A Survey on College Students' Parents' Participation in Home-School
Communication Under the Background of New Media
Guomei Gu
Changshu Institute of Technology, Changshu, Jiangsu, China
Keywords: Information Technology, New Media, Parents of College Students, Social Classes, Home-School
Communication.
Abstract: By using the research methods of literature and data statistics analysis, this study compiles a college
home-school communication questionnaire which is conducted with parents of 405 students in an under-
graduate college as the research object. Moreover, this study investigates and analyzes the relationship be-
tween factors such as different grades, genders, and social classes, etc., and aspects of communication in-
cluding the frequency of home-school communication, the use of new media and the effect of communica-
tion. The results show that mothers' participation level in using new media for home-school communication
is significantly higher than that of fathers. Meanwhile, parents of different grades have obvious differences
in the use of new media and communication effect, which is manifested in the fact that the first, second and
third grades are obviously higher than the fourth grade. There are also significant differences between the
parents of different social classes in all aspects of home-school communication with higher educational in-
stitutions.
1 INTRODUCTION
Modern information technology, represented by
computer technology, network and communication
technology and microelectronics technology, is
changing people’s traditional way of living, studying
and working, and it also continuously promotes the
reform of the higher education. It is conducive for
the application of modern information technology to
promote the communication and cooperation be-
tween colleges and college students' families to the
deep integration of the Internet and education, and to
give full play to the optimization and integration of
the Internet in the allocation of educational re-
sources in order to build a home-school
co-education community.
Educating people is a systematic project, and
higher educational institutions alone cannot under-
take such an important task as educating people. In
the modern school system, the school is no longer a
closed system, but an open organization that attaches
importance to the interaction with the school, the
family and the community (Zhao, 2019). The coop-
eration between colleges and families is also an in-
evitable requirement for the construction of a mod-
ern school system. The way and effect of
home-school communication will greatly influence
the effect and quality of home-school cooperation.
Home-school communication refers to the behavior
of the school and the families that understand and
cooperate with each other in order to achieve the
common educational goal, and to transmit infor-
mation and exchange ideas through various media
such as language and others (Luo, 2006). In today’s
information age, new media represented by the In-
ternet, WeChat, and Weibo, etc. are constantly infil-
trating into the higher education industry. More and
more colleges and universities have begun to think
highly of the use of new media to carry out
home-school communication and cooperation. The
rapid development of new media technology has
broken through the traditional limitations of time
and space, bringing more possibilities and conven-
ience to home-school communication, and making
parent-child, and home-school communication a
qualitative leap.
The generation of college students after-00s’ is
the aborigines of the Internet, and they are able to
use new media with ease. Accordingly, the parents
of the generation of the college students after-00s’
were mostly born in 1960s or 1970s, and most of
them are skilled at using new media. All these fac-
Gu, G.
A Survey on College Students’ Parents’ Participation in Home-School Communication Under the Background of New Media.
DOI: 10.5220/0011910100003613
In Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on New Media Development and Modernized Education (NMDME 2022), pages 261-266
ISBN: 978-989-758-630-9
Copyright
c
2023 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. Under CC license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)
261
tors have laid a good foundation for the
home-school communication and cooperation in
colleges and universities in the new media era.
Home-school communication and cooperation
are constrained by various factors such as college
students’ grades, parents’ genders, parents’ educa-
tion, parents’ occupations, and their income. It is
essential to identify these factors for the sake of un-
derstanding parents’ behavior of participating in
home-school communication and cooperation. It is
also of great significance to improve the parents’
ability of educating children, promote the strategy of
home-school cooperation, and build a long-term
mechanism of cooperation.
2 RESEARCH PROCEDURES
2.1 Research Tools
This study adopted the self-compiled "Questionnaire
on Home-School Communication in Colleges and
Universities under the Background of New Media
(Parents Questionnaire)" for data measurement. A
Likert 5-point scale was used, with 1 representing
the lowest participation and 5 the highest participa-
tion. The higher the score, the higher the parental
involvement in home-school communication.
