Family and Education

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to examine the intimate link between family and education and reveal the underlying social and educational implications of the former on the latter, concentrating on parental union, parental involvement, family structure (i.e. the composition of a household, defined by the presence or non-presence of father and mother figures), and religious practice. This review considers these categories as interrelated and as major determinants of children’s educational success or failure. From our review of the literature, we draw four major observations: (1) intact families perform the best on all measurable educational outcomes; (2) parental involvement, predicated on strong parental unity, strongly improves educational outcomes and behavior; (3) the children of married twoparent biological family perform best academically across the spectrum; and (4) religious practice, mediated through the family, protects and improves the educational attainment of children. Together, these data make a compelling case for the close connection between education and family.