1,608
Views
27
CrossRef citations to date
0
Altmetric
Original Articles

Personal, Family, and School Factors Related to Adolescent Academic Performance

A Comparison by Family Structure

&
Pages 47-61 | Published online: 12 Oct 2008
 

ABSTRACT

Compared to peers in intact families, adolescents in divorced families do not perform as well academically. Using an ecological framework, we ran hierarchical regressions to examine the effect of parental support and monitoring and school attachment on grade point average (GPA) in teens in intact (60%), single-divorced (20%), and blended (20%) families. In this study, 1925 students in grades 7 (45%), 9 (31%), and 11 (24%), with a mean age of 15 years completed a survey. The sample was mostly White (88%), with 11% African-American; 53% were female. We hypothesized that adolescents in divorced or remarried families would report less parental support and monitoring, and that school attachment would be more strongly associated with GPA for these adolescents. School attachment was important for teens in all families; but the effect was stronger for teens in step- or single-divorced families. Our findings have implications for parents, schools, parenting education, and youth programs.

Reprints and Corporate Permissions

Please note: Selecting permissions does not provide access to the full text of the article, please see our help page How do I view content?

To request a reprint or corporate permissions for this article, please click on the relevant link below:

Academic Permissions

Please note: Selecting permissions does not provide access to the full text of the article, please see our help page How do I view content?

Obtain permissions instantly via Rightslink by clicking on the button below:

If you are unable to obtain permissions via Rightslink, please complete and submit this Permissions form. For more information, please visit our Permissions help page.