Family and Personal Correlates of Academic Achievement

Abstract

Researchers and educators raise the question of whether pupils' academic performance can be improved through parental involvement in academic activities. The main objective of the following study is to verify whether parental involvement in school activities and family socioeconomic status are associated with children's academic achievement. 150 Spanish seventh grade pupils completed intelligence tests, and their teachers assessed parents' involvement in the school and estimated parents' cultural levels. To measure academic achievement the pupil's overall grade was taken from the Pupils' Final Evaluation Registers. The education and professional level of the mother and father and home size were obtained from the Pupil Personal Register; these variables define the family socioeconomic status. The data, analyzed through application of structural equations, suggest that academic achievement is directly influenced by the cultural level of the family and the child's intelligence but is indirectly influenced by parental involvement in school activities and the socioeconomic status of the child's family.

Implications of Advancing Paternal Age: Does It Affect Offspring School Performance?

“…There is an extensive literature investigating the overlap between intelligence and educational achievement [18], [19], but academic outcomes are influenced by numerous factors, such as school and family environment [36], [37] and personality traits [38], [39]. Our null findings, therefore, may indicate that the rearing environment provided by older fathers compensates for any subtle neurocognitive impairments in offspring, meaning that any such effects are not translated into reduced educational attainment.…”

Academic performance of opposite-sex and same-sex twins in adolescence: A Danish national cohort study

“…Academic achievement is different from abilities and potentially more likely to be influenced by environmental/social factors (Bacete and Remirez, 2001). However, a high correlation (.70 to .74 in average) between standardised achievement tests and IQ had been shown (Naglieri and Bornstein, 2003), and the correlation between IQ and national achievement tests, such as the test used here, have similar correlations among 12-year-old school children (Bartels et al, 2002).…”

Nature, nurture and academic achievement: A twin study of teacher assessments of 7‐year‐olds

“…Behavioural genetic studies also provide important information about environmental influences. Home environment influences on individual differences in academic achievement have traditionally been explored using family structure variables such as socioeconomic status, parental education, and family size (Bacete & Remirez, 2001;McDermott, 1995;Reynolds & Lee, 1991), and family process variables such as parental expectations and family affective climate (Christenson, Rounds, & Gorney, 1993;Menaghan, Kowaleski-Jones, & Mott, 1997). Such environmental factors would be shared by two children growing up in the same family and are called shared environmental influences, as contrasted with nonshared environmental influences that do not contribute to resemblance between children in the same family (Plomin, Asbury, & Dunn, 2001b).…”