2.2 Research Objects
In this study, 405 parents of a local undergraduate
college in Jiangsu Province were randomly selected
for a questionnaire survey and 403 valid question-
naires were obtained. Between them, 201 were from
the parents of the first-grade students,100 from the
second-grade, 57 from the third-grade and 47 from
the fourth-grade.
2.3 Data Processing
The data of this study were processed and analyzed
by using SPSS7.0 software package.
3 RESEARCH RESULTS AND
ANALYSIS
3.1 Parents’ Participation in
Home-School Communication
The paired sample (T-test) can demonstrate the dif-
ferences between undergraduates’ parents’ participa-
tion in the home-school communication. It can be
seen from Table 1 that there is no significant differ-
ence in the dimensions of necessity for communica-
tion with colleges and the frequency of communica-
tion with teachers. However, in the dimension of
using new media to communicate, the level of par-
ticipation of mothers is significantly higher than that
of fathers. There is no remarkable difference in the
effectiveness of parent-school communication.
In the process of personal growth, the influence
of family education cannot be replaced by schools
and other educational institutions, and the influence
of family on school education cannot be completely
replaced by other social elements (Chen, 2000).
Parents have a prominent impact on children in the
early experiences of individuals. With the continu-
ous growth of the individual, there will be others
who also have important influence on them, such as
teachers and classmates, etc. Therefore, it is an inev-
itable requirement to strengthen and improve the
ideological and political work in colleges and uni-
versities by encouraging parents to participate in
school education, and it is also an important way to
form a joint force in college education.
Table 1 Comparison of Differences in Parents' Participation in Home-school Communication
Items Mean (father-mother) SE t p
Necessity of communication -0.16 0.12 -1.38 0.169
Communication frequency -0.03 0.09 -0.37 0.710
Communicating by new media -0.12 0.05 -2.56 0.011
Communication effect -0.12 0.08 -1.7 0.144
3.2 Parents of Different Grades
Participating in Home-School
Communication
Comparing various dimensions of home-school commu-
nication between parents of different grades, we can see
from table 2 that there are obvious differences in the
necessity of home-school communication, com-
municating by new media and communication ef-
fects between parents of students in different grades.
In these aspects, it was plain that parents of the
NMDME 2022 - The International Conference on New Media Development and Modernized Education
262
fourth grade students are lower than those of other
grades, and there is no significant difference be-
tween parents of different grades in the frequency of
communication with teachers.
Table 2 Comparison of Differences in Various Dimensions of Home-school Communication between Parents of Different
Grades（ ⎯X±S）
Items Grade one Grade two Grade three Grade four p
Necessity of communication 3.62±1.14 3.54±1.11 3.30±1.16 3.09±1.01 0.016
Communication frequency 1.90±0.84 1.69±0.78 1.72±0.84 1.67±0.70 0.104
Communicating by new media 0.75±0.43 0.80±0.40 0.75±0.43 0.50±0.51 0.001
Communication effect 3.00±0.78 2.86±0.74 2.67±0.69 2.70±0.84 0.007
3.3 Home-school Communication
between Parents of Different
Educational Levels
Comparing differences in home-school communication
between parents in different educational levels, we can
see from table 3 that there are obvious differences in
communicating by new media and commutation
effects between parents with different educational
levels. Parents with a bachelor's degree or above are
significantly higher than those without a bachelor's
degree. Parents with different educational back-
grounds have no significant differences in the
awareness of the necessity of communication and
the frequency of communication with teachers.
