Family's Influence On A Child's Educational Success Free Essay Example

19/08/2020 Family's Influence on a Child's Educational Success Free Essay Example
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Family's In uence on a Child's Educational

Success
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Paper type: Essay Pages: 11 (2706 words)
Categories: Child, College, Education, Family, High school, Higher Education, In uence, School,
Success
The family is a key element in every person’s life; they have the greatest impact on a
child’s socialization (Macionis 70). Socialization is a learned behavior that remains with a
person his entire life. Family in uences nearly every aspect of children’s life, including
their education. Increasing evidence indicates that “schools are not solely responsible for
promoting our young people’s academic success; rather, families must be engaged in
helping youths develop the knowledge and skills they need to function in tomorrow’s
workplace” (Israel 43).
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Therefore, the question is not whether parents in uence education, but rather how and
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parenting techniques, and the family’s economic status.
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Why do some parents become involved in their children’s elementary and secondary
education? Three major constructs are believed to be central to parents’ basic
involvement decisions. First, a parents’ role construction de nes parents’ beliefs about
what they are supposed to do in their children’s education and appears to establish the
basic range of activities that parents construe as important, necessary, and permissible
for their own actions with and on behalf of children.
Second, parents’ sense of e cacy for helping their children succeed in school focuses on
the extent to which parents believe that through their involvement they can exert
positive in uence on their children’s educational outcomes. Third, general invitations,
demands, and opportunities for involvement refer to parents’ perceptions that the child
and school want them to be involved. However, even well-designed school programs
inviting involvement will meet with only limited success if they do not address issues of
parental role construction and parental sense of e cacy for helping children succeed in
school.
One theory suggests that the chief reason why a student’s family life a ects his/her
education is based on the size of the family. More speci cally, it suggests that those
coming from a family with fewer children perform better academically than those coming
from a family with many children. One main reason for this is attributed to the “dilution
of familial resources available to children in large families and a concentration of such
resources in small ones” (Blake 11). For example, in families with many children the
parents have less time, less emotional and physical energy, less attention to give, and less
ability to interact with children as individuals (Blake 11). Another reason that attention
may be diluted is because of the many siblings. Often the mother is pregnant or
recovering from pregnancy, which lessens her ability to care for the children. In addition,
money is also often diluted. Blake says of that:
This type of dilution involves not only the parents’ treatment of individual children–the
ability to provide personal living space, cultural advantages such as travel, specialized
instruction such as music lessons, specialized medical or dental care, as well as
continuous and advanced schooling–but, as well, to provide settings the advantages of
which are not divisible: living in a desirable neighborhood, or having a wide range of
excellent reading material or recorded music in the house. (11)
This suggests that children coming from a poor background are already at an educational
disadvantage, possibly even before any formal schooling occurs. Travel enables a child to
become a more cosmopolitan person and teaches children about the di erent cultures
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Other problems are associated with large families as well. A study by Lori Heise and Jane
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Roberts showed that children from large families don’t interact with others outside the
family group as much as those in a smaller family, which can limit their understanding of
certain social roles (Blake 11). It also places them at a disadvantage in school, where they
make not have many friends or feel “left out.” This can lead to poor grades. This is so
because the child may become depressed and nd it hard to focus on schoolwork.
Without friends to greet them, many times the child chooses not to even go to school.
In addition, in families where lots of children are around, the intellectual level may be
more “childlike,” so kids aren’t exposed to adult conversation, vocabulary, and interests
(Blake 11). The children spend most of their time playing with other children. In a family
with one or few children, the child often has no other choice than to play with their
parent/s.
Similarly, the older siblings may often baby-sit or be treated as the “adult gure,”
meaning that the parents are not as involved. The older children are often expected to
help take care of his or her brothers or sisters. The parents are not home as often when a
babysitter is available.
Having a large family can also lead to nancial burden and in turn a burden on the child’s
academic success. It is often thought that income does not a ect one’s education until
college; after all, education until that point is free. Studies have shown otherwise. It was
found that only-child boys were twice as likely to graduate from high school as boys from
families of seven or more, and the same holds true for girls (Blake 41). Of the graduates,
there is again a large gap between the two groups for college attendance (meaning that
children without siblings are much more likely to attend college than those from large
families).
However, the distinction is not as large as in high school graduation rates. Once in
college, family size has a relatively small e ect on the number of years of college
schooling a student receives (Blake 45). This indicates that the higher the level of
schooling, the less family size is in uential. Blake suggests that this is due to the many
from large families who drop out of school and who are retained multiple times (Blake
45).
One study shows that students coming from a small family do better on achievement
test. Twenty-seven percent of boys in grades 1-5 with ve siblings or more scored below
average on these tests. Compare that number to the twenty percent of boys in the same
grade level who were only children (Blake 262). As the number of siblings in the family
increased, his or her score on the test decreased.
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Having many brothers and sisters could also be seen as bene cial to students, especially
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if a child is the youngest. Parents have often graduated twenty years prior to when their
children are attending school. Therefore, they may not remember the material in order to
help their children. Older brothers and sisters, on the other hand, would be more familiar
with the subjects and could tutor their siblings. Therefore, students could improve by
having a large family. While this theory of family size a ecting one’s education is valid and
holds true in many cases, it is not solid enough to be the sole explanation.
A second explanation as to why family plays such a large role in education is parenting
techniques.
Problems of school adjustment such as academic failure, underachievement, and

