ALLEN-DISSERTATION-2013

225 Pages·2013·2.41 MB·English

by  Jerry Byrd

THE PARENTAL INVESTMENT OF FIRST-GENERATION AFRICAN
AMERICAN RURAL COLLEGE GRADUATES IN CULTIVATING
COLLEGE STUDENT SUCCESS
A Dissertation
by
CRYSTAL JOI ALLEN
Submitted to the Office of Graduate Studies of
Texas A&M University
in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
Approved by:

Chair of Committee, Fred A. Bonner, II
Committee Members, Alvin Larke, Jr.
Kelli Peck-Parrott
Terah Venzant-Chambers
Head of Department, Fred M. Nafukho
May 2013
Major Subject: Educational Administration
Copyright 2013 Crystal Joi Allen
ABSTRACT
This basic qualitative study examines the parental investment strategies of first-
generation African American rural college graduates in cultivating college student
success. Extant literature has demonstrated that the role of the family is necessary to
support the college student and that the investment of the parent is paramount to student
college completion. Although educational attainment is an important goal for African
American rural residents, research detailing strategies that cultivated student college
completion among this population is needed to fill the gaps in the literature. The
objectives were to discuss communication, involvement, and factors of influence to
determine how these parents transferred their educational beliefs to their children and
supported them through college graduation. These stories of success were told through
the eyes of first-generation parents and their second-generation adult offspring.
Research detailing the parental investment strategies toward college completion
is necessary to inform parents, educational institutions, and rural college student
completion in postsecondary institutions of the strategies necessary to ensure college
success in this population. Lieberman’s transgenerational theory, along with concepts
extracted from parental investment as it relates to education, provided the conceptual
lens for the study. Data collected through interviews and documents were analyzed
utilizing content analysis. Ten semistructured interviews were conducted with parents
and their adult offspring. Interviews gleaned the lived experiences of the participants.
Data analysis revealed six themes: (a) Catch Them Early, (b) Set the Tone, (c) Keep
Them Busy, (d) Don’t Let Them “Break Rank,” (e) Encourage Advancement, and
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(f) Tell the Generations. The findings support the importance of developing a family
investment team, how a return on parental investment occurs, making use of rural
extracurricular programming, and transferring positive beliefs regarding higher
education.
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DEDICATION
To my beautiful daughter, Celeste J. Allen,
who is the reason for my pursuit of this degree

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
It is first necessary that I thank my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ for His
faithfulness through this process. He has favored me from birth, guided me along this
path, and opened doors that no one on this earth could. He has helped me to remain
firmly planted every time the storms ensued and the mountains seemed too steep.
I thank my committee members—Dr. Terah Venzant-Chambers, Dr. Alvin
Larke, and Dr. Kelli Peck-Parrott—for their scholarly input, words of encouragement,
and advice. I thank my chair, Dr. Fred Bonner, II, for his guidance, patience, and
advisement via text! It helped me as a commuter student not to have to drive 5 hours to
be advised. I would also like acknowledge the families who participated in this study.
I sincerely appreciate them sharing the most intimate details of their lives with me.
I thank the following professors, friends, extended family and advocates who
were all supporters of my success: “Queen” Dr. Yvonna Lincoln, Dr. Joycelynn
Flowers-Ashton, Genyne Royal, Tyra Metoyer, Dr. Lonnie Booker, II, Dr. Bari
Brookins, Mattyna Stephens, Brenda Bingham, Dr. Barbara Davenport, Roger
McDonald, Dr. Rosie Banda, and Rose Santos, Crescent Gill, and Nicole L. Davis, Esq.
I thank my mother and father for giving me life and my maternal grandmother
for raising me, as well as my other immediate family: Blake, Taylor, Sterling, Shae,
Chris, and Indie. I thank my husband, Charles Joseph Allen, Jr., for being there for
Celeste and me through this process. It is very necessary to thank Charles Sr. and
Pauline Allen and Candace Allen for helping with Celeste when Charles and I worked
late and went to school. To my toots, Celeste Jiselle Allen, through the completion of
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this degree, I will be a greater advocate, supporter and teacher. She is my greatest
inspiration. All others who were not mentioned in these pages are appreciated and will
be remembered forever as a significant part of my life during this time.
I applied on faith, matriculated, and made it through all obstacles because of
GOD. Through this document, I hope to inspire first-generation college graduates like
me to invest in the college success of their children.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................ ii
DEDICATION ............................................................................................................ iv
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ........................................................................................... v
TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................................ vii
LIST OF FIGURES .................................................................................................... x
LIST OF TABLES ..................................................................................................... xi
CHAPTER
I INTRODUCTION .................................................................................. 1
African American First-Generation College Graduates ................... 2
The Rural Population ....................................................................... 3
Statement of the Problem ................................................................. 4
Origin of the Problem ....................................................................... 4
Significance of the Research ............................................................ 6
Researcher’s Relationship to the Problem........................................ 7
Limitations ....................................................................................... 8
Delimitations .................................................................................... 10
Operational Definitions .................................................................... 10

II REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE ............................................. 14
First-Generation College Students ................................................... 15
African Americans and Higher Education ....................................... 18
Education and Rural African Americans.......................................... 21
College Student Success ................................................................... 22
Educated Parents and College Preparation ....................................... 25
Parental Investment .......................................................................... 26
Parental Investment I: Discourse and Communication............. 29
Parental Investment II: Parental Involvement .......................... 30
Parental Involvement and African Americans ................................. 32
Parental Investment III: Cognitive/Intellectual Stimulation ..... 34
College choice ................................................................... 35
African American parents and college choice ................... 36
Parental Investment IV: Personal Endorsement ....................... 39
Lieberman’s Transgenerational Theory ........................................... 40
Chapter Summary ............................................................................. 48

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III RESEARCH METHODS ....................................................................... 49
Statement of the Research Questions ............................................... 49
Theoretical Tradition ........................................................................ 50
Site and Sample Selection ................................................................ 51
Researcher’s Role Management ....................................................... 54
Entry.......................................................................................... 54
Reciprocity ................................................................................ 55
Ethics ........................................................................................ 55
Researcher Strategies ....................................................................... 56
Recruitment ...................................................................................... 57
Emergent Design .............................................................................. 59
Data Collection Techniques ............................................................. 59
Parent and Offspring Interviews ............................................... 60
Document Review..................................................................... 62
Assumptions ..................................................................................... 63
Managing and Recording Data ......................................................... 63
Assuring Trustworthiness ................................................................. 64
Data Analysis Strategies ................................................................... 66
Chapter Summary ............................................................................. 68

IV RESULTS ............................................................................................... 69
Population, Sample, and Participants ............................................... 70
Family Profiles ................................................................................. 72
The Farrell Family .................................................................... 72
The Carson Family.................................................................... 76
The Wilson Family ................................................................... 77
The Walker Family ................................................................... 78
The Regan Family ..................................................................... 79
Emergent Themes ............................................................................. 80
Foundation—Catch Them Early ...................................................... 81
Subtheme: Form a Strong Coparenting Relationship ............... 92
Subtheme: Create a Sibling Assistant ....................................... 98
Consistency—Set the Tone .............................................................. 102
Readiness—“Keep Them Busy” ...................................................... 108
Selection—Don’t Let Them “Break Rank” ..................................... 117
Evolution—Encourage Advancement .............................................. 129
Transmission—Tell the Generations ................................................ 134
Chapter Summary ............................................................................. 143

V SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS ..................................................... 145
Conclusions ...................................................................................... 145
Relationship to the Literature ........................................................... 148
Relationship to the Conceptual Framework ..................................... 155
Summary and Discussion of the Results .......................................... 160
Foundation—Catch Them Early ............................................... 160
Consistency—Set the Tone ....................................................... 162
Readiness—Keep Them Busy .................................................. 164
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Selection—Don’t Let Them “Break Rank” .............................. 166
Evolution—Encourage Advancement ...................................... 168
Transmission—Tell the Generations ........................................ 170
Summary ................................................................................... 172
Recommendations for Practice ......................................................... 173
Recommendations for Future Research ........................................... 182
Summary and Conclusion ................................................................ 185

REFERENCES ............................................................................................................ 187
APPENDIX A ............................................................................................................. 199
APPENDIX B ............................................................................................................. 200
APPENDIX C ............................................................................................................. 201
APPENDIX D ............................................................................................................. 202
APPENDIX E .............................................................................................................. 203
APPENDIX F .............................................................................................................. 204
APPENDIX G ............................................................................................................. 205
APPENDIX H ............................................................................................................. 208
APPENDIX I ............................................................................................................... 209
APPENDIX J ............................................................................................................... 211
APPENDIX K ............................................................................................................. 212
APPENDIX L .............................................................................................................. 213
APPENDIX M ............................................................................................................. 214
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LIST OF FIGURES
FIGURE Page
1 The role of rural African American first-generation college graduates in
cultivating college success through parental investment and transgenera-
tional theory ................................................................................................... 47
2 The return on parental investment model suggests how educational
beliefs and parental investment create a return on parental investment ........ 159
3 Top four recommendations for parents to cultivate college success
in their children .............................................................................................. 173
4 The role of parents and siblings in college success (family evolution) ......... 178
5 Encouraging K–12 and collegiate environments to create learning
communities that encourage college success ................................................. 181
6 Increasing the college success of rural residents through parental
investment strategies and professional and collegiate learning
communities that collaborate to cultivate college success............................. 182
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