Psychological determinants of homeschooling

The aim of the study was to analyze the psychological determinants of starting homeschooling by parents towards their school-age children. We analyzed the dependence of this decision on personality traits according to the Big Five, anxiety as a trait, hope trait and factors such as political and religious views or parents’ own school experiences. A comparative analysis has been made with parents whose children attend public primary schools. We used Hope for Success Questionnaire (Łaguna, Trzebiński & Zięba, 2005), State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (Wrześniewski, Sosnowski, Jaworowska & Fecenec, 2011), IPIP-BFM-20 Questionnaire (Topolewska, Skimina, Strus, Cieciuch & Rowiński, 2014), questions about homeschooling and demographics. Stronger hope for success, ability to find solutions, willpower, emotional stability and intellect, lower anxiety and conscientiousness were observed in parents undertaking homeschooling compared to parents of school children. A qualitative analysis was also conducted on the declaration of reasons for undertaking homeschooling. The article ends with recommendations for further empirical research.