Capstone Proposal: Does At-Risk Environment Impact School Success?

This capstone proposal investigates the impact of at-risk environments on children's school success, focusing on factors like poverty, single-parent households, and parental influence. The study aims to understand how these environmental elements affect children's focus, interest in education, and mental health, as well as their emotional, educational, and social development. The research questions explore the relationship between risky environments and school outcomes, the role of genetics and environment, and the importance of parental guidance. The literature review examines the effects of maternal hardship, income levels, and poverty on academic achievement, with studies highlighting the significance of early childhood programs and parental involvement. The proposal aims to provide insights for parents living in at-risk environments, emphasizing the importance of understanding their children's development and the impact of their environment on school success. The study will utilize the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) to measure the children's emotional, behavioral, and social development. The research highlights how a supportive environment can help children meet their basic needs and achieve academic success.

Running head: CAPSTONE PROPOSAL 1
Capstone Proposal
Does Living in an at-Risk Environment Impact School Success?
Carlos Alberto Ortiz Jr.
Southern New Hampshire University
March 22, 2020

CAPSTONE PROPOSAL 2
Introduction
The environment that children are surrounded by can significantly influence their
development. Children learn from their environment and how their parents demonstrate certain
behaviors. Children can develop mental health problems due to their at-risk environments;
therefore, proper parenting and guidance can help a child develop gradually regardless of their
environment. The development of children and how they view their school success can resonate
with how their environment is set up for them, What advantages their parents may have, and
their interaction with their children can influence their environment. It can bring up several
behaviors in their children. The advantages, the environment, and their parents can influence a
child's school success. The at-risk environment can cause a child to lose focus in school and
cause them to lose interest in their education. Also, a risk environment can cause a mental health
problem to develop if trauma starts to occur with the children residing in the environment. Proper
parenting, guidance, and admiration with children can influence interaction with school success.
Developmental issues could arise for children in a risk environment. The research will
investigate how at-risk environment impact school success. Also, How environmental factors
such as single-family households, poverty, and parenting can influence school success in
children? Also, why does school success predicated on an environment that is full of guidance
and care from their parents? Do genetics and environment play a connection to school success in
children? Parents who currently resides in an at-risk environment are the focal point of this
research. The research gathered will show how parents can use their genetic gifts and their
environment to influence the development of care in school success.
Research Questions: However, children who live in a risk environment can be influenced by
their surroundings and cause developmental issues. The research will look to answer why does

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at-risk environment impacts school success? What risky environmental factors such as poverty,
single-family household, or poor parenting can lead to an impact on a child's school success?
How does an unsafe environment influence the outcomes of development in schools such as
emotional, educational, and social development? The audience of this research are parents that
live-in at-risk environment. Parents will learn what impacts school success regardless of the
environment. Parents will learn the importance of genetics, and the environment can play into the
development of school success.
According to Farkas, Sheehan, and Grobe (1990), the environment and school success do
affect how the children will develop. The environment can impact children to the degree that it
can lead to suicidal thoughts, dropouts, and health issues. Parents must understand that
children's development is a critical period in their lives; therefore, not knowing how to raise
them in a proper environment can establish a precedent of bad behavior. Child development
studies the advancement in the age of children through critical milestones, and school success is
one of the milestones children must achieve in order to develop. However, a child's environment,
such as low-income households, single parenting, and neglectful parents, can interfere with their
success at school. An individual living in poverty may not have access to such advantages such
as technology, basic study essentials, or tutors that can aid in the development of children. Most
children are placed in an advance early learning center, and that is an advantage that parents
without living in poverty may have on other parents. Parents need to understand their
environment and how parents may influence the school success of the children.
Literature Review
Maternal Hardship and School success can have a huge impact on the grades of children.
A mother with maternal hardship living in an at risk neighborhood can cause their children to

