The Parental Schoolwork Support Measure-Youth: development and psychometric evaluation

Parental involvement in school-related tasks is associated with a number of positive outcomes across ethnic groups. However, a growing literature suggests that unique forms of involvement and barriers exist among linguistic minority Latino families. The Parental Schoolwork Support Measure-Youth (PSSM-Y) is introduced in this study along with the psychometric properties found with a sample of 133 Latino youth in Grades 5 through 7 from a public school in a low-income urban neighborhood. Exploratory factor analyses indicated the presence of three factors called direct support, language and support, and indirect support, which together accounted for 66.3% of the common variance in the 16-item version. Strong internal consistency and test-retest coefficients were found for the PSSM-Y in this sample. In addition, schoolwork support was correlated with youth depression, economic pressure, loneliness, and familism in the expected directions. The findings are discussed in terms of the potential utility of this measure for future school-based studies of Latino students and youth of immigrant backgrounds in the United States.