated their students' homework achievement in mathematics and Chinese language. Due to the varying recording systems the teachers used in rating homework achievement, teachers were instructed to assign scores from 1 to 10, based on their records on students' homework scores.

Procedure

The student HPQ was group-administered to students in their school classrooms with no time limits. The parent HPQ was given to each student to be completed by the parent at home and to be brought back in three days. The questionnaires were translated into Chinese by the junior author, who is fluent in both English and Chinese and had 24 years of teaching experience in elementary and secondary schools. The initial translation was examined and modified by both authors. The modification consisted of cultural considerations in the use of certain terms in the items. A back­translation was performed by another Chinese/English bilingual who had been a kindergarten and elementary school teacher for 2 years in Hong Kong and 12 years in Canada. The back-translations that were not considered acceptable were modified again until all the items were considered acceptable.

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TA

BL

E 1

N

Inte

rnal

Con

sist

ency

Est

imat

es a

nd

Mea

n H

om

ewo

rk P

refe

renc

e S

core

s fo

r F

ifth

-an

d S

even

th-G

rade

w

0

0

Chi

nese

Stu

dent

s an

d T

heir

Par

ents

' Aw

aren

ess

Sco

res

Ho

mew

ork

F

ifth

gra

de

Sev

enth

gra

de

Pre

fere

nce

com

po

nen

ts

Stu

den

ts

Par

ents

S

tud

ents

P

aren

ts

a M

(SD

) a

M(S

D)

a M

(SD

) a

M(S

D)

So

un

d

.84

2.36

(1.

15)

.79

2.16

( .8

3)

.87

2.61

(1.

05)

.83

2.36

( .8

9)

Lig

ht

.76

3.99

(1.

00)

.58

4.18

( .6

2)

.77

4.00

( .7

9)

.60

4.03

( .6

7)

Tem

per

atu

re

.76

2.93

( .9

7)

.69

2.80

( .6

6)

.77

2.78

( .7

8)

.70

2.81

( .6

5)

Des

ign

.71

4.03

( .8

7)

.70

4.21

( .6

6)

.80

3.82

( .8

7)

.71

3.99

( .7

5)

Str

uct

ure

.6

4 3.

94 (

.89)

.5

4 3.

97 (

.66)

.5

8 3.

72 (

.73)

.5

4 3.

92 (

.65)

S

et o

rder

.7

0 3.

21 (

1.01

) .6

3 3.

37 (

.71)

.7

7 3.

02 (

.84)

.7

5 3.

38 (

.74)

P

lace

.8

2 3.

77 (

.99)

.7

5 3.

83 (

.70)

.8

4 3.

58 (

.85)

.7

4 3.

85 (

.65)

S

elf-

mot

ivat

ed

.72

4.17

( .7

1)

.75

3.87

( .6

7)

.80

3.62

( .7

5)

.81

3.74

( .7

5)

Par

ent-

mot

ivat

ed

.70

3.71

( .8

3)

.68

3.76

( .6

6)

.78

3.19

( .7

9)

.74

3.51

( .7

2)

Tea

cher

-mot

ivat

ed

.69

3.87

( .8

2)

.58

3.85

( .6

5)

.66

3.45

( .7

5)

.58

3.66

( .6

5)

Per

sist

ence

.5

4 3.

81 (

.76)

.6

3 3.

85 (

.67)

.5

8 3.

61 (

.69)

.6

6 3.

76 (

.65)

R

espo

nsib

ilit

y .5

8 4.

05 (

.75)

.6

6 3.

94 (

.69)

.7

2 3.

53 (

.77)

.7

0 3.

77 (

.73)

A

ud

ito

ry

.63

3.37

( .8

7)

.64

3.41

( .7

1)

.64

3.31

( .7

2)

.58

3.44

( .6

6)

Vis

ual

.64

2.91

( .9

2)

.60

3.04

( .7

0)

.67

3.08

( .7

6)

.62

3.05

( .7

0)

Tac

tile

.7

6 3.

48 (

1.02

) .6

8 3.

33 (

.72)

.8

5 3.

16 (

1.01

) .7

6 3.

40 (

.76)

K

ines

thet

ic

.73

3.41

( .8

7)

.62

3.43

(.5

8)

.77

3.20

( .7

4)

.71

3.34

( .6

3)

Inta

ke

.83

2.77

(1.

12)

.78

2.60

( .8

9)

.85

3.05

(1.

01)

.81

2.70

( .9

0)

Mob

ilit

y .7

5 2.

34 (

.95)

.6

8 2.

45 (

.75)

.7

6 2.

54 (

.80)

.7

0 2.

48 (

.73)

A

lone

-pee

rs

.80

3.01

(1.

09)

.68

2.36

( .6

8)

.85

2.89

( .9

7)

.76

2.41

( .7

3)

Au

tho

rity

Fig

ures

.8

7 2.

