School/family/work: A mesosystem analysis of factors affecting child care teachers' persistence in community college courses

• Main Author: Buell, Martha Jane
• Format: Dissertation
• Language: English
• Published: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses 01-01-1996
• Subjects: Adult education; Community college education; Community colleges; Continuing education; Families & family life; Individual & family studies; Personal relationships; Sociology; Teacher education
• ISBN: 9798209023388

This study assessed factors contributing to child care teachers' commitment to earning a degree and re-enrollment behavior through analysis of both quantitative and qualitative data. The quantitative data were collected by means of a survey completed by 125 child care teachers enrolled in at least one community college class and working 15 or more hours in a child care setting. Two of these participants were selected for interviews in order to explore the research questions qualitatively. A model was developed depicting the relationship of school integration, family, and work support on role conflict and goal commitment to earning a degree. The model is based on Bronfenbrenner's ecological theory. According to the model role conflict mediates the relationship between the independent variables and commitment to earning a degree. Path analysis was used to test the model. Role conflict was not predicted by the independent variables, nor did role conflict mediate the relationship between the independent variables and commitment to earning a degree. However, school integration and family support had a direct effect on commitment to earning a degree. For those who reported difficulty in funding education, both integration in college and family support predicted commitment to earning a degree but for those who reported ease in funding education only school integration predicted commitment to earning a degree. A multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was used to test for differences between those teachers who re-enrolled the subsequent quarter and those teachers who did not. Family support differentiated those who re-enrolled from those who did not. Further, commitment to earning a degree exhibited a trend in differentiating the re-enrollers from those who did not. Three themes were explored in the interviews. These included supports and barriers to coordinating of the roles worker student and family member, connections between course content and job performance, and issues related to professionalism.