A r c h i v e d  I n f o r m a t i o n

Parent-School Relations

Parental Involvement in Education

Although German parents are involved formally and informally in their children's education in many ways, they seldom participate directly in events at their children's school. Normally, one parent-teacher evening is held at the beginning of each school year; in some cases, one or more additional parent-teacher evenings are scheduled during the school year. However, parent attendance at these formal meetings varies according to school type. Parents of Gymnasium students are most likely to attend, whereas parents of students at the Hauptschule are least likely to attend.

During the first parent-teacher evening of the year, the class teacher outlines the activities and curriculum planned for the coming school year, and parents elect a committee to represent their interests at official school meetings. These local parent committees may also elect a representative to statewide parents' committees that monitor developments in educational policy in each German state.

Parent-Teacher Communication

Parents are able to communicate directly with teachers during the teachers' weekly office hours, or indirectly via the parent committee. Usually, parents consult teachers because of unsatisfactory academic performance by their child. Teachers are most likely to contact parents because of discipline problems with a student. According to Ulich (1989), one of the most serious problems is that parents and teachers talk together about problems concerning a student, but they do not talk together with the student. Therefore, students are deprived of the opportunity to confront the problem firsthand and attempt to correct the situation.

Because academic success is currently perceived as more important to a young person's future success than it was previously, parents are taking a more critical stance concerning teachers. Where once the teacher's authority and respect in the community were rock solid, parents are increasingly challenging teachers' authority and calling their pedagogical abilities into question. Another serious problem is that parents and teachers often express mutual fear of each other. Problems with parent-teacher communication are especially prevalent among parents of lower socioeconomic status, and may lead these parents to avoid contact with their child's teachers altogether.

Parental Involvement in the Student's Performance

In the Youth 1992 study, adolescents were questioned about the degree to which their parents participated in and guided their educational careers. Survey respondents were asked to assess the degree to which particular statements applied to them. Responses ranged from 1 ("does not apply") to 4 ("applies to a great extent"). Table 14 shows the responses to some of the statements.

Table 14—Adolescents' responses to statements about parental involvement in their educational careers

a1 = statement does not apply, 4 = statement applies very much.

As shown in table 14, parents often assist their children with homework, a task mainly performed by mothers. However, the amount of time mothers spend helping with homework rapidly declines as students get older (Fischer 1992). More generally, the adolescents described a positive picture of parent interest and involvement in their education?from discussing their child's progress in school to instilling their own positive beliefs and ambitions in their child.

Yet Hurrelmann (1991) reports on the burden that school places on German children that parents' involvement in their child's homework can also be a source of stress in the parent-child relationship. Parents who assist with homework may become committed to their child's success with the school assignment and may feel responsible if the student does not receive a good grade. Students also may feel that their parents are evaluating them solely on the basis of their school performance, potentially reducing the parent-child relationship to a "school" relationship. When parent-child relationships become centered on school performance, the entire family atmosphere can be "poisoned" by the resulting stress. The adolescent may feel "instrumentalized" by his or her parents (Hurrelmann 1991).

Role of Parents in Vocational Decisionmaking

According to Behnken et al. (1991), 33 percent of adolescents surveyed in Saxony-Anhalt (eastern Germany) and 18 percent in Nordrhein-Westfalen (western Germany) said that the opinions of their parents concerning a future vocation dictated their decision. Seventy-nine percent of adolescents in Nordrhein-Westfalen and 63 percent in Saxony-Anhalt said they arrived at vocational decisions individually and independently. Table 15 shows the results of the survey on the role of parents in influencing school performance and vocational decisionmaking.

Table 15—German adolescents' responses to statements about parental guidance in educational and vocational decisionmaking

Silbereisen and Berg (1994) conducted a comparative study of the timing of vocational decisionmaking among adolescents in eastern and western Germany. Adolescents in eastern Germany reported developing vocational plans about a year earlier than did adolescents in western Germany. More generally, the degree to which parents encouraged scholastic competence during childhood was strongly associated with early vocational planning on the part of adolescents. "Adolescents who developed vocational plans earlier than their age-mates also . . . described themselves as more advanced in identity exploration and commitment" (p. 2).

Peer Support

The relative importance of peer relations for German adolescents has increased in the last 2 decades (Petersen et al. 1993). In addition to family and community, peer groups represent an important social organization and context for adolescent development. One of the primary developmental tasks facing the adolescent is to establish increasingly important emotional, social, and economic contacts with peers and society outside the family. German youth culture allows adolescents to demonstrate their difference and independence from adults in terms of fashion, music, leisure activities, language, and political ideas. Peer groups provide social references for adolescents and thereby establish standards of behavior. Peer groups not only influence forms of self-expression and behavior but affect patterns of consumption, leisure activities, and school performance (Petersen et al. 1993).

