School-Based Family Involvement: Patterns and Predictors in the NLTS2

Abstract

This investigation used data from the National Longitudinal Transition Study 2 (NLTS2) to investigate patterns among student, family, and school characteristics, school outreach programs, and school-based family involvement for families of 5,670 students with disabilities ages 13 to 17 in a nationally representative sample.

Consistent with prior research, several variables were linked to higher levels of family involvement, including age, disability, ethnicity, living in the same neighborhood, household income, household structure, head of household?s education level, support group participation, time in community, and school outreach programs.

Although these variables were statistically significant, model estimates were small. School outreach program predictors included school size, urbanicity, and a lower principal evaluation of outreach efforts. This study makes a unique contribution to the research base by extending Newman?s investigation to include school outreach programs offered by schools as a possible predictor of school-based family involvement.