Academic Achievement
Future Family Research
The complexity of relationships between family background, family structure, parent-child interactions, and academic achievement indicates the difficult task confronting parents and teachers when attempting to design and implement programs to enhance children's academic outcomes. Parents and teachers may, for example, construct what they consider to be supportive and harmonious learning environments. Children's perceptions of those environments, however, may be affected adversely by experiences related to their family backgrounds and family structures. What is needed are investigations that examine how refined measures of within- and between-family cultural and social capital are related to the academic motivation and achievement of children with different family structures and from various social status and ethnic/racial group backgrounds. Only after such inclusive studies are completed—including a number of international contexts—will there be an advance in understanding of the relationships between families and academic achievement.
See also: BIRTH ORDER; CHILDREN OF ALCOHOLICS; COMMUNICATION: PARENT-CHILD RELATIONSHIPS; DEVELOPMENT: COGNITIVE; FAMILY LITERACY; GIFTED AND TALENTED CHILDREN; HOMESCHOOLING; LEARNING DISORDERS; ONLY CHILDREN; PARENTING STYLES; SCHOOL; SCHOOL PHOBIA AND SCHOOL REFUSAL; SIBLING RELATIONSHIPS; SINGLE-PARENT FAMILIES; SOCIOECONOMIC STATUS
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KEVIN MARJORIBANKS
Additional topics
Marriage and Family EncyclopediaPregnancy & ParenthoodAcademic Achievement - Family Influences, Family Background And Family Structure, International Research, Future Family Research