51 (

1.11

) .8

3 2.

89 (

.86)

.8

6 2.

17 (

.85)

.8

1 2.

55 (

.79)

P

erce

ived

HW

a ac

hiev

emen

t .6

0 3.

99 (

.63)

.6

1 3.

95 (

.57)

.7

1 3.

50 (

.65)

.7

5 3.

80 (

.68)

at

titu

de

.79

3.71

( .9

3)

.72

3.91

( .6

4)

.79

3.40

( .8

0)

.77

3.82

( .6

6)

Not

e. N

= 3

29 in

fif

th-g

rade

stu

den

t/p

aren

t sam

ple;

N =

244

in

sev

enth

-gra

der

stu

den

t/p

aren

t sam

ple.

aH

W =

Ho

mew

ork

.

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RESULTS

Parental Awareness of Their Child's Homework Motivation and Preference

239

Parental awareness was investigated by examining the degree of match (agreement) between children's and parents' ratings on each component of the Homework Preference Questionnaire. Scores from each pair of child and parent were used first in examining the level of agreement, instead of correlating of the entire children­parents sample. This procedure was adopted in order to reflect the agreement at the individual scores from the pair level and to better understand the pattern of agreement as a whole. We first computed difference between a child's and his/her parent's average rating score on each component. A component that yielded a difference score smaller than 1 was considered as the component for which child's and parent's perceptions match on the child's homework preference (the maximum possible difference score was 4). The degree of parental awareness was measured by the number of components (maximum of 20) that showed the match between child's and parent's perceptions. We defined that a larger number indicate a higher level of parent awareness and vice versa.

Of the 20 components examined, the number of match ranged from 3 to 19 components, with a mean (SD) of 11.95 (3.24) or 60% agreement, for the fifth graders, and from 2 to 20 components for seventh graders, with a mean (SD) of 12.68 (3.58) or 63% agree­ment. An inspection of child-parent agreement on the individual components indicated that Chinese parents of fifth-grade students reported that they are particularly aware of their child's pref­erences regarding formal or informal design of furniture (70% matched), indicating a statistically significant difference from each of the elements with 57% or lower level of agreement, ps < .001 (see Table 2 for the agreement rates in percentage). Chinese parents of seventh-grade students were particularly perceptive of their children's level of persistence (70%) or responsibility (70%) in doing homework, and whether their children prefer homework assignments that require kinesthetic activities (70%), showing a statistically significant different from each of the components with 55% or lower level of agreement, ps < .001 (see Table 2 for the agreement rates).

The only two components under the 50% agreement level were alone/peer and authority figures in the fifth-grade sample. These two components also revealed statistically significant differences across grade. Seventh-grade child-parent pairs showed a larger

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number of agreement than that of fifth-grade pairs regarding the child's preference to study alone or with peers, F(l, 571} = 13.48, p < .0005, partial112 = .023, and in preference regarding the presence of authority figures when studying at home, F(l, 571) = 6.08, p < .02, partial112 = .011. In the fifth-grade sample, the preference to be alone or with peers and to the presence of authority figures were 44% and 47% in child-parent agreement, respectively, while in the seventh-grade sample, they were 59% and 58%, respectively. Other components of homework preference were similar between fifth and seventh graders (see Table 2}.

TABLE2

Agreement Between Students' Homework Preference and Parents' Awareness of Their Children's Preference in

Percentage for Fifth and Seventh Graders

Homework preference components

Sound Light Temperature Design Structure Set order Place Self-motivated Parent-motivated Teacher-motivated Persistence Responsibility Auditory Visual Tactile Kinesthetic Intake Mobility Alone-peers Authority Figures

Fifth grade

.60

.60

.60

.70

.57

.54

.63

.65

.67

.65

.66

.65

.58

.59

.56

.64

.51

.61

.44

.47

Seventh grade

.61

.64

.67

.66

.54

.59

.64

.68

.61

.68

.70

.70

.62

.64

.62

.70

.55

.68

.59

.58

Note. N = 329 fifth-grade child-parent pairs; N = 244 seventh-grader child-parent pairs.

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In regard to the homework achievement and homework attitude measures, the agreement between children and parents ranged from 65% to 79%. A statistically significant difference was found between fifth- and seventh-grade sample, with the fifth-grade sample (M = .79; SD = .41) showing higher match rates than the seventh-grade (M = .69; SD = .46), F(l, 571) = 7. 75, p < .01, partial 112 = .013. Homework attitude did not show a difference between the two grades.

Relationships of Parental Awareness of Children's Homework Preference and Gender with Homework Achievement and Attitude Toward Homework

To determine statistical significance of relationships between parental awareness and child's gender and homework achieve­ment and attitude, multiple regression analyses were conducted. Child-parent agreement (or match) scores and child's gender were independent variables and self-perceived homework achievement and attitude, teacher-rated homework achievement scores were dependent variables.

