Distal Influence Essay

There are many distal influences than can affect a child’s educational success, from the neighbourhood they live in to the children they choose to be friends with. Another influence is the child’s parents, they can be seen to influence how well their child does in an academic setting in many ways, whether it be their own personal academic success or their current job and thus their income and socioeconomic status. A common finding in studies related to parental influence suggests that the more engaged a parent is with the child’s studies and the more knowledge they have, the more success a child experiences in school. Nevertheless, it is important that we do not overlook wider distal influences when studying academic achievement of children

Davis-Kean explained how this link relies on the assumptions that parents learn something during their schooling years that influences the way in which they interact with their children when it comes to education. This assumption is supported by Gimenez-Nadal and Molina (2013) who found that the mothers education has a direct influence on how much time is put into helping their child with their studies e.g. homework. Houtenville and Smith Conway (2008) also found that having a parent with a high level of education often influences how well a child may do with out-of-class work. If the parent has little or no knowledge on a subject then they may not be able to offer assistance and, because of this, choose to spend less time on educational childcare, thus leading to the teacher thinking the child is incapable of completing the tasks required. This could possibly lead to a child being moved down to a lower set and having an effect on the quality and difficulty of work they are provided with, in turn affecting the possibility of achieving a high grade. Rønning (2011) found that this was a persistent problem for children from lower class families as their parents had limited knowledge and were less willing to engage. Although some of the studies mentioned took place outside of the UK, all provide strong evidence to support the idea that a

Brofenbrenner’s (1979) ecological model explains development using 5 systems in which a person interacts. According to Bronfenbrenners theory, the parent’s education is an influence within the Exosystem and Socioeconomic status is an influence within the Macrosystem. However, when studying development it is important to take into account the influences from all 5 systems, and how their interactions as a whole aid development. Bronfenbrenner explained the Chronosystem as changes over the life span of a person. The Chronosystem may arguably have a big influence on academic success as education constantly changes and the requirement children must meet alters and differs from year to year (Shawer, Gilmore and Banks-Joseph, 2008). Although a child’s parents may have achieved high success while in school, this may not result in them being able to offer support and knowledge to their child, as schools are obliged to change their curriculum to fit the requirements of the Government. It is important to consider that what parents were taught as children may not be perceived as knowledge needed for this