Washington Homeschool Research Project 1986

To include or not include.....
Well I did read it and found it interesting so I guesse we'll add it.
This scientific study was incredibly interesting, I just wish it had been more recent.
If I ever have the chance to finish my degree it would definetly be a consideration when doing my own thesis.
Their lies a potential for a lot of bias to be included in this study but there are so many more avenues this study brings up for further research. It really had me going back to my Psychology roots and branching off with ideas (which I think may have bored my mother who was visiting).
There were a few key points that I found really interesting, some not so surprising.
In a study of 224 homeschoolers "the self-concept of homeschool youth was SIGNIFICANTLY higher than that of conventional youth".
When trying to ascertain the reasons why people choose homeschooling for their families, these seven reasons were given in order of popularity.
1. Religion or Philosophy
2. Avoid Peer pressure
3. Greater parent0child contact
4. Enables better self-concept
5. Avoid peer competition
6. More personalized learning
7. Accomplish more academically
They then commented on how it is easy to speculate a connection between these reasons and the high self-concept of home schooled youth. The popluar reasons related more to social/emotional/relational factors than they did to academic reasoning.