Self-perceived homework achievement and homework attitude

In both grades, no statistically significant interaction effects between gender and match score were found on self-perceived homework achievement or homework attitude. Regarding the main effect of match level, the findings were similar in both grades, with high child-parent match score being associated with high self­perceived homework achievement and homework attitudes. In the fifth-grade sample, only the match variable was statistically significant on self- perceived homework achievement, b = .03, t(327) = 2.44, p = .015, R2 = .02, and on homework attitude, b = .05, t(327) = 3.22, p = .001, R2 = .03. The effect sizes (R2) on both cases indicated low practical significance in these relationships. For the seventh-grade sample, self-perceived homework achievement was predicted by the m.atch score only, b = .03, t(242) = 2.35, p = .020, R2 = .02. However, both the match score, b = .05, t(241) = 3.27, p = .001, and gender, b = -.10, t(241) = 2.02, p = .045, were statistically significant in predicting both self-perceived home­work attitude, with R2 of .06. Seventh-grade male students in general reported having more positive homework attitude than did their female counterparts.

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Teacher-rated homework achievement

Again, no interaction effects were found on the teacher-rated homework achievement in both grades. The main effects, however, showed a different pattern across grade. In the fifth-grade level, only the match variable predicted significantly the teacher-rated homework achievement in Chinese language, b = .11, t(327) = 4.33, p = .0005, R2 = .05, and in mathematics, b = .07, t(327) = 2.32, p = .021, R2 = .02. The higher the match between child and parent, i.e., the more the number of components that showed a match between child and parent, the better score of teacher-rated homework achievement. No gender difference was found in homework achievement in the fifth-grade students.

In the seventh-grade sample, however, only gender was statistically significant in both Chinese language, b = -.80, t(242) = -5.87, p = .0005, R2 = .13, and in mathematics, b = -.69, t(242) = -5.99, p = .0005, R2 = .13. In both subject matters, male students had higher teacher-rated homework scores than did female students. The level of match between child and parent did not predict teacher-rated homework achievement.

DISCUSSION

The level of match between children's homework preferences and parents' perception of their child's homework preferences (averages of 60% and 63%, in the fifth- and seventh-grade sample, respectively) indicates that there exists a fairly high level of parental awareness of their child's homework motivation and preferred way of doing homework in Chinese parents. This finding is the result from less than one point difference in the 5-point Likert scale in each averaged component score. That is, if a difference score was equal or larger than one, it was not counted as a matched case, indicating that the level of match is measured in a rigorous manner. In a similar study that examined parents' perceptions of fourth- through sixth-grade students on how their child learns best on environmental, physiological, sociological, and emotional dimensions of learning style, De Bello and Guez (1996) found no statistically signification correlations between parental perceptions of their child's learning style and the child's own view.lt is difficult to compare findings of the current study with De Bello and Guez's due to several reasons. They examined in-school learning style, whereas we did out-of-school homework situations. Although it may be reasonable to speculate that parents are more aware of their

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children's preferred ways of learning at home than in classrooms, the statistical approaches employed to examine the pattern of match was not comparable to contrast the findings from the current and De Bello and Guez's studies. Whereas we computed match levels by comparing data from individual parent-child pairs, they computed correlations to find a pattern of match between the sets of parents and children's data.

The pattern of agreement in the fifth- and seventh-grade student-parent pairs points to an interesting phenomenon. Parents of both fifth and seven graders agreed highly on motivation­related components (self-, parent-, teacher-motivated, persistence, responsibility), home environment components (sound, light, tem­perature, furniture design), and place and mobility, with more than or equal to 60% of agreement. Since Chinese parents are highly invested in their child homework achievement (Ebbeck, 1996; Xie, Seefeldt, and Tam, 1996), it is not surprising to find the high levels of match in homework motivation and environment components. The high match rates in mobility and kinesthetic components might indicate that movement-related preferences are also noticed by parents.

For alone/peer and authority-figure components, the agreement level was higher in the seventh-grade sample than in the fifth­grade. This might indicate that these sociological factors become more conversation provoking in older students than in younger ones. In both components, however, the differences were not substantially significant as indicated by the small size of variance explained. Interestingly, these were the only two components that showed lower than 50% match in the fifth-grade sample. Chinese fifth graders may not express their preferences in these items possibly due to after-school extra curricula activities (e.g., after­school schedules do not allow the child to study with peers, but the child prefers to do so) or social or family structure (e.g., parents' presence while the child is doing homework may not be questioned, but the child prefers otherwise). This is an area that warrants further investigations by other means of data collection such as interviews.

