The Relationship of Children's Academic Achievement to Social Status and Family Learning Environment

Abstract

Hierarchical regression analyses and response surfaces were used to examine interrelationships among social status, family learning environment, and children's academic achievement. Data were collected from 11-year-old Australian children (447 girls and 471 boys) and their parents. Family environment was assessed by using home interviews to measure the aspirations of parents and their instrumental and affective educational orientations. The unique contribution of family environment to variation in achievement scores was relatively small when compared to the contribution of social status—a finding which suggests that much previous environmental research may have generated inflated measures of association between family learning environments and children's academic achievement.