Social and cultural contexts change but intelligence persists as incisive to explain children’s academic achievement

Abstract

The intelligence is a well established predictor of school achievement. Although school failure/success can be explained by cognitive variables, socio-familial variables can also have an impact. Since these variables haven’t been so systematically investigated together, the present study aims to consider both variables to understand their causal roles in academic achievement. With a sample of 376 Portuguese children aged 6 to 10 years, a path analysis was carried out based on a prior analysis to search for causal relationships between intelligence and socio-familial variables to explain children’s academic achievement. The results point to intelligence as a major influence on school performance, combined with socio-familial variables (directly: community, type of school, mother's education and school year; and indirectly: socioeconomic status and father’s education level). Practical implications were discussed concerning the relevance of the investigated variables in explaining academic achievement of children.