Chinese parents' perception of their children's homework achievement and homework attitude matched highly with child­ren's own perception of their homework behavior (all matching over 65%), indicating a large proportion of parents were cognizant of their children's self-perceived homework achievement and attitude level. Parents of fifth graders, compared to their seventh­grade counterparts, were especially perceptive of their children's view of their own homework achievement with approximately

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80% of agreement. Parents of younger children may check home­work completion more closely than those of older children. Asian­American parents tend to believe in a direct and significant role in their child's academic success (Chao, 1996). The high level of child­parent agreement found in this study might reflect a cultural factor. Future studies with different grade levels and various cultures are warranted.

Overall, students whose parents were aware of their homework motivation and preferred way of doing homework reported higher perceived homework achievement and more positive attitudes toward homework than did students whose parents were not. This pattern also showed with the teacher-rated homework in Chinese language and mathematics in the fifth-grade sample. That is, there is an association between parental awareness of their child's home­work behavior and homework success. However, the effects of parental awareness become non-significant in its association with teacher-rated homework achievement in older students.

Unlike the parental awareness effects shown throughout the dependent measures in the fifth-grade sample, gender differences were not found in any dependent measures. In the seventh graders, however, gender effects, in addition to parental awareness, were found in self-perceived homework attitude, with male students on average reported having more positive attitude toward homework than did female students. With the teacher-rated homework assignments, the seventh-grade sample revealed only gender dif­ferences in both Chinese language and mathematics, with males scoring higher than did females.

The discrepancies found across the two grades deserve a discussion. While gender differences became more pronounced in the upper grade, parental awareness became less influential in achievement of teacher-rated homework assignments. In the younger sample, on the other hand, gender was not a major factor contributing to the achievement difference, but parental awareness was a more important factor that showed stronger relationships with children's homework achievement and attitude toward homework. The differences between the two grades might have resulted from the difference in the amount and/ or difficulty of homework across grade. Parents of younger children might work with their child toward homework completion more so than with their older children, due to the level of homework difficulty and amount that might be at the level of parent's capacity to help their children. Although parental awareness was still high in older students, parents might have been less involved in accommodating older students' homework preferences than in younger students,

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assuming that their adolescents have higher ability to be an independent learner than do younger children. Homework dif­ficulty and direct parental involvement in homework were not examined in the current study, warranting future studies on the effects of these factors. Whether this phenomenon is present in other cultures would also be an important topic for a future study.

As indicated, the current study examined self-reported parental awareness without an intervention, thus how parental awareness translated into actual match of home environment to the child's strong preferences was not examined. However, the current findings of the positive relationship between homework achieve­ment and parent awareness are rather encouraging and point to the need for increasing efforts in accommodating home learning environment. If the home environment is tailored to meet the individual preferences of learners, it is reasonable to expect an improvement in their attitude toward homework and homework achievement, similar to that attained when in-school learning was matched to individual students' learning styles (e.g., Dunn, Griggs, Olson, Beasley and Gorman, 1995).

Students who had certain preferences in doing their homework might not necessarily do their homework according to those preferences (Hong and Milgram, 1999). Although in general, high levels of child-parent agreements were observed, there are still about 30% to 50% of child-parent disagreements in various com­ponents. It is apparent that some parents are unaware of their child's preferred way of learning. Without the knowledge of individual differences in the way children learn at school and home, potentially positive influences of parental assistance could be compromised. If parents were made aware of the potential benefits that would accrue to their children if allowed to do their homework according to their preferences, they would probably be more willing to adjust learning environments to match their child's profile of preferences and to determine whether the child's preferred styles are best to be used.

It should be noted that the degree of match might have been inflated or weakened by factors not examined in the current study. Although parents were instructed to fill out the questionnaire without discussing with their child, there was no way of determining whether they were sincere as they completed their questionnaires. The social desirability of the items might also have factored in while they were completing the questionnaire. With these limitations, parental awareness defined by the level of child­parent match should be interpreted with caution.

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The internal consistency estimates for a few preference com­ponents were low. The findings associated with these components need to be interpreted with caution, and the study needs to be replicated using various samples. In addition, the small effect sizes (.02 to .13) shown in this study indicate that there are numerous factors not included in the current study affecting homework achievement. However, the findings in general are resourceful, contribute to our understanding of the parental role in student achievement, and provide rationale for future intervention studies (Rowell and Hong, 2002).

Asian or Asian-American parents, compared to European­American parents, have been reported not only to place a high value on school achievement (e.g., Lin and Fu, 1990) but to provide more support for homework activities (e.g., Constantino, Liming, and Faltis, 1995; Peng and Wright, 1994; Whipple, 1998). High parental involvements with their child's schooling, especially in homework, may be one of the reasons for high achievement in Asian and Asian-American students (Keith and Benson, 1992). The findings of the current study with Chinese students and parents and previous studies on homework and homework preference suggest that cooperation among teachers, parents, and students is vital in improving achievement of all students with various back­grounds.

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