Middle‐School Homework Management: More than just gender and family involvement

The article links student and family characteristics, along with homework characteristics and homework purposes, to homework management as reported by 194 middle‐school students in Grades 5–6. The results revealed that homework management was not related to grade level, amount of parental education, time spent on homework, or extrinsic reasons for doing homework. However, girls and students who received family help reported more frequently managing their homework. In addition, homework interest and whether homework was a favorite activity were positively related to the use of homework management strategies, above and beyond gender and family help. Furthermore, intrinsic reasons for doing homework accounted for an additional, significant percentage of the variance in homework management, with higher levels of intrinsic reasons being positively associated with more frequent use of homework management strategies. Notes 1. The eligibility guidelines for free meals and reduced‐price meals were obtained by multiplying the Federal income poverty guidelines for 2001 by 1.30 and 1.85 respectively. 2. This survey item was adopted from the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 (Horn & West, Citation1992). 3. For example, 1 would be (0.00 + 0.49)/2 = 0.25 hour, and 2 would be (0.50 + 1.99)/2 = 1.25 hours. 4. The ACT is one of the USA's most widely accepted college entrance exams, covering the subject areas of English, maths, reading, science, and writing (optional).