Indirect influence of social background on academic achievement at university

Abstract

Indirect influence of social background on academic achievement at University Nowadays, socioeconomic background continues to explain academic failure among first year university students. By means of a questionnaire survey on 525 freshmen students, the present study examined three processes that could explain the relation between social background and academic achievement. The two first relate to secondary school: school effect and options effect. The third relates to the mastery of academic basic competences presumed to be acquired before university entrance. Results show that these three variables are, at least partly, determined by social origins, and that they exert an important impact on academic performance, conferring them a mediating status in the link between social background and early academic achievement. Haut de page.