disciplinary problems often arise from a combination of information-processing
di culties, attention-de cit disorders, school or performance anxiety, and low
motivation. These problems in turn have been linked to speci c domains of family life
(e.g., family con ict, communication, and organization). (Medway and Ca erty 137)
Studies have shown that many of the problems that children have in schools are
associated with di erent parenting styles. Learning disabilities, poor task orientation,
attention de cits, and low academic achievement can be caused by an unstable family
life, where con icts are handled through threats, counter-threats, and poor
communication (Medway and Ca erty 138). Parents of children with disabilities are found
to be more authoritarian and controlling than parents of “normal” children. Problems of
underachievement in schooling can be attributed to parent-child con icts, low levels of
parental availability, and lack of openness between the parent and child. Studies have
shown that students with performance anxiety, procrastination, and passive aggressive
behavior in school are likely to come from over organized families, where parents are
overprotective, restrictive, intrusive, controlling, and dominating (Medway and Ca erty
138).
According to psychologist Glenn Israel, a more recent study produced similar results,
stressing that parents should help their children with their homework, discuss important
school activities with them, and hold high educational aspirations for them (48). They
should also limit television viewing, provide adult supervision when their children come
home from school, and monitor homework. Doing so was proven to result in better
academic performance and staying in school (Israel 48).
Other causes for students to perform better in school involves the child’s social behavior,
which are a re ection of the family, particularly the parents. For example, children who
move frequently are generally unable to feel integrated in the community’s social
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in (scouts, religious
a liations, etc), the greater his/ her socialization skills. Better socialization skills can in
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turn be linked to better school performance (Israel 49).
Parenting techniques contribute largely to a child’s academic performance, though this

theory is probably the least credible of the three. It is obvious that a parent’s behavior
a ects his/her child, and their education, but the evidence was too stereotypical. It is
outrageous to assume that because a child has a learning disability he/ she comes from
an unstable home life. There are many other reasons that in uence that, including
biology and genetics. However, I strongly agree with the socialization aspects of this
argument.
Dr. Urie Bronfenbrenner says, “Children are most signi cantly in uenced by their
parents; therefore, if parents have few friends and are uninvolved in community
activities, children are likely to be the same way” (40). Socialization de nitely plays a role
in academic performance, especially at the age of adolescence, when “ tting in” is so
important to students (Bronfenbrenner 40). It is also obvious that parents playing a role
in their child’s education is bene cial. Students need the motivation to perform well. If
they don’t receive it, they will not be as successful. True as this may be, parenting
technique is not the sole answer to this question of how parenting styles a ect a child’s
academic success.
The third reason often used to explain the connection between family life and a student’s
education is the economic position of the student’s family. Children often base their goals
on their parents’ achievements.
A study showed that while all parents would like their children to receive high levels of
education and a prestigious career, low-income parents seem to set lower standards.
They are satis ed with lower levels of education and less prestigious jobs
Students from lower-income families su er other disadvantages as well. Economic

