Family and Ability Correlates of Academic Grades: Social Status Group Differences

In a continuation of work by Marjoribanks (2003), using a sample of 150 seventh grade students, relationships among Parent Involvement as defined by factor scores of four measures of parents' involvement completed by teachers: teacher-parent contacts, teacher-parent communication, parents' involvement at home, and parents' participation in school, Intellectual Ability as defined by Verbal Intelligence using the Yuste's Differential and General Aptitudes Battery-M, and Academic Grades as defined by the average grade for all subject matter were examined. Analysis showed different predictive models for children's academic achievement as a function of social status. For children of low and middle social status, Intellectual Ability was the single predictor. For children of high social status the predictors were Parents' Involvement and the interaction of Parents' Involvement and Intellectual Ability