The amount of time parents spend helping their children with homework contributes much less to their progress in school than the family’s social class, a study has suggested.
The effects of parents’ class, wealth and education on teachers’ perception of a pupil’s progress in school far outweighed those of the time they spent with their children, the analysis found.
The study, by researcher Lin Ding, from the University of Manchester, analysed data on more than 8,000 children from the UK at the ages of seven and 11.
Data from the Millennium Cohort Study, which involves a nationally representative sample of people born between 2000 and 2002, was used to analyse the teachers’ assessment of children’s progress in maths and creative subjects, and the amount of time parents spent with them on activities.
The research, which will be presented at the British Sociological Association’s conference in Manchester, found that having parents with degrees – or who are well-off or from a high socio-economic class – approximately doubles the chance of children being assessed as “above average” by their teachers.
