Predictors of educational aspirations of Roma mothers in Czech Republic, Greece, and Portugal

Abstract

Roma communities are a disadvantaged minority in Europe which is particularly underrepresented in social and educational research. This study aimed to investigate the predictors of Roma mothers’ educational aspirations for their children in the Czech Republic, Greece, and Portugal. Participants included 461 mothers with a Roma background (135 from the Czech Republic, 130 from Greece, and 196 from Portugal), with a child between 3 to 6 (n = 181) or 9 to 12 (n = 280) years old. Data were based on mothers’ reports, obtained during a structured in-person interview. Material deprivation (microsystem level), frequency and quality of interactions with non-Roma parents, as well as the quality of parent-teacher interactions (mesosystem level), predicted Roma mothers’ educational aspirations. Findings suggest that, in addition to microsystemic variables such as material deprivation, mesosystemic predictors such as those examining contact with non-Roma parents may play an important role in shaping Roma mothers’ educational aspirations and need to be further examined.