Table 3 Comparison of Differences in Home-school Communication between Parents in Different Educational Levels
（ ⎯X±S）
Items
High School De-
gree or less
College Degree
Bachelor Degree or
above
p
Necessity of communication 3.41±0.11 3.60±0.17 3.80±0.22 0.637
Communication frequency 1.75±0.79 1.80±0.81 2.02±0.93 0.098
Communicating by new media 0.70±0.46 0.83±0.38 0.80±0.40 0.048
Communication effect 2.83±0.76 2.85±0.78 3.24±0.74 0.002
3.4 Parents of Different Occupations
Participating in Home-School
Communication
Comparing differences in parents' participation in
home-school communication in different occupa-
tions, we can see from Table 4 that there is no sig-
nificant difference between parents of different oc-
cupations in four dimensions of home-school com-
munication.
Table 4 Comparison of Differences in Parents' Participation in home-school Communication in Different Occupations
（ ⎯X±S）
Items Workers Farmers
Professional and
Technical Per-
sonnel
Managers of Enter-
prises and Institu-
tions
P
Necessity of communication 3.41±1.05 3.48±1.08 3.68±1.40 3.70±1.16 0.468
Communication frequency 1.74±0.78 1.62±0.81 1.84±0.87 1.96±0.91 0.592
Communicating by new media 0.70±0.46 0.71±0.46 0.86±0.35 0.83±0.38 0.169
Communication effect 2.82±0.71 2.90±0.83 3.11±0.84 3.02±0.77 0.512
A Survey on College Students’ Parents’ Participation in Home-School Communication Under the Background of New Media
263
3.5 Participating in Home-School
Communication Between Parents
with Different Incomes
Comparing home-school communication between parents
with different Incomes
, we can see from Table 5 that
there is no significant difference in the necessity of
communication, communication frequency and the
effect of communication between parents with dif-
ferent income. However, there are significant dif-
ferences in their understanding of new media and
the use of new media for home-school communica-
tion. Parents with higher income are significantly
higher than those with lower income.
Table 5 Comparison of Differences in Home-school Communication between Parents with Different Incomes(X±S)
Items
Below
2,000 yu-
an/month
2001-6,000
yuan/month
6,001-10,000
yuan/month
Above 10,000
yuan/month
p
Necessity of communication 3.33±1.09 3.30±1.11 3.63±0.96 3.77±0.26 0.083
Communication frequency 1.67±0.84 1.79±0.84 1.64±0.76 1.85±0.84 0.533
Communicating by new media 0.50±0.51 0.68±0.47 0.70±0.46 0.84±0.37 0.036
Communication effect 2.83±0.86 2.91±0.73 2.75±0.83 3.05±0.79 0.155
4 DISCUSSIONS
This study employs the self-compiled "Question-
naire on Home-School Communication in Colleges
and Universities under the Background of New Me-
dia (Parents Questionnaire)" to investigate the dif-
ferences in the participation of home-school com-
munication between parents of college students.
4.1 Parents’ Participation in
Home-School Communication
In the context of new media, the communication
between parents and undergraduates has shown a
positive trend, so has the communication between
parents and the colleges. Mothers' participation in
home-school communication is significantly higher
than that of fathers’, which reflects mothers’ im-
portant roles in family education.
Adler defined the mother-child relationship as
the first social relationship, and he also pointed out
that 'once mother-child relationship is distorted,
specific social functional deficits will appear in the
child (Adler, 2017). Although women's participation
in work has increased dramatically in modern socie-
ty, and the tasks of bringing up children are also on
the rise. They take on more complex and difficult
tasks in the academic progress of their children. In
family education, mothers are paying more attention
to nurturing and helping children to cultivate social
emotions, and the role of fathers is also indispensa-
ble in family education. Fathers are the educators of
their children, and they are the guiding people for
their children to go to the world (E.Fromm,2017).
Fathers’ education is to strengthen, cooperate and
supplement the mothers’ education. Fathers gener-
ally have relatively rich knowledge, strong practical
ability, and the spirit of daring to explore. Fathers'
participation in education can help broaden chil-
dren's horizons, improve children's cognitive ability
and creativity, and improve children's mental health.
In home-school communication and cooperation,
higher educational institutions should play a full role
of fathers and make educating children the common
responsibility of parents, forming a home-school
education community.
