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.

The article analyzes how personality determines the civic activity of young voters in Poland. To check this, empirical research combining Big Five traits (extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional stability, intellect) and, unlike other studies, four types of civic activity (social commitment, political participation, electoral participation, individual political activity) was conducted. The OLS regression analysis revealed a significant effect of extraversion on most manifestations of civic activity. Those who score higher on this trait were more likely to involve in individual political activity, social commitment, and political participation. Moreover, intellect was associated with individual political activity, while emotional stability had no significant impact on civic activity. The study also discovered some dependencies with the other Big Five traits. Agreeableness positively influenced social commitment and electoral participation, while conscientiousness increased political participation.