The Impact of Parental Level of Income on Students' Academic Performance in High School in Japan

Abstract

The socioeconomic status of a child parent impacts on the educational development and achievement of the child. This study evaluated the effect of socioeconomic status, specifically parents income and parents-child relationship on student's academic performance in Senior High School in Japan. Three hundred students of Senior High Schools in Osaka and Hyogo prefectures of Japan were randomly selected and used as the sample population. A well-structured questionnaire was used as an instrument for data collection to ascertain the effect of parent's income status and attitude on student's academic performance at school using a four point Likert scale methodology. Academics grade point of students in an examination was also used as the determinant of students' academic achievement. Results showed that greater academic achievement for a student is attained by those students from financially buoyant families (Mean ± SD = 2.97 ± 0.88, X2 = 11.991, P = 0.007), however, 29.7% of students strongly disagree. More than half of respondents (>50%) disagree that financial constraint determines the number of children that goes to school in low income families. Average exam grade (Mean ± SD) points for students from parents with high, medium and low-income status was 77.29 ± 13.1, 77.9 ± 23.3 and 80.79 ± 10.13, respectively (P > 0.05). In conclusion, our finding show parents involvement in children school activities matter most than the parent's financial status in uplifting the children academic performance in school. Our recommendation is that parents should always encourage their children and provide moral support as well for the child to be emotionally stable and have confidence in their academic pursuit to achieve excellence.