Abstract

The purpose of this study is to explore how a range of aspects related to parent-child relationships impact the development of children. Gathering primary source evidence on how the parent child relationship has influenced myself provides a unique perspective on parents and students beyond race, household income, and parental educational attainment. The guiding research question of this thesis is while researchers have studied how race, household income, and parental educational attainment interact to shape academic development, what is the added impact of the parent-child relationship? Additional questions I explore are how has parent-child relationships impacted me as an educator and how has analyzing my life experiences given me a unique perspective to look at my life. In designing a narrative study with a focus on myself as the main participant, I first interviewed myself prior to interviewing my mother, grandmother, and aunt who all had a tremendous impact on myself, in addition to two former teachers who I felt could strongly influence this study. In each interview, I provided a list of predetermined questions that included both questions that synthesized the focus of the literature review as well as focused on their knowledge of my parent-child relationship. In unison with the research provided in the literature review, the findings of the research suggested that race, household income, parental-educational attainment had a crucial impact on parent-child relationships, in addition to the parent’s own upbringing and self esteem.