Parental Attachment and Internalizing and Externalizing Problems of Israeli School-Goers and Homeschoolers

The increased scope and percentage of children being homeschooled raise questions about the impact of this framework on the child's world. One of the issues that has not been adequately studied with regard to homeschooling is whether the emotional and personal problems of parents have greater impact on children who are homeschooled. The present research, conducted in Israel, examined this question from the perspective of attachment theory, which focuses on how people relate to intimate relationships. Previous research has shown an association between the attachment of parents and emotional and behavioral characteristics of their children. Against this background, the present research compared a group of homeschooling mothers and children with a group of mothers who sent their children to school (a total of 101 children; mean age, 9.2 years). These groups did not differ in age and socioeconomic status. The comparison focused on variables beyond these and also considered the degree of structure of the homeschooling practiced. The findings indicated a correlation between mother's attachment anxiety and internalizing and externalizing problems of the child. However, no correlation was found between attachment avoidance and these problems, and no difference was found between the two groups in terms of these correlations. The results contribute, among other things, to understanding the association between homeschooling and behavioral and emotional problems.