Family influence on a child’s educational succes

Migrating to the United States was an excellent experience; though it was filled with so many uncertainties. There are many elements of the new environment that I interacted with which influenced my development. This is a regular occurrence that happens to most of the adolescents who migrate to new environments, and most of their personality traits are dependent on their immediate family. During adolescence, most of the teenagers who were once obedient begin to demand their freedom to do what they wish. The way they are treated by their parents will determine their future behaviour. This paper takes time to look at how the family will influence the child’s education at this stage in life.

According to Mahoney et al., (2014), for any individual to grow and attain the maximum potential in life, then the immediate environment will play a significant role in helping to achieve it. The qualities that many of the people possess will be drawn during the critical times of their growth. With time I have learned that this is true in so many ways.   One of the greatest influences in my life was the possibility of my family being able to finance my studies in the US. There were a variety of schools in my neighbourhood which offered different qualities of education according to one’s financial capacity. I was lucky that my parents could afford to pay for an expensive school for my studies. This was an essential step in my academic achievement at school.

Benner, Boyle, & Sadler, (2016) in their study quotes that there are many ways in which parents can be involved in the educational success of their adolescent’s children. The first one is the home base involvement in which parents will monitor their teenagers to ensure that they complete all the assignments that are given to them and reinforce activities that will help their children to concentrate on educational enrichment while at home. More so, there is the school-based involvement where parents take part in school activities such as parents associations and communicate well with the teachers to ensure that everything concerning their child is in place. My parents were one kind of active individuals who made sure that they were maximally involved in my education both at home and at school. They always followed up with the teacher to ensure that I was well-behaved and with no disciplinary issues. They were active in taking part in school events that needed parents to be around. My father only missed the parents’ organization meeting once, but he still followed up with my class teacher to guarantee that he knew what was discussed. He always made sure that I completed my homework before going to sleep and dropped me off at school on time. This helped me to always concentrate on my studies since I knew that there was someone watching me both at school and at home. With the constant encouragement, I was also able to get through the obstacles that I faced and attain quality grades.

A study that was conducted by Mahoney et al., (2014) argued that mental toughness is, to a great extent is contributed by the genetic makeup of the parents which helps in forming the personal characteristics of the individual in question. In this case, therefore, the mental toughness of the parents are so very likely to be reflected in the child. This is what is known as the contribution of nature to the mental growth of the child and hence their performance in class. My parents were well-educated and this is based on what I know of their academic performance they were both bright in school. They, therefore, contributed a great deal to my overall genetic makeup which helped me have a high IQ. I thus have been able to perform well at school and attain high grades through their support and contribution to the overall being of my personality. The high expectations that my parents had on me propelled me to work even harder and produce quality grades back in school (Benner, Boyle & Sadler, 2016)

However, there are still various factors that influenced my life negatively and hence my education was affected. At some point my parents did not have employment which put an economic strain on my family causing me to miss school as a result of lack of finances. It was only for a span of three months but the high rate of absenteeism caused a major decline in my studies. I had to struggle a lot a lot and it took me close to two years to catch up with my classmate. This was back in grade three and as I moved to grade four, I could still not read properly as an effect of the same. The other element was that most of my friends at school looked down on me for various reasons and this caused me to have a low self-esteem. One of the major reason was because I was an immigrant something that I had no control over. The society I lived in was cultured in a way that they easily rejected foreigners and other aliens and I was included in this bracket. I had struggle a lot to get assimilated and my studies were also affected since I had to do most of my school work alone while the others enjoyed their classmates company.

In conclusion, therefore, the family plays a critical role in the educational development of their children, and this has helped me develop in many ways. Every factor around my family worked to my favour to ensure that I performed well in school and attained quality grades. The place of family in supporting the education of their children in school should therefore never be underestimated, and more so should be given a priority in the society. Parents should also be active in supporting the progress of their children at school and not only leaving the burden to the students.

References

Benner, A., Boyle, D., & Sadler, A. (2016). Parental Involvement and Adolescents’ Educational Success: The Roles of Prior Achievement and Socioeconomic Status. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 45(6), 1053-1064.doi10.1007/510964-016-04314

Mahoney, J., Gucciardi, D., Mallett, C., & Ntoumanis, N. (2014). Adolescent Performers’ Perspectives on Mental Toughness and Its Development: The Utility of the Bioecological Model. The Sport Psychologist, 28(3), 233-244.doi. http://dx.doi.org/10.1123/tsp.2013-0050