The level of parents’ education as a factor of students’ academic achievements: A systematic literature review
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.33910/2686-9527-2024-6-4-523-533Keywords:
academic achievements, preschoolers, school students, university students, educational level of parents, systematic literature reviewAbstract
Introduction. Today, there is irrefutable evidence that there are direct correlations between the level of parents’ education and academic achievements of their children. However, the underlying psychological mechanisms are described fragmentally, despite their importance in terms of the efforts aimed at improving the educational level of parents in order to enhance academic achievements of their children. Our study seeks to summarize information about factors that determine the contribution of parents’ educational level to their children’s academic achievements.
Materials and Methods. The sources for systematic review were selected with the key phrases ‘education of parents’ and ‘academic achievements’ / ‘academic performance’ in the databases eLibrary, Google Scholar and PubMed according to the following criteria: 1) there is access to the full-text version or a detailed abstract; 2) the article contains results of an empirical or secondary (meta-analytical) study; 3) the language of publication is either Russian or English; and 4) the article is a peer-reviewed scientific publication. The initial data set contained 452 articles, but only 39 were included in the review.
Results. We identified three groups of factors that may determine the contribution of parents’ educational level to students’ academic achievements: cognitive and non-cognitive characteristics of students and their parents (intellectual, motivational, regulatory, reflective, etc.); characteristics of child-parent relations (academic involvement of parents, their expectations regarding the academic achievements of children, etc.); and the social status of the family, reflecting the family’s position in the system of social relations (income level, belonging to a racial or ethnic majority/minority, etc.).
Conclusions. Future research could involve empirical verification of the hypothesis that these factors mediate the relationships between parents’ education and their children’s academic achievements in the context of studying the trajectories of educational socialization at different educational levels. The results of such verification will be significant for improving the effectiveness of educational work with parents aimed at promoting the academic achievements of students.
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