Schoolchildren with learning disabilities have difficulties in communication and interaction with
other people and this is related to their awareness of other’s subjective reality. A symbol is a “mental
tool” for awareness of subjective reality. The symbol is a cultural presentation of subjective reality,
mediating the relationship and interaction of two or more agents. The purpose of this study, based
on cultural-historical methodology, is to identify and experimentally verify the use of symbols
to understand this agent’s subjective reality by younger schoolchildren and adolescents with
learning disabilities. The experimental method is based on identifying the dominant attitudes to
the awareness of the agent’s subjective reality, as well as how it is interpreted and evaluated by the
child. The study involved 80 students of secondary schools: 40 with normal development and 40
with learning disabilities (9-12 and 14-16 years old). It showed difficulties in understanding agent’s
subjective reality and the predominance of a stable objective attitude to symbols and other people,
with significant differences in the Mann-Whitney U test for the experimental group of participants of
both ages. This feature is considered as an obstacle in the construction of interpersonal relationships
and cooperation by children and adolescents and can serve as a target for psychological assistance.
Keyword(s) : schoolchildren
The Influence of Family Factors on the Academic Performance of Schoolchildren and University Students: Review of Foreign Studies
The family is informal institution that has a strong influence on the child and on his or her academic
performance in particular. Family influence is more essential in childhood, because at a young age
children depend a lot on their parents. The nature of relationships between children and parents as
well as the role of family in general can change as children grow up.
This is a literature review of foreign empirical studies leading to further development of a research
program of the influence of family factors on the performance of schoolchildren and students in
Russia. In most of the cases, the authors focus on the performance of one group – either schoolchildren
or students. This paper considers the research question of whether family factors, which have proven
their impact on schoolchildren academic performance, retain their impact on the performance of
university students.
The novelty of the review lies in its consideration of three ways in which the family impacts on
student’s performance: the socio-economic status of the family, the social capital of the family,
and the parental involvement in the educational process. The first two ways have been extensively
studied in the research, while parental involvement is often considered as a significant factor in
school performance. However, it is underestimated as factor in a university student’s performance.
The review confirmed that family factors have a significant positive impact on academic performance
for both schoolchildren and students. This influence depends on the nature of the relationship
between parents and children and can change over time.
The results are of practical interest for the researchers in the field of education and psychology,
educational institutions as well as for parents. The empirical analysis of parental involvement
influence on the academic performance of university students may be one of the possible research
themes.