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lose interest in academic achvibement. Yang, Chen, Rhodes and Orooji (n.d.) study relates to the
research since it gives a detail report on how grade reetion and adverse affect are due to hardship
ecounter by the environment. The study understand that school and family domains work
together to function a cheminstory with the child. Therefore, this research puts my prospal into
perspective since it examines variable such as material hardship, school engagement, and
academic achievement for at risk children. The study used a mediation analysisis approach
provides through various studies by Baron and Kenny's to help examine school engagement with
children who live in an at risk environment. In addition, the study looked at the direct connection
between “material hardship and grade retention (Yang, Chen, Rhodes & Orooji, n.d.). An
outstanding 42.34% of children in at risk envirment failed to complete at least one grade and had
to repeat the grade the following year (Yang, Chen, Rhodes & Orooji, n.d). THe study helps the
overall prospal since it found a drop off in school enangment when dealing with an at risk
envioement such as maternal hardship. Families who experience maternal hardship must not let it
overhwhwlem their children since it could cause them to experience a cheminstory lost with a
academic achievement. The study demonstrate that implication in school success could occur
when children deal with at risk environment, therefore, parents elarning more how to deal with
their envioement can help their children live with academic progress.
The following qualitative study will help explore the comparison between lower-income
and higher-income parents on the effect of school success. According to Veitch (2017), the
history of the parents and their overall traits can affect the child's school success. The study
research home behaviors and school behaviors with their children to see if there is a meaningful
connection with their income. The study looks at the parents' incomes and their educational
history of painting a picture of their overall academic success. Veitch (2017) explored the

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mother's school experiences and measured it to other mothers that have different income levels to
see a difference in school success. The study collected an overall of 16 interviews with various
parents that took account of their memories of their school success. After that, the qualitative
study to a five-step approach to finding many themes and data that determine the overall
resource collections. The study found a direct link between the two income levels and how
school memories can be reflected on in the past (Veitch, 2017). Higher-income and lower-
income mothers were able to remember their school success and contribute to their children
regardless of their income.
Another interesting article that distinguishes children with poverty and school success
profoundly cares about the poverty level and academic achievement in low-income
neighborhoods. The study evaluated the many children that grew up in poverty struggle with
their academic achievement (Abrahamse, Jonkman, & Harting, 2018). Also, the study
investigated how health outcomes can play into academic achievement as well. The study
investigated how health outcomes can interact with poverty levels as well. The study focused on
the intervention technique into low-income neighborhoods and how that can aid in academic
achievement. To explain, Abrahamse, Jonkman, and Harting (2018), looked into a "school-
based interdisciplinary approach" and how that interacts with the child's health and academic
success. The goal of the study is to aid the children in high-risk environments and help them
have more opportunities to succeed in schools.
Families that are deprived finically have means to help their children through other
sources to give them a head start in life despite their poverty. The article "head start children's
transition to kindergarten: evidence from the early childhood longitudinal study" examines the
relationship between low incomes families and how they compared to their peers in kindergarten.

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The study acknowledged that children who grow up in a high-risk environment, such as low-
income homes, do have a disadvantage compared to privileged children (Pigott & Israel, 2005).
Therefore, the study looked into the "Head Start" program in which helps give children in
poverty a boast in their academics before they enter preschool. The article ran a comparison
longitudinal study in Early Childhood to access the scores of math and reading of children in
head start to those who skipped it and went to kindergarten (Pigott & Israel, 2005). Children in
head start did have higher test scores than those who skipped head start and went to kindergarten,
but they found an academic gap between those in head start and those who live in a "higher
social, economic standing" (Pigott & Israel, 2005).
Veitch (2017) believes that school success can be implicated based on the income on the
families. The article helps assist my research question because it helps answers questions
regarding school success in a high-risk environment. The article looked at past research from the
previous decades and found that children's education development has been mainstreamed and
looks upon how to develop it for the better (Veitch, 2007). However, the article takes a different
approach, and it focused on the parent's memories of their schooling and how that directly
impacts their children's success. The article examines the parent's school experience and how it
may influence their children's school success. The study aims to provide an understanding of
how low-income families and high-income families low at their experience and considered
towards their children. According to Veitch (2017), parents' cognition about schooling has a
direct impact based on their school experience. The article understands that the parents are the
primary "mangers" of the children, and they can directly impact the environment and mindset of
their kids (Veitch, 2017). The article asks various questions to parents that can lead to answer to
their attitude towards their school success. The article found four themes that can influence the

