Family Facts: Social Science Research on Family, Society & Religion
Top Ten Findings
Strengthening Children’s Success in School
September 2007
1. Adolescents with paternal role models tend to have higher academic achievement. The benefits of looking up to a father as a role model are evident in academic achievement. Adolescents with paternal role models had better grades and other school performance than those lacking paternal role models. Black males who identified their fathers as their role model maintained a significantly higher grade point average and reported significantly less truancy than peers who identified a member of the extended family as a role model or lacked a role model. Those with paternal role models were also more likely to believe that they would graduate from high school than peers who had no male role model. Those with no role models exhibited the most behavioral problems and did the worst in school. Among black female students, those who identified a brother rather than their father as their male role model were significantly more likely to use alcohol and exhibit violent behavior than peers with paternal role models.
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2. Children in one-parent families are more likely to have lower math and reading scores than peers in two-parent families. Children in one-parent families exhibited more behavioral problems and scored lower on mathematics and reading tests than children in two-parent families. While the differences in behavioral problems and math scores between the two groups remained constant over time, the gap in reading scores widened as the children grew older.
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3. Religious adolescents tend to spend more time on homework and are less likely to be truant. In this study, adolescents' involvement with religion was associated with more time spent on homework and lower levels of truancy, and this effect endured over time.
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4. Teenagers in single-father homes tend to have lower grades than peers in two-parent families. Regardless of the level of fathers' involvement, teenagers living in single-father homes tended to have lower grades than peers in two-parent, biological or step-, families.
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5. Students who frequently participate in structured non-school activities are more likely to join school clubs, prepare for class, and feel optimistic about their future. Students who frequently participated in structured out-of-school and in religious activities were more likely than their peers to join school clubs and groups, prepare for class, and feel more optimistic about their future. Students who frequently participated in structured after-school activities also had, on average, higher math and science achievement than students who participated less in structured after-school activities.
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6. Home and school environment and mother’s work hours impact children’s math achievement. When other variables of social and financial capital were taken into account, home environment, the number of hours mothers worked, and social problems within the school were still related to children's math proficiency. Home environment measured its physical condition, the presence of cognitive stimulation in the home, and mother’s affect and disciplinary style. School social problems ranged from gang activity and drug use to tardiness and measures of inadequate nutrition and clothing.
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7. Individuals’ educational attainment is linked positively to their communities’ religious attendance. Individuals’ educational attainment was related to the religious density of their communities, as measured by church attendance. After controlling for ethnic and group factors, individuals who lived in communities with high religious densities had, on average, more years of education than those who lived in communities with lower religious densities. A “ten percentage-point increase in predicted religious density [was] associated with 0.05 more years of education.”
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8. Parental involvement and mother’s education are positively associated with 7th and 8th graders’ commitment to school. Parental involvement and mother’s education were positively associated with 7th and 8th graders’ commitment to school. Living with a stepparent and being male were negatively associated with 7th and 8th graders’ commitment to school.
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9. Adolescents who are satisfied with their family life are less likely to exhibit problems in school. Every unit increase in an adolescents' family satisfaction corresponds to a 3-12% decline in the odds of having problems in school.
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10. Individuals who watched more hours of weekday television during childhood and adolescence have, on average, lower educational attainment. Individuals who watched more weekday television during their childhood and adolescence had lower levels of educational attainment and were less likely to have earned a university degree by the time they were 26 years old when compared to peers who watched less weekday television.
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Events:Religious Practice and Civic Life: What the Research Says October 4, 2007 |