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.