THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SOCIOECONOMICS STATUS AND STUDENTS ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE
IN HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS
Chapter 1
THE PROBLEM AND ITS BACKGROUND
Rationale
The term “parents’ involvement” refers to all the objects, forces and conditions in the
dwelling house, which lure the child physically, intellectually and emotionally. Baker (2003) points out
that different home environments vary in many aspects such as the parents’ degree of education,
economic status, occupational status, spiritual background, attitudes, values, interests, parents’ future
expectation for their children, and family size among others. Parents’ involvement differs from one
family to another, and it affects children’s academic performance differently. Where things like gifts,
prizes and their favorite/desirable places provided make positive reinforcement in children and generate
higher performance. Parental involvement is also seen as one component of learning institution for the
children.
Academic achievement refers to the level of schooling in which students have successfully
completed and their ability to attain success in their studies (Larocque et al., 2011). It is commonly
measured through examinations or continuous assessments, but there is no general agreement on how
it is best evaluated or which aspect involves procedural knowledge, such as skills, or declarative
knowledge, such as facts. The importance of parents’ participation is very obvious from the fact that it
increases the knowledge and interest of child in academic activities. Moreover, MetLife (2005) states
that children show better academic results when their parents are enthusiastically involved and support
their learning.
The impact of parental involvement on student academic achievement has been
recognized by teachers, administrators, and policy-makers who consider parental involvement to be one
of the integral parts of new educational reforms and initiatives. The finding of a recent study
revealed a strong relationship between parental involvement and academic achievement of students
(Ambachew, Amare, & Geleta, 2018). It is believed that the relationship between parental involvement
and academic achievement is impacted by various factors. Some of the most prominent, and thus most
frequently investigated factors, include ethnicity, prior achievement, and socio-economic status (Kohl et
al., 2000).Therefore, studies that manage to control for the effect of some of these variables, although
rare, are valuable and able to provide a more realistic picture of the effect of parental involvement on
student achievement. For example, after controlling for child’s ability, socio-economic status, and
ethnicity, Zellman and Waterman’s (1998) findings indicated a significant positive correlation
between parental in-school involvement and students’ reading scores.
Additionally, after controlling for children’s intelligence, Topor, Keane, Shelton, and Calkins
(2010) reported that parental involvement was significantly related to academic performance and
children’s perception of cognitive competence. It should be noted that in this particular study parental
involve-ment was measured by teachers’ perceptions of positive attitudes parents had toward their
children’s education, teachers, and schools. It did not, however, take into account any wider view of
parental involvement in school or at home, hence casting a shadow of doubt on validity of the results.
Similar concerns were raised regarding Izzo, Weissberg, Kasprow, and Fendrich (1999) study results that
indicates that parental involvement is a significant predictor of student academic
achievement.Problem arose when some of the reported significant correlations became non-
significant once the previous student performance was controlled. These studies are just a few examples
indicating that, as is often the case with complex phenomena, the findings related to parental
involvement are frequently full of inconsistencies.
The general objective of this study was to examine the relationship between parental
involvement on students’ academic achievement on grade 12 Humss students' in Cangawa National High
School.
