Role of Family in Academic Achievement Motivation

The performance of adolescents in school is determined to a large extent by rearing practices they are exposed to in their homes. For example, "It has been found that half to one third of student performance is directly related to home variables" (Chabra, 2011).

Family is the first and major agency of socialization which plays a pivotal role in developing achievement motivation in children. It is well known that motivation plays a large role in student interest and enjoyment in academic contexts. Being appropriately motivated enables individuals to strive for excellence, work and learn effectively, and achieve their potential at school.

Studies have proved that a supportive nurturing environment at home could enhance a child's achievement. According to Lezin, Rollen, Bean, and Taylor (2004), the quality of parent-child relationship has been linked to a wide variety of outcomes including traits (self-confidence, coping skills, motivation, overall well-being), mental health (depression, suicide, identity), risky behaviors (violence, drug and alcohol use), school achievement, and social skills.

Parent's education influences parent's skill, values, and knowledge of the educational system, which in turn influences their educational practices at home. Well-educated parents are more involved in their children's education than less educated parents (Grolnick & Slowiaczek, 1994; Stevenson & Baker, 1997). As a result," the more actively involved parents are in children's education, the higher their children's perceptions of competence and the better they perform in school and enhance their achievement motivation" (Chabra 2011). Students whose parents are more involved in their school life and attend more school activities have higher educational aspirations.      

In one paper on achievement motivation and home environment, Joshi states:

 Parental involvement had a positive influence on adolescents' achievement. The results also subscribe to the view that where parents of high achievers provide good quality home environment, ensuring balance in all its quality dimensions, children get introduced to higher achievement motivation levels. Home environment is a basic and essential nurturing support system for all of us as no other system could be a substitute for multiple bonding provided by family. 

Furthermore, Moula (2010) tried to investigate the relationship between achievement motivation and human environment. He defined the home environment by five factors (parent's encouragement, parent's occupation, parent's education, family size, and learning facilities at home. The findings showed that four factors (parent's occupation, parents' education, family size, and learning facilities) affect achievement motivation positively while only parental encouragement showed unclear results with academic motivation. The reason being is that parental encouragement is usually good but might sometimes result in parents pressuring children which might create anxiety and fear of failure (thus diminishing intrinsic motivation).

However, other studies like Ramiah (1990) observed a different relationship between parental encouragement and academic achievement of students. He found that the more the parental encouragement, the better the academic achievement. For example, Sharma (2002) "studied the effect of parental involvement and aspirations on student's aspirations and academic achievement and found that students with high parental involvement scored higher on educational aspiration as compared to their counterparts with low parental involvement."

Interestingly enough, "family income, education, and occupation are less influential for achievement motivation of adolescents than parental interaction with children, involvement in their children's education and expectation for their children" (Hao and Burns, 1998).    

Additionally, studies by Boon (2007) and Gonzalez and Wolters (2006) found that parents who exhibited an authoritative parenting style (characterized by relationships wherein the child's perspective is acknowledged and respected with appropriate boundaries and rules) had children who were mastery goal orientated.

Finally, "Supportive and caring relationships with parents were found to positively predict greater interest in academic endeavors, higher expectations of success, better self-regulation, as well as increased perceptions of competence" (King,2014).

All in all, a family's social conditions and parenting practices used in raising and teaching children significantly correlate to the child's sense of academic achievement motivation. This includes education, occupation, encouragement, involvement, emotional support, and access to resources which all correspond to teaching children self-regulatory practices to enhance their motivation in school.