A Phenomenological Study of Parental Involvement and the Undergraduate College Student Experience

Parents highly involved in the academic lives of their college-going children have become increasingly common and yet the effect of such involvement on students is poorly understood by student services administrators and faculty. The purpose of this study was to better define the phenomenon of parental involvement in college through an investigation of the lived experiences of undergraduate students with high levels of parental involvement. The following questions guided this study: What are the common lived experiences of these students? How is the students ability to cope with stress affected by parental involvement? What meaning does parental involvement have on the ongoing academic and social experience of these students?This study included six major findings, divided into three themes. The first theme - parents and academic pressure - yielded two findings: parental pressure on major choice can affect student academic choices and parent financial pressure can affect student academic choices. The second theme - parents, stress and coping - yielded two findings: student stress is closely related to their parental relationships and that not all students are prepared to cope without their parents. The third theme - parents as a part of the social whole - yielded two findings: the parental relationship is affected by siblings and the parental relationship is affected by friends. The results and interpretations were also discussed. The study concluded with an examination of the shared experiences of the participants in relation to the student-parent relationship, both in general and as it related to the students stress and coping. Recommendations are made both for action and for further study.