While studies of adolescent school performance have traditionally focused on the family as the most important locus of socialization (Steinberg and Darling 1994), Behnken et al. (1991) found that peer support is also an important factor motivating students to succeed in school. Thirty-eight percent of adolescents in eastern Germany and 20 percent in western Germany said that support from their peers was necessary for them to be motivated to work hard in school. In addition, more than 40 percent of adolescents in both the East and the West said that relations with peers were a positive aspect of school life. According to a report from the Bundesministerium für Frauen und Jugend (BMFJ 1993) 68 percent of youth in western Germany and 31 percent in eastern Germany claim they belong to a clique.

Although peer groups may clearly influence school achievement, the extent to which peer relationships facilitate or interfere with school performance is less understood. However, several aspects of peer influence can be noted. Within each peer group, there may be one or more opinion leaders who serve as models for the other group members (Fend 1991). While it is often assumed that the values of the peer group will be antagonistic to parental values, in the majority of cases peer group values actually support parental values (Oswald and Süss 1994). In describing the impact of school organization variables on German students' friendships, Wagner (1990) claims that peer interaction is an important explanatory variable in school performance which has not yet been subjected to direct empirical assessment. Furthermore, Wagner points to the need for studies that examine the interactions of peer influence, school organization, and family background, and their combined effects on school performance.

Problem Behavior

Substance Abuse

The reported use of illegal drugs among German secondary school students has declined dramatically since the 1970s. Whereas in the 1970s up to 20 percent of adolescents aged 15 to 18 reported illegal drug use (mainly hashish), in 1990 only 5 percent of youths aged 12 to 25 reported using illegal drugs (Silbereisen et al. 1993). However, the use of hard drugs such as heroin, cocaine, and amphetamines in Germany may be increasing, though not necessarily among adolescents: in 1992, more than 2,000 people died from illegal drug use in Germany, compared to 106 in 1973 and 324 in 1985 (Bundeskriminalamt, cited in Silbereisen et al. 1995).

Alcohol consumption among German adolescents decreased steadily from the mid-1970s until 1986, when it reached a plateau. In 1990, according to a survey of youth aged 12 to 25 conducted by the Institute for Youth Research, 40 percent of young people had consumed beer in the previous week; 15 percent, wine; and 6 percent, hard liquor. However, alcohol consumption varied according to sex. While 60 percent of males aged 18 to 20 reportedly consumed beer during the previous week, only 20 percent of females in this age group claimed to have done so (Silbereisen et al. 1995).

According to Silbereisen et al. (1991), although family background and school environment affect patterns of substance abuse, peer influence may be more important. Adolescents who have low self-esteem or who are rejected by "normative" peers may turn to substance abuse to "let off steam" and to demonstrate their independence (Silbereisen et al. 1994). Moreover, one would also expect to find interactions between substance type, consumption patterns, school environment, family background, and peer group. For example, adolescents may begin to drink and smoke "in order to enjoy and demonstrate what they see as a core element of adult privileges" (Silbereisen et. al 1995). Therefore, the authors conclude, patterns of smoking and drinking among adolescents should vary according to whether these behaviors are perceived as being an important part of adulthood.

Violence

Germany was once considered immune to the urban violence that plagues many cities in the world. However, recent reports have shown a dramatic increase in the number of assaults and other violent incidents occurring in German schools. Schools in Frankfurt have been the focus of a series of investigations into school violence; however, the superintendent of Frankfurt's schools has stated that increasing violence is evident "everywhere in Germany's schools": ("Horror aus der Dose" 1991, p. 106). For example, in a 1992 survey of students in Hamburg schools, 56 percent reported witnessing violence, extortion, bodily injury, and sexual harassment in school ("Die rasten einfach aus" 1992).

School violence often begins in childhood and continues through adolescence regardless of the type of secondary school attended. Studies in Frankfurt have indicated that violence is not limited to the secondary schools with students from lower socioeconomic groups. Rather, both aggressive and criminal behavior are equally present in the daily experience of students at Hauptschule, Realschule, Gesamtschule, and Gymnasium. "Brutality," the Frankfurt school superintendent declared, "is not class specific" ("Horror aus der Dose" 1991, p. 109).

A decade ago, most of the violence in Germany's schools was limited to fistfights in the school yard. However, the violence of today is more likely to include the use of a knife or other weapon. For example, an investigation of Frankfurt's schools revealed that 38 percent of Gymnasium students claimed to possess a weapon ("Die rasten einfach aus" 1992). Further, it was estimated that one of every five students in all types of secondary schools in Frankfurt brings a weapon to school regularly, a statistic comparable to the U.S. figure ("Horror aus der Dose" 1991).

The factors influencing adolescent violence include the community setting, popular media, and family relations. In marginal neighborhoods, where there is "too much frustration and too little hope," many violent incidents occur in schools ("Die rasten einfach aus" 1992, p. 49). In the media, children are exposed to increasing levels of violence: more than 70 murders can be seen on German television daily ("Die rasten einfach aus" 1992). Furthermore, in large cities such as Hamburg, every second child has parents who are divorced or separated. The "desolate situation in many family homes" ("Die rasten einfach aus" 1992, p. 44) is often blamed for the increasing need that many children have for attention. Because children may consider negative attention better than no attention, they may turn toward violence as a means of filling a void.

