Influence of Family Background on Scholastic Achievement.
The Coleman Report demonstrated that family background is correlated with achievement in school. The present study ex amined this relationship for different sexes and social classes. Data were obtained from the cumulative folders of 637 white children in grades 3 through 6. Measures of scholastic achievement were the Californial Achievement Tests. Multiple regression analyses of variance revealed a number of significant main effects and interactions, and their implications were discussed. IN THE FREQUENTLY cited monograph, Equality of Educational Opportunity, Coleman and his associates (7) called attention to the correlation between family back ground and scholastic achievement. Family background in cluded whether or not a child was living with both natural parents as well as the ordinal position of the child and the number of children in the family. Scholastic achievement was defined in terms of performance on standardized achievement tests. They found that the relationship be tween these variables was considerable and did not dimin ish over the years in school. The purpose of the present study was to examine the influence of family background on educational achievement for boys and girls and for different social classes. The fol lowing hypotheses were tested: Achievement in school changes as children go from one grade to another, in spite of efforts to control for such changes. Boys do less well in school than girls. Children from lower social classes do less well in school than children from higher social classes. Liv ing with both natural parents, as opposed to not living with both natural parents, facilitates school achievement. Ordi nal position in the family is correlated with achievement in school. Coming from a small family, as opposed to coming from a large family, facilitates school achievement. Finally, it was thought that there would be a significant interaction among these variables in their influence on scholastic achievement. Method