Parental socio-economic status as a determinant factor of academic performance of students in regional examination: A case of Dessie town, Ethiopia

Abstract

Parental socioeconomic status is among the widely cited factors that has strong association with academic performance of students. Explanatory research design was employed to assess the effects of parents’ socioeconomic status on the academic achievement of students in regional examination. A survey was conducted to collect data on regional examination result of 538 randomly selected students from thirteen junior secondary schools. The data were analysed using descriptive statistics and inferential statistics including percentage, independent samples t-tests, Spearman’s rho correlation and one way ANOVA. The results of the analysis revealed that socioeconomic status of parents (particularly educational level and occupational status of parents) has strong association with the academic performance of students. Students from educated and better off families have scored higher result in their regional examination than their counterparts. Being a single parent student and whether parents are living together or not have also a significant impact on the academic performance of students. Parents’ age did not have a significant association with the performance of students. It is recommended that further study with wider geographical area and including other variables should be undertaken so as to have a reliable result on the relation of student’s academic achievement and SES of parents.

Keywords: Socioeconomic status, academic achievement, parental educational level.