Are the Kids Alright? Part 1

A Review of a study by Jillene Seiver and Elisa Pope

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There is no empirical evidence of which this author knows that for thousands of years of parent-directed and home-based education people worried that such education was keeping children from growing up to be functionally sociable. Since the early days of the modern homeschool movement, however, a perennial question asked by homeschool families’ neighbors and friends and scholars has been, What about socialization? 

Scholars Seiver and Pope (2021) addressed this question by studying the extracurricular activities during childhood and young adulthood of adults who were home educated, public schooled, and private schooled while growing up.

Methods

The researchers recruited respondents via online college and university class postings in the Puget Sound area, homeschool group chat boards in Washington State, and via social media. They collected data from 18-25 year olds who were homeschooled (n=30), publicly schooled (n=53), and privately schooled (n=11) during K-12.  . . . . .

Findings

. . . . .

The main effect of schooling was significant and analysis revealed that the publicly educated respondents reported significantly fewer volunteer activities than the privately educated and homeschooled; the latter two were not significantly different from each other. 

    . . . . . [new study continues here]   And please see comments below.

--Brian D. Ray, Ph.D.

National Home Education Research Institute

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Keywords, Categories, Tags: 

Homeschooling, home education, social development, socialization

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