Diminishing Influence Of Socioeconomic Status On Academic Performance Of First-year College Students

PURPOSE: The link between family background and academic performance has long been considered a well-recognized relationship. However, as young high school graduates enter a university as freshmen, and are assuming a new identity as adults, there is a question of whether family background continues to exert a strong influence on academic performance among college students. In this study, we seek to investigate whether family background and student economic conditions are linked with their academic performance. METHODS: The data used in the study were collected in 2022-2023 from a sample of 343 first-year college students in South Texas. In this study, we used the father's and mother’s education combined as a proxy for family background. For the student’s economic condition, we utilized two dichotomous variables: 1) whether the respondent was working for pay, and 2) whether the respondent had problems getting enough food. For academic performance, we included the students’ GPA for both the fall 2022 semester and the spring 2023 semester. Finally, we used the t-test, correlation, and multivariate regression for data analysis. RESULTS: Of all the students interviewed, 118 (34.4%) had jobs, and 77 (22.4%) had food security issues. The mean GPAs are 2.75 (SD = 1.16) and 2.68 (SD = 1.17) for the two semesters, respectively. The t-test results show that whether working or not has no impact on academic performance (t = .03, ns, fall 2022; GPA, t = -1.02, ns, spring 2023), but the food security variable is marginally significant (GPA, t = -1.79, p < 0.05, one-tailed, fall 2022; GPA, t = -1.45, p < 0.10, one-tailed, spring 2023). The correlation between parents’ education and student GPAs is weak and not statistically significant (0.035, ns, and 0.074, ns). Results from multivariate regressions show that only the food security variable is marginally significant. CONCLUSIONS: The findings show that family background, especially in terms of socioeconomic status, is no longer a meaningful predictor of a student’s college academic performance. A student’s economic condition is only marginally related to academic performance. The findings suggest that non-economic factors, such as physical and mental health conditions, can potentially serve as significant predictors of academic success. Meadows Foundation