Family background is the main influence on academic achievement

I am here :) Thank you for the answer! Yes, I will agree with you that we can"t "quantify culpability in decision making", it is impossible and it depends on each person. But only one thing, which everybody has from the very beginning of the life, is a family. Family is our genes, and also IQ. Your arguments only prove that family has a big influence: "So much information is encoded within our genes" " but we get it from our parents, family. And I see, you agree that SES influence on academics, because of "There is of course a strong correlation between SES and education in both directions." I like your example with infants " "transferring an infant from a family having low SES to a home where parents have high SES improves childhood IQ scores" " it only demonstrates the influence of SES on child"s mental development. Thanks! Some new evidences: Ajila and Olutola (2007) agree that home affects the person since it is a first socializing agent in his life. Parents and child"s experience at home play huge roles in molding the personality of the child. Qaiser Suleman et al. (2012) write that "Family is regarded as a social institution because it is an area of human social life that is organized in discernible pattern and because it helps in achieving important societal goals" Also, environment inside home is the main socializing agent, which affects ambitions and interests. It is important that the student"s academic performance is associated with family background. According to Vashist (1993) "a problematic child generally comes from a problematic home". Families with a big amount of domestic issues badly effect on academic performance of the student. Qaiser Suleman et al. (2012) give the information that sometimes family members can be "illiterate and contentious", and they can create the problem from the ordinary issue, which leads to child"s depression and poor academic performance. Ichado (1998) also claims that parent"s constant disagreement can lead to bad academic performance. So, research made by Qaiser Suleman et al. (2012) proves: Table 08: Performance Yes No TOTAL X2 High Academic Performance 011 069 080 133.79* Normal Academic Performance 026 104 130 Low Academic Performance 118 032 150 TOTAL 155 205 360 Table 08 illustrates that the calculated value of X2 was found to be 135.76 which is statistically significant because it is greater than the table value of X2 at 0.05 level. Hence the hypothesis that "there is significant effect of domestic issues and tension among the family members on the academic performance of the students" is not rejected. It shows that domestic issues and tension among the family members badly affects the student‟s academic performance. In turn, good academic performance is a result of a home tuition and a peaceful environment. Students from socialized and favorable families show excellent academic performance. Also, according to research by Qaiser Suleman et al. (2012) : Table 05: Performance Yes No TOTAL X2 High Academic Performance 073 007 080 163.74* Normal Academic Performance 094 036 130 Low Academic Performance 019 131 150 TOTAL 186 174 360 Table 05 illustrates that the calculated value of X2 was found to be 163.74 which is statistically significant because it is greater than the table value of X2 at 0.05 level. Hence the hypothesis that "there is significant effect of home tuition on the academic performance of the students" is not rejected. It shows that students whose parent‟s have arranged tuition at home show excellent academic performance. So, these statements and researches clearly demonstrate the close relationship between family, members of family, home environment and academic performance. 2. a. Again about SES: as we came into consensus in this case I only want to add that according to research by White (1982), there is a definite relation between SES and academic achievement, which means that if one factor is increased the other also increases. b. Family size also has a significant effect on academic achievement. Smaller family size is one of the reasons of high academic performance. In this case child gets more parents" attention and participation comparing with another child who has to share parents" attention with brothers and sisters. It is fact that parents of many children cannot afford to share quality time with them. So, parents with one, two or maximum three children will be able to increase their children"s academic potentials. c. Haveman & Wolfe (1995) reveal that parent"s education plays important role in academic achievement, too. Students, whose father or mother has high level of education, show good performance. Also is known that mother"s level of education has a 20 % higher affect on academic performance than father"s education level. If mother is well-educated and has high self-esteem, her child will show successful academic performance. This interrelation between socio-economic status, family size, parents" education and academic performance shows different but huge influence, either positive or negative, on academic achievement. After examining all the evidences, it will be rightly said that "like begets like". Lovely family environment, educated parents, high social status will positively affect on student"s academic performance. And vice versa, unfavorable home environment, domestic issues, lack of parents" attention because of large family will negatively influence the student. Clearly noticeable the huge influence of family background on person"s social place and his possibilities to achieve success, particularly, in academic performance. I still think that exactly family is the biggest influence and stimulus for getting or not different achievements, including academic achievement. So..