Parental Investment in Children's Education: a TREE study

PICE Study

PICE Studie Überblick

PICE is a TREE (Transitions from Education to Employment) in-depth project that deals with the educational pathways of young adults and is particularly interested in how they are accompanied by their families on their way to professional life:
The project was funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation from 01.08.2019 to 31.12.2022 (Parental Investment in Children’s Education (PICE) in Migrant Families in Switzerland (snf.ch), grant number 100019_184906.) and investigates what educational aspirations young people in Switzerland have and whether or how these are supported by their parents. What resources do families have and what strategies are successful? For example, for families with a migrant background it is often difficult to support their children because of language barriers, less familiarity with the Swiss school system or fear of discrimination.

What resources do families have and what strategies are successful? If certain resources are lacking, it can be difficult for families to support their children. Families with a migration background often face additional difficulties in this context; for instance, due to language barriers, less familiarity with the school system or fear of discrimination.

To answer these questions, the PICE team analysed data from the research project TREE2, which is closely linked to the PICE study.  These data were collected in a standardised survey with about 9,000 young people and allow representative assessments. Of these respondents, PICE was able to conduct in-depth qualitative interviews with 71 young adults and 48 parents. In the following year, 39 parents were interviewed again. These interviews were carefully anonymised and documented. This combination of standardized TREE data on the one hand, and qualitative interviews on the other, allows a more complete and deeper analysis than is usual in most research projects. Detailed documentation as well as the anonymised data are available for scientific purposes  (SwissUbase). 
PICE contributes to answering the question of how young adults and their families can be better supported on their way into working life on a societal and educational policy level.