The Role of Parental Self-Efficacy in Preschool Children’s Home Learning Environment ; Die Rolle der elterlichen Selbstwirksamkeit im häuslichen Lernumfeld von Kindergartenkindern

Parental self-efficacy is an essential predictor of beneficial parenting practices, parenting skills, and positive child development (Albanese et al., 2019; Ardelt & Eccles, 2001; P. K. Coleman & Karraker, 2000; T. L. Jones & Prinz, 2005; Schuengel & Oosterman, 2019; Stievenart & Martinez Perez, 2020; Verhage et al., 2013; Wilson et al., 2014; Wittkowski et al., 2017). It describes the parents’ belief in their efficaciousness in influencing the child and its environment in such a way that it supports child development (Ardelt & Eccles, 2001). Parental self-efficacy as a parental belief (Sigel & McGillicuddy–De Lisi, 2002) is part of the home learning environment. The home learning environment has proven to be an important factor for beneficial child development and later school performance (Kluczniok et al., 2013; Lehrl et al., 2012; Sammons et al., 2015; Tamis- LeMonda et al., 2017). Studies indicate that the home learning environment can be structured into structural family characteristics (e.g., socio-economic background or family language), beliefs (e.g., parental self-efficacy), and processes or process quality (e.g., parent-child activities), whereby the processes have a direct effect on child development (Anders et al., 2011; Kluczniok et al., 2013; NICHD Early Child Care Research Network, 2003). This thesis follows the structure of the home learning environment, called the home learning environment model, and presents its component’s interrelationships. In the first study, the construct of parental self-efficacy is investigated in more detail. The construct of parental self-efficacy and, in particular, its content-specificity is not well understood: Parental self-efficacy can either refer to parents’ general perception of how well they judge themselves in their role as parents or refer to a specific parental task. To investigate this, it was tested whether (a) general and task-related parental self-efficacy could be assessed separately or (b) be mapped in a hierarchical model. ...