Perceived academic performance as a function of parents' employment status

Abstract

The family constitutes an essential nucleus of school praxis, due to its leading role in the integral development of individuals from birth to very advanced ages. Hence, several family variables have been considered as indicators of school performance, but one of the least studied is work activity. The main objective of this non-experimental quantitative study was to analyse the relationship between the employment of the father and mother and their perception of their children's school performance in a sample of 407 Spanish families whose children were enrolled in the second stage of primary education in 6 schools (4 public and 2 private-controlled). Data were obtained using an ad hoc questionnaire with optimal psychometric properties, in which school performance is defined on the basis of the level of satisfaction, study environment, work and effort, report card evaluation, expectations, academic motivation and a general assessment of the child's performance. In general, the findings confirm that the work occupation of both fathers and mothers has a significant impact on their perception of their children's academic performance. Based on the results, we conclude the need to deepen the relationship between the family context and academic performance from broad and innovative perspectives of both variables.