There have been many studies to prove that parent’s level of education and income that is also addressed as ‘socioeconomic status, has great impacts on a child’s success. School children of parents from higher socioeconomic status, have better academic performance and as a result, they tend to go up higher with their studies. In a recent study published, it also suggested that children whose parents are involved in their school life tend to perform better than their peers.
On the contrary, children from lower income group families have fewer chances to get an education similar to their wealthier classmates. It is very uncommon for such student to continue further with their studies after graduation and thereby, become less qualified professionals in their fields. A vicious cycle where inequality is reproduced again and again.
The study, however, also revealed that this cycle can very well be broken and a child can be provided with a better future. And a lot of it depends on the child’s family and their involvement with the child in his or her studies. The more active are the parents, the better is the child’s performance, which means a broader aspect of education for the child.
The researchers mention that a family’s interest in their child’s school life helps the child in overcoming inequality in education. The higher levels of parental involvement erase the difference in success with children from families with the difference in economic status.
Parent’s activities and approach towards the school decide whether the child will pursue higher education or not. Families those were less involved in their child’s academics, 13.5% of wealthy parents did not want their child to study further, whereas, the figure was whooping 50% with low-income parents.
To further analyze the link between a parent’s involvement in academics and their child’s grades, the researches were further able to classify levels of parental activities. At an ‘O’ level, when the family is never at all involved, the child is typically in the ‘C’ or ‘D’ grades.
The study conducted on a mass scale revealed that only a very few percentages of parents have very high levels of involvement. This level is categorized by parents actually involved to the level of decision-making participation in the school’s management and participate in educational policies of the school. The percentage is as low as 3.4% and these are highly educated parents who hold PhDs or higher management positions. In such families, children hold the highest academic levels.
At an average, parents are involved with the children by helping them with their homework, and also volunteer in organizing different events in the school. The academic achievement of children of such parents is higher than their counterparts, whose parents are just involved only with the basics, as per the research.
The results of this research were published in the Journal of Educational Studies.