Family socioeconomic status and parental expectations affect mathematics achievement in a national sample of Chilean students

Abstract

Family socioeconomic status (SES) has a significant influence on children’s academic success and is related to parents’ attitudes toward education. Moreover, according to the expectancy-value theory, parental expectations are linked to their children’s perceptions of school, which, in turn, influences the way their children invest themselves in education. In this study, we aimed to test a part of the theorical expectancy-value family socialization model that links family SES and parental expectations and explore their influences on children’s mathematics self-concept and achievement. This study was conducted in the Chilean context, which is characterized by strong neoliberal educational policies that induce a strong relationship between family economic resources and children’s educational trajectories. We utilized a longitudinal design, and our study sample ( N = 157,814 Chilean students) came from a national assessment that was conducted from 2007 to 2013 when students were in their 4th, 8th, and 10th grades. Our results showed that, while controlling for children’s previous mathematics achievement, their final mathematics achievement was influenced by children’s mathematics self-concept, the family socioeconomic and educational context, and parental expectations regarding their children’s academic achievement. Our findings also highlighted that Chilean parents base their expectations on parents’ capacity to support their children’s education as much as on their children’s previous academic achievement.

Parental attitudes toward School and Chinese Adolescents’ Academic Performance: A Moderated Mediation Model

“…Unexpectedly, family SES was not associated with the test scores, which is inconsistent with many previous studies (e.g., Hascoet et al, 2021; Zhang et al, 2020). However, this result may be unreliable despite the large sample.…”

“…Specifically, the current sample came from the same middle school, which means that the range of family SES in this study is probably not representative of the population. The studies that found positive associations between family SES and academic achievement collected data from several schools from different cities (Hascoet et al, 2021; Zhang et al, 2020). Meanwhile, we found that one study collected data from one school and showed that family SES was weakly correlated with test scores ( p = .05) (Ren et al, 2021).…”

“…Family SES refers to the social position defined according to the social resources possessed by a family in society, including income, education, and occupational status as the most widely accepted measures (Conger & Donnellan, 2007). Previous studies have shown that adolescents with high family SES have better psychological suzhi and better academic performance (Cheng et al, 2018;Hascoet et al, 2021;Zhang et al, 2020). Moreover, family SES likely affects the functioning of PAS.…”

“…Existing evidence has found that PAS, family SES and psychological suzhi have impacts on academic performance (Liu et al, 2019b; Hascoet et al, 2021; Zhang et al, 2020). However, to our knowledge, no study has addressed two questions: a) whether the three components of psychological suzhi play unique mediating roles between PAS and academic performance and b) whether family SES moderates the effect of PAS on psychological suzhi and academic performance.…”

Student Motivation and Parental Attitude as Mediators for SES Effects on Mathematics Achievement: Evidence from Norway in TIMSS 2015

“…The authors found that their results varied somewhat across cultures. Drawing on Eccles' expectancy-value theory, Hascoët et al (2021) examined the effects of parents' expectations and found attitudes as an expression of expectations, mediating the effects that underlying expectations have on parenting and, in turn, on outcomes. They also established a link between parental attitudes and children's positive self-concept.…”