School Misconduct and Vandalism

Klockhaus and Habermann-Morbey (1986) have reported that both family and school contexts may exert causal effects on the expression of school vandalism. Oswald and Süss (1994) arrived at a similar conclusion regarding school misconduct in a sample of students and their parents in West Berlin. When their family situation was disturbed, students in West Berlin more frequently engaged in "teacher-annoying behavior" and "bullying of other students" in response to peer pressure. For example, certain parental styles and family structures might predispose their children to associate with deviant peer groups instead of normative groups (Oswald & Süss 1994). "Deviant friends, low peer status, and rejection by classmates [all] constitute sources of bullying behavior" in Berlin adolescents (Oswald & Süss 1994, p. 350).

In contrast, participation in sports and other organized activities has been shown to be negatively correlated with delinquency, although the direction of causality has not been investigated (Larson 1994). Larson argues that participation in organized activities actively promotes the social integration of adolescents. The author concludes that youth activities foster a resistance to delinquent behavior by increasing the value of prosocial orientation in adolescents.

Sexuality and Promiscuity

Secondary schools in Germany offer lessons in sex education, which deal primarily with sex problems, especially acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). Although sex education is firmly established within the German education system, parents and religious groups still argue over the content and extent of subjects taught during sex education.

In general, promiscuity is not a widespread problem, and the incidence of teenage pregnancy in Germany is low. Those adolescents who do become parents, however, face serious negative consequences, since further education and employment are usually postponed (Petersen et al. 1993).

Summary

Adolescent development does not occur in German society at large, but rather within specific contexts such as school, family, peers, and community (Elder et al. 1994). In order to understand the role that secondary education plays in adolescents' lives, it is necessary to explore these relevant contexts of adolescent development. For example, the fact that German youth spend on average 5.5 hours a day in school (Fischer 1992) is placed in perspective when one discovers that more than half of German adolescents also spend more than 6 hours a day in leisure activities (Behnken et al. 1991).

Also important in a cross-cultural comparison of adolescents' lives is the interaction of school, community, and family contexts. For example, because German secondary schools are first and foremost academic institutions, extensive programs provided by extracurricular activities and sports teams are uncommon (Petersen et al. 1993). Thus, the social functions provided by intramural and interscholastic athletics are not fulfilled by German schools; rather, the community context serves this purpose?more than two-thirds of German adolescents belong to a community-sponsored sports league (Fischer 1992).

Studies of adolescent values in Germany have revealed an "abstract" and "impersonal" orientation in German youth. However, this result is in part contradicted by the fact that "friendship" was consistently given as the most important value by German adolescents (Smolenska and Fraczek 1987). In general, German youth value education, perhaps because the link between school performance and future professional success is so clear in Germany (Hamilton 1994).

Although there is a subgroup of politically engaged youth in Germany, most adolescents rated "politics" as the least important of a list of 16 major life goals (Smolenska and Fraczek 1987). Yet, interest in politics increases with age: only 38 percent of 15- to 17-year-olds claimed to have an interest in politics, compared with 68 percent of 21- to 24-year-olds (Watts and Zinnecker 1987).

Parents in Germany are naturally involved in their children's educational careers in many ways. The German education system has been characterized as one of sponsored mobility, in which students are tracked at an early age into forms of secondary school with different privileges (Engel and Hurrelmann 1994). The type and degree of parents' involvement in their child's education depends on the type of secondary school their child attends (Oswald, Baker, and Stevenson 1988). However, parental involvement can backfire, for example, when parents place undue emphasis on school performance and the parent-child relationship is reduced to a "school" relationship (Hurrelmann 1991).

Peers, in addition to family and community, influence the expression of problem behaviors such as substance abuse, school misconduct, violence, and promiscuity. Adolescents who are rejected by normative peer groups may turn to drugs (Silbereisen et al. 1994). A disturbed family environment coupled with peer pressure can result in misconduct at school such as bullying of other students or disrupting the class. Parental styles and family structure may predispose certain adolescents to eschew normative peers and associate with deviant groups (Oswald and Süss 1994). Promiscuity and teen pregnancy are not widespread in Germany (Petersen et al. 1993). However, teen pregnancy can have lifelong consequences, since education and career are often postponed by teen parents.

Violence in German schools is a growing problem. More than half of the students in Hamburg schools reported witnessing violence, extortion, and sexual harassment in school ("Die rasten einfach aus" 1992). Further, it is estimated that 20 percent of secondary school students in Germany regularly carry a weapon to school ("Horror aus der Dose" 1991). Family and community problems contribute to the expression of violence. Economically shattered and ethnically segregated communities and schools form the backdrop of growing violence in Germany.

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[Secondary Education in the Life of German Adolescents - Part 1]

[Secondary Education in the Life of German Adolescents - References]