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outcomes of school recollection attitudes based on their income: Intergenerational Influences,
Diversity, transition, and social involvement. All these themes influence the memories of the
parents based on their school backgrounds. The study also found that educational history, race
and marital status can influence their child's school success when compared to social, economic
status (Veitch, 2017), The study found that family perspective and understanding of the schools
overall approach can help a child become more aware of the structure of the traditional approach
to education.
According to Abrahamse, Jonkman, and Harting (2018), deprived neighborhoods struggle
with their academic achievement. The authors ran a school-based interdisciplinary program to
help those children in a deprived neighborhood with their academic achievement. The study
understands that children in unsafe environments with high poverty rates are more likely to
experience adverse outcomes in their development. Overall, the outcomes of the study were
provided by self-report questionnaires by children and their parents. The questionnaire consisted
of various questions regarding their academic success, sports, and health. The study ran a family
affluence scale to get a background on the childrens environment and social ecnmoic status . The
study found that an estimate of 1 and 4 children in low-income neighborhoods live in poverty
(Abrahamse, Jonkman, & Harting, 2018). Various research gathered found that children living in
poverty struggle with their wellbeing and academic achievement. The article investigated various
studies and found a continuum into the harsh reality of low-income families. Also, the article
highlights how poverty can impact children on an "emotional and behavioral" level, including
their mental health (Abrahamse, Jonkman, & Harting, 2018). The study also found that low-
income families have a higher chance of having poor overall health, including childhood obesity
and mental health issues (Abrahamse, Jonkman, & Harting, 2018). The study found that teachers

CAPSTONE PROPOSAL 8
who teach in the low-income neighborhood are less effective with disruption occurring in their
classrooms.
Pigott and Israel (2005) conducted an analysis of the Head Start program and how
poverty can affect the school success of young children through a longitudinal study. According
to Pigott and Israel (2005), Head Start children have many variations in resources depending on
their low social, economic status; therefore, their dependence on the program only occurs if they
live in poverty. However, they found the Head Start Gap to be very limited compared to other
schools. However, children who live in poverty still have a chance to perform worst in their
school success regardless of their participation in the program (Pigott & Israel, 2005). However,
the conclusion found that their math scores do increase when children attend head start. Minority
student who attend head start benefit the most with academic progress development (Pigott &
Israel, 2005). However, A "large percentage" of heads start children that are minorities have
lower math and reading scores than those who attended school with a less diversity score (Pigott
and Israel, 2005). Social, economic status in the schools, had not led to any connection
depending on any math or reading assessments. Overall, the finding show that attending head
start is beneficial to children than those who do not attend it. However, an analysis sample tends
to support that low-income families struggle with the academic success of their children.
According to Yang, Chen, Rhodes and Orooji (n.d.) maternal hardship directly relate to
school engagement in young children. The study used longitudinal design to examine grade
retention over time. Therefore, it showed that attendance probmlems, low test scores and risk
factors associated with at risk environment. Yang, Chen, Rhodes and Orooji (n.d) research will
show why academic success can implicated, therfoire, showing envidecne for the main picture of
this capstone proposal. It shows statically signcants results while controlng variales such as “

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school nesting effects and other covariates (Yang, Chen, Rhodes, & Orooji, n.d.) . To gather their
research it uses information from the children who get free/reduce lunches to look towards social
ecnmoic status. Using that data it uses about the 27% of children who experienced maternal
hardship. Tbe research demosntate that school scuess can be implicated by showing evidence on
low attendance scores, low academic achievement and failrure rates all point toward one
variable: maternal hardship. Therefore, showing that school success and high risk environment
have an connection aiding in the proposal.
Comparing and Contrasting the Sources
All the articles help assisted the various research question since it helped answer the
research question regarding school success in a high-risk environment. However, there were
many different approaches taken in various studies. For starters. Veitch (2017) investigated the
parents' memories of their education and how that impacted school success in their children.
Abrahamse, Jonkman, and Harting (2018) investigated the influence low income families may
bring to their children enrolling them in a head start program. Pigott & Israel (2005) investigated
a low-income neighborhood and how that impact schools' school. The study by Abrahamse et al.
(2018) and Pigott and Israel (2005) found that the environment in low-income neighborhoods
can be altered and changed for the better to influence school success. Veitch (2017) found that
parents with high incomes have more passion for remembering their educational experience and
transferring that to their parents. All these studies did their purpose in finding a connection with
the children's school success and their environments. Social encomic status does impact the way
school success turn out for young children. Yang, Chen, Rhodes and Orooji (n.d) found that
maternal hardship can implicate retention rates on grades on elemtemry students. The research
demonstrates that social encomic status can influence how well a child does in school. In

