Impacts of family practices on proficiency in Portuguese and Mathematics at Elementary Schools

Abstract

The goal is to investigate the impact of family resources and practices on the school performance of students from elementary schools. We selected 299 students who participated in the GERES 2005. We used a questionnaire with 145 questions. We applied quantitative methods: structural equation modeling. Among the main results, we highlight: four factors - objectified cultural capital, informational capital, family writing practices, and parent-child interaction - were impacted by socioeconomic status; family writing practices were the variable with the biggest impact on Portuguese performance, and informational capital was the factor with the greatest impact on Mathematics; significant advantage of private schools on students’ proficiency; Mathematics was more directly related to school type.

Keywords:
family influence; school achievement; statistical methods