TPC Journal V8, Issue 4- FULL ISSUE

The Professional Counselor | Volume 8, Issue 4 333 grade–GPA conversion table; parents reported letter grades on the survey. As such, grades of A+, A, and A- equated to GPAs of 4.33, 4.0, and 3.67, respectively. The student achievement–related variables included in the initial analyses were parental involvement, discipline referrals, suspensions, and homework completion. Pearson product-moment correlation coefficients and multiple regression analyses were used to test the hypothesis that GPA is related to and predicted by these student achievement–related variables. The degree of parental involvement and homework completion were positively and significantly related to GPA. Suspensions were negatively and significantly related to GPA. Discipline referrals were not significantly related to GPA. The descriptive statistics and correlations for these variables are offered in Table 1. Table 1 Descriptive Statistics and Alpha Coefficients for Student Achievement Variables ______________________________________________________________________________ Range Correlation Variable M SD Min Max with GPA _____________________________________________________________________________________ GPA 3.67 .59 2 4.33 Parent Involvement 96.58 13.51 15 100 .37 * Discipline Referrals .31 .55 0 2 -.22 Suspensions .23 .52 0 2 -.52 ** Homework 97.65 5.27 75 100 .50 ** ______________________________________________________________________________ Note. * p < .05; ** p < .001 Prior to additional analysis, basic assumptions of multiple regression analysis were tested and satisfied. Standardized residual plots and Q-Q plots were inspected; bivariate correlations also were examined. Next, a multiple regression analysis including parent involvement, suspensions, and homework completion as predictors was conducted with GPA as the criterion variable. Discipline referrals were not included in the regression analysis. A significant regression equation was found: F (3, 45) = 11.539, p < .001. The model with these three predictors explained a significant amount of the variance in GPA ( R 2 = .435). Significant contributions were made to the model by each of the three predictor variables: parent involvement (β = .284, p < .05), suspensions (β = -.369, p < .05), and homework completion (β = .273, p < .05). Main Analyses A multiple linear regression was used to test the hypothesis that authoritative parenting is predicted by parenting beliefs. Authoritative parenting served as the criterion variable. RB, IB, and GE were predictor variables. A combination of these predictor variables yielded a significant regression equation: F (3, 38) = 14.536, p < .000. The model explained a significant portion of variance (53%) in authoritative parenting (see Table 2). Additionally, RB (β = .38, p < .05) was positively and significantly related to authoritative parenting. IB (β = .46, p < .001) also was positively and significantly correlated with authoritative parenting. GE did not contribute significantly to the model (β = -.25 p > .05).