CAPSTONE PROPOSAL 10
addition, social-economic status did affect how parents view their school memories. According
to Veitch (2017) parents will remember their school success even more when surrounded by
advantages they can get through their wealhy parents. Additonal resources and aids well help
raise the value of school scuess with parents. However, The study should focus more than just
the Social, economic status of the mothers. Future research should investigate the overall school
experience of the children, comparing it to their parent's experiences.
All research conducted found interesting points to show that school success and high risk
environment do have a connection. Overall the article, "Parental Memories of School and
Children's Early Learning: A Comparison of Higher-income and Lower-income Mothers"
conducted a well-balanced approach to defining how low income and higher-income families
interact with each other. Studies conducted by Veitch (2017)and Pigott & Israel (2005) look at
whether their parents school success and how it infeunce decision making. All studies looked at
school involvement and how that affects the relationship with their environment.All studies
looked at the overall school experiences and how that influence academic acheiment. The study
conducted by Yang, Chen, Rhodes and Orooji (n.d) showed high realablity and validity rates by
controlling their confounding factors and conducting a longtudal study. Pigott and Israel (2005)
did conduct a longiutidal study as well but did it for only to 3-5 years old. Futhur evidence and
data could be gathered from the time period of the study. The study does well balance research
on how schools' SES can impact their child development when it comes to Head start programs.
The study could benefit from more extensive longitudinal research in the upper school age to see
if the achievement gap closes when the child goes throughout the school system. Abrahamse,
Jonkman, and Harting (2018) conducted a well rounded research with investaigated children in
four different schools. Therefore, gathering enough population sample to generalize the effects of

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the captstone proposal. However,The study does "lacks randomization of the participating
schools," which could cause for concern with discussing the validity of the study (Abrahamse,
Jonkman, & Harting, 2018). However, like previous studies it did help find a connection between
low income families and schools cuess by showing a need for an interdisplnary approach for at
risk children.
According to the resources, parents' cognition, decision and social economic status can
impacts children's school success. Parents need to understand that their educational background
and their attitudes towards schools can influence the school success of their offspring. In
addition, their maternal hardship could impact the way children feel about school. Parents must
not let their economic deprivation impact the advantages of children in the school system. For
staters, Head start does provide an advantage for those in a kindergarten class. Showing even if
the situation of the environment is risky, finding an advantage int the community can influence
the outcome of school success. Using the data gathered, at-risk families can use a well-balanced
approach to find a connection between their educational experience and finding a resource to
find a path that can lead to school success.
The gaps in research
Overall the research gathered shows that there still needs to be more investigating done
on at-risk environments in a more longitudinal setting. Also, the gaps in research also need to
compare what are the emotional, social, and biological factors that associate with school success
and how the environment can alter academic achievement. Also, additional research is needed to
help focus on the trauma that at-risk environments children might experience to alter their school
success. The research getting a better understanding of what the environment does to alter other
factors besides school success, the field of psychology can find out what needs to be done in

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order to aid individuals in at-risk environments. The field of psychology can help individuals
stay in track with their academics while manipulating the risky environments to show the better
direction in academics. The focus is on treating the individual with a risky environment and still
give them a chance to succeed.
Research Method
The research gathered will use a quantitative cohort research design to gather evidence on
two different population samples. The study will follow two sets of geographical locations: high-
risk neighborhood and a low-risk neighborhood. A high-risk neighborhood will consist of
children living in poverty. The study design will follow two population samples prospectively
and evaluate them for their school success when exposed to particular risk factors such as living
in poverty. The study will use a comparative approach to try to understand how geographical
locations impact school success. The results of the study will be measured based on data
collected with their grade performance in school. The mean score will be collected to see which
geographical location does not hamper school success. The outcome from each geographical
location in the cohort study will be measured to analyze the results of school success compared
to the associated risk factor.
The goal of the research design is to determine how children living in poverty vs.
children living in suburban areas develop their school success skills. Also, the study will look at
their academic achievement and compare it to their geographical location. The controlled cohort
study will test out two different geographical locations and compare their school success using a
quantitative approach since numerical data will be measured based on data collection. A