4.2 Characteristics of Parents of
Different Grades Students
Participating in Home-School
Communication
There are significant differences in home-school
communication between different grades students’
parents. Parents of freshmen are significantly higher
than other grades in the frequency and effect of
communication with teachers. Freshmen are faced
with a new life in all aspects, and they need more
time to adjust and adapt. Parents also go from doing
everything in the past to doing by themselves, but it
is inevitable that there will be discomfort. Children
need the support of parents when they study and live
independently, which promotes the participation of
parents in colleges. The communication between
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264
parents and teachers can not only get a more com-
prehensive understanding of children's study and life
in the college, but also get more professional guid-
ance from college teachers. Parents of freshmen are
more concerned about their children's academic
performance, but less concerned about their chil-
dren's employment prospects.
Parents of seniors pay the highest attention to
their children's employment prospects, but pay little
attention to their academic achievements. In terms
of the frequency and effect of communication with
the college, the parents of seniors are significantly
lower than the parents of freshmen. After more than
three years of study and life in colleges, senior stu-
dents have greatly enhanced their adaptability and
independence. At this stage, the biggest pressure for
them comes from employment which is also a
common concern of parents and colleges. There are
obvious differences between parents of different
grades students in terms of children's academics,
comprehensive abilities, communication necessity,
communication effect, communication effect with
teachers and use of new media. Parents of students
in grades one, two and three are significantly higher
than those in grades four. There are no significant
differences in the frequency of communication with
teachers.
4.3 Parents of Different Social Classes
Show Differences in Their
Participation in Home-School
Communication
Parents of different classes pay attention to different
contents, and the frequency and the effect of com-
munication with colleges are also different. Factors
on social classes—especially parents’ education
background, occupational status, income, and nature
of work, provide parents with unequal resources and
behavioral tendencies, and these differences are key
factors influencing parental engagement behaviors
(Annette Lalu, 2017). Such differences between
different social classes are also reflected on
home-school communication.
Parents with higher education level have signifi-
cantly higher awareness of communication frequen-
cy with teachers and advantages of new media in
home-school communication than parents with low-
er education level.
Parents of different occupations are not very dif-
ferent in their attention to various aspects of their
children. However, the frequency of communication
with teachers is significantly lower between parents
who are farmers than other occupations. In terms of
using new media to connect with schools, profes-
sional technicians and managers of enterprises and
institutions are significantly higher than parents who
are farmers and workers.
For different economic income levels, parents
with a monthly income of less than 2,000 yuan are
significantly lower than those with a monthly in-
come of more than 2,000 yuan in terms of their un-
derstanding of home-school cooperation and the use
of new media to communicate with the school.
Families with different class backgrounds have
obvious differences in economic capital, cultural
capital and social capital that can be used to help
children obtain educational opportunities or better
academic performance (Liu 2005). Higher educa-
tional institutions should have a full understanding
of the class backgrounds of different families. After
that, they can make full use of the family education
resources of different classes to carry out
home-school communication and cooperation in a
more targeted manner. At the same time, it is neces-
sary to fully tap and mobilize these resources to
serve personnel training and promote the all-round
development of college students.
5 CONCLUSIONS
The development of modern information technology
provides a new way for home-school communica-
tion. People can use modern information technology
to release information, share resources and interact
in time. Teachers and parents can communicate at
any time, so as to promote the integration of educa-
tional concepts and change parents' educational ide-
as.
Colleges and universities should effectively
make use of mobile Internet social software to pro-
mote home-school communication, create a com-
munication platform between parents, promote par-
ents to participate in school management, realize the
sharing of family education resources and give full
play to the advantages of the network environment.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This study is supported by Philosophy and Social
Science Foundation of Jiangsu Colleges and Univer-
sities (Research on the Application of New Media in
Home-school Cooperation in Colleges and Universi-
ties, Grant No.2018SJSZ433).
A Survey on College Students’ Parents’ Participation in Home-School Communication Under the Background of New Media
265
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