Date of Award

1986

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Program

Religious Education, PhD

First Advisor

E. Stanley Chace

Second Advisor

Minerva Straman

Third Advisor

Paul Brantley

Abstract

The home school appears to be in a renaissance. This national study sought to provide an empirical base upon which to formulate viable decisions regarding homeschooling children. The study considered homeschoolers in grades four through twelve. The randomized sample yielded 224 qualified participants.

Conclusions include the following:

1. The self-concept of the homeschoolers was significantly higher (p<.001) than that of the conventionally schooled population on all scales of the Piers-Harris Children's Self-Concept Scale. Half of the homeschoolers scored at or above the 91st percentile on the global scale.

2. Insofar as self-concept is a reflector of socialization, it appears that few homeschoolers are socially deprived.

3. The self-concept of the homeschoolers decreases significantly (p<.01) as age and grade level rise.

4. The factors of gender, number of siblings, locale of residence, prior conventional schooling, number of years of home schooling, beginning school age, educational level of home-school operators, and geographical region are not significantly related to the self-concept of homeschoolers when considered independently.

5. Higher socioeconomic status and an increase in the number of homeschoolers in a family are significantly related (p<.05) to a more positive self-concept in homeschoolers.

6. The best predictive model of self-concept in homeschoolers (p<.001) is related to lower grade-equivalence, higher years of home schooling, higher socioeconomic status, higher number of homeschoolers in the family, and higher beginning school age. The model is statistically stable and accounts for over 12 percent of the variance in the self-concept.

7. Homeschoolers are apparently concentrated towards lower grade levels and tend to commence formal instruction at a later age than the national average.

8. There is an approximately balanced distribution of homeschoolers in terms of gender and geographical region.

9. It appears that home-schooling families frequently have more children than the national average and usually have more than a single child in the home school.

10. Very few of the children are in their first year of home schooling and most have previously attended a conventional school.

11. The educational level and socioeconomic status attained by home-school operators seems to be considerably higher and their locale more rural than that of the comparable general population.

Subject Area

Self-perception, Home schooling, Domestic education.

DOI

https://dx.doi.org/10.32597/dissertations/726/

Download

Files over 3MB may be slow to open. For best results, right-click and select "save as..."

Share

COinS