hardship and stress have been known to a ect the relationship between the parent and
child. In addition, if the socioeconomic status of the student is low, the amount of
parental support, control, and consistency is often low as well. A study by Saucier and
Ambert revealed, “Adolescents from intact families have been found to be more
optimistic about the future than those from homes in which there has been a separation,
divorce, or parental death” (Brantlinger 154).
The amount of parental involvement with education was also found to vary with income.
Most students studied claim that their parents attended conferences and activities in
elementary school, but there became a gap during junior high and high school. High-
income
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This could be a result of the education the parents had received.
After all, low-income parents had often dropped out of school prior to graduation, while
high-income parents had high-levels of educational attainment (Brantlinger 156). A study
by Carlos Torres and Theodore Mitchell showed that powerful more a uent parents
played a signi cant role in maintaining a “…hierarchical track structure…” for their child.
These parents ensured that their children did well in school. This was made achievable
possibly through extra help, tutoring, and increasing the pressure placed on the child to
do well (163).
Family size and parenting techniques can be related to wealth di erences. For example,
the smaller the family, the higher the proportion of the income can be spent on the
child(ren). Those with better parenting techniques also have a higher economic standing
than other parents. Better parenting methods can be linked to the parents having
received a higher education. In turn, they often have more money.
While it was found that family size and parenting techniques a ect one’s education, it is
merely because of wealth. For example, it is not the actual number of people in the
family, but the amount of money the family has because of the number of members.
Economics are the key factor as to why one’s family life a ects one’s education, and it’s a
cycle. Children often grow up to be in the same economic class as the family he came
from. Therefore, if a parent didn’t attend college, the student is less likely to (Shumow
37).
So why does one’s family life a ect his education. The answer can be summed up in one
word: money.
So what can we do about this problem? How can we give economically disadvantaged
children a good education? There are several options: For one state funding for poorer
schools could be increased. Also, if poor communities applied for grants, they could use
them to fund their schools. There are also programs out there to help poor schools. The
SETA Head Start Program and the Equity in Education Project were developed for the
purpose of improving the lives of low-income children by providing “quality,
comprehensive, child development services that are family focused, including education,
health, nutrition, and mental health” (Head Start Home Page Screen 1.) By getting
communities involved and educated about programs such as these it is very possible to
prevent educational disadvantages like coming from a low-income household or
neighborhood.
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school. In a study by Abt Associates, researchers examined the performance of children

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in high- and low-poverty schools. High-poverty schools were de ned as those with 76% or
more of the student body eligible for free or reduced-price lunches; low-poverty schools
had 20% or less of the student body eligible for federally subsidized lunches. The
researchers rst divided the students into categories A, B, C, or D–depending on what
grade they commonly took home on their report cards.
Then they looked at performance on achievement tests. Students in low-poverty schools

who got A’s on their report cards scored as one would expect: 87th percentile in math,
81st in reading. Students in high-poverty schools who got A’s scored higher than their
classmates who got lower grades, but they attained only the 36th percentile in reading
and the 35th in math (Cirasulo 44). One can only imagine the sledgehammer that will hit
these students when they have to compete with students from more a uent schools.
What is so depressing about this is the fact that education is the only way to get out of
poverty. Education is the only intervention that can help children from poor families
escape the cycle. In addition to giving young people basic skills, education can make them
aware of opportunities beyond the ghetto. The few who escape the problems of crime,
drugs, prostitution, and unwed motherhood are those who have received help from
committed teachers and social workers. Schools cannot create jobs or carry all the
burdens of a community, but they can make a vital contribution if they are allowed to
focus on their primary mission of education.
Teachers do not create jobs for poor people, and they cannot erase the damage done by
drugs. Granted, schools cannot take on all the burdens of the communities they serve;
they should be allowed to focus on what they insist is their reason for existence — the
education of children. When it comes to the educational success of a child, money should
never be a factor. Unfortunately money is a factor and there is never enough to ful ll the
needs of a child.
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19/08/2020 Family's Influence on a Child's Educational Success Free Essay Example

Family's In uence on a Child's Educational

Views: 510 Downloads: 14

Paper type: Essay Pages: 11 (2706 words)

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Read more: actors that in uence child development essay

Problems of school adjustment such as academic failure, underachievement, and

Parenting techniques contribute largely to a child’s academic performance, though this

Students from lower-income families su er other disadvantages as well. Economic

school. In a study by Abt Associates, researchers examined the performance of children

Then they looked at performance on achievement tests. Students in low-poverty schools

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