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

Oct 15, 2026

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Parental socioeconomic status is widely cited as a factor strongly associated with students’ academic performance. This explanatory study examines how parents’ socioeconomic status affects academic achievement in regional examinations using survey data from 538 randomly selected students across thirteen junior secondary schools. Descriptive and inferential statistics were applied, including percentages, independent-samples t-tests, Spearman’s rho correlation, and one-way ANOVA. Findings show strong links with parents’ educational and occupational status, higher scores for students from educated and better-off families, and significant effects of single-parent status and whether parents live together, while parents’ age is not significant.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

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Abstract

Introduction

African Educational Research Journal Vol. 3(4), pp. 221-229, November 2015 ISSN: 2354-2160 Full Length Research Paper Parental socio-economic status as a determinant factor of academic performance of students in regional examination: A case of Dessie town, Ethiopia Amogne Asfaw Eshetu Department of Geography and Environmental Studies, Wollo University, Ethiopia. Accepted 3 November, 2015 | 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. | | --- | | E-mail: [amuvenu@yahoo.com](amuvenu@yahoo.com). | INTRODUCTION In the current era of globalization and technological revolution, education is considered as a crucial step for every human activity (Farooq et al. , 2011) and it is considered as the lifeline for efficient and suitable stable development of human society. Education helps to develop individual personality by making knowledgeable, competent, capable and skillful. It plays a vital role in the development of human capital and is linked with an individual’s well-being and opportunities for better living ( Memon et al. , 2010; Farooq et al. , 2011; Ababa et al. , 2012; Oginni et al. , 2013; Gouda et al. 2013) . This means, education is considered as a first step for every human activity and development of a nation at large. As a result , educators and researchers have long been interested in investigating variables contributing effectively for quality of performance of learners (Farooq et al. , 2011) . Hosts of inside and outside factors, like individual and household characteristics, socioeconomic situation, school related factors and government policies, would have impact on the academic performance of students (Dayioglu and Türüt -Asik, 2004; Farooq [et. al](et. al) , 2011) . Ahmad and Khan (2012) underlined that parental socio-economic status (SES) has a deeper impact upon children’s academic achievements. Most research outputs identified parents’ educational level and occupational status as principal determinant factors in students’ academic performance (Saifi and Mehmood, 2011; Al-Matalka, 2014) . Desforges and Abouchaar (2003) and Singh and Singh (2014) stressed that, what parents do with their children at home through the age range, is much more significant than any other factor open to educational influence. Parents are one of the most important and influential elements on the lives of their children. Parental involvement takes many forms including good parenting in the home, the provision of a secure and stable environment, intellectual stimulation, parent-child discussion,

FAQs

What research question does the paper address?

It assesses how parental socioeconomic status influences students’ academic achievement in regional examinations, using Dessie town, Ethiopia as a case.

How was the data collected and analyzed?

A survey collected regional examination results of 538 randomly selected students from thirteen junior secondary schools, analyzed with descriptive statistics and inferential tests including t-tests, Spearman’s rho, and one-way ANOVA.

Which aspects of parental socioeconomic status were found to matter most?

Parents’ educational level and occupational status showed strong association with students’ academic performance, and students from educated and better-off families scored higher.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Stanford