Good grades: the importance of the family in school performance
When children are in Primary Education, a fundamental stage for their personal development, we must take advantage of these years to establish their cultural, social and human skills. However, more and more professionals and studies show that the influence of the family, of the parents, is decisive in the school performance of children and therefore, in their bad or good grades.
It depends more on you than on school, that your child is motivated to learn and to acquire knowledge and skills. It is useless for your child to go to the "best colleague in the world" if there are no appropriate educational and emotional conditions at home.
The influence of the family on the school performance of children
The influence of the family, of the parents, the climate of communication, understanding, affection, responsibility, perseverance, the environment is decisive for your child to develop an integral personality, that goes well academically and that is reflected in the report card.
This conclusion is supported by many experts, pedagogues, psychologists and teachers. But the most curious thing is that recently, a work has shown through statistical analysis techniques, that family variables are more effective in academic results than school variables.
To this end, the results in mathematics and language have been used by the 15-year-old Spanish students evaluated in the PISA Project (Program for International Student Assessment) of the OECD.
Family variables that influence school performance
The study The importance of the family in school performance, carried out by the professor of Economics at the Complutense University of Madrid, Daniel Santín, analyzes the main educational factors that determine the school performance, such as the student himself, his family, the chosen center and the companions. In addition, other essential variables are analyzed, such as the educational level of the parents, the resources available in the home or if there are differences in results between students located in different family structures (nuclear, single parent, mixed family, etc.).
The study reveals several significant conclusions regarding school performance:
• Family variables they are much more determinant than the school ones when it comes to explaining the academic result, that is, the student's grades.
• The motivation of the student, the effort, the teaching methods and the attention and vigilance that the student receives from his family, represent a very important part of the school results.
• The reduction of school failure it would be achieved through an increase in student reading levels; in the number of teachers per hundred students; and in the number of hours in the home devoted to homework.
• There are significant differences according to the family structure in which the student lives. The nuclear family (father, mother and children) has the best results in school performance.
Family structures: how they influence school performance
The family structure in which the child lives also influences him positively or negatively. The study finds that the child who lives in a nuclear family, gets higher returns, while the category of "other families" is where the student gets a lower school performance.
In mathematics, the second place is for single-parent families, followed closely by mixed families. In contrast, in reading, this result changes, passing the mixed family structure to take second place.
Nuclear family: when the child coexists habitually and simultaneously with both biological parents.
Single parent family: when the child habitually lives alone with one of his two biological parents.
Mixed family: when the child coexists habitually and simultaneously with one of his biological parents and his / her partner.
Other forms of family: when the child habitually lives in a family structure different from the previous ones.
Alejandra Márquez
