Wiek rodziców a szkolne funkcjonowanie uczniów klasy szóstej

The article presents the results of empirical analyses of the relationship between the age of parents and the school functioning of their children from 6th grade of primary school. Previous research does not provide a clear picture of this relationship. In the case of older parents, the results more often indicate a positive prediction of school achievement, while the young age of parents rather increases the risk of problems. The analyses used the data from a large nationwide sample of sixth-grade students. Measures of cognitive functioning included Raven’s Progressive Matrices Test, standardised school achievement tests, and school grades. Social functioning was described by sociometric measures from the Student Integration Questionnaire. To minimise the risk of inaccurate causal interpretation, a rich set of control variables was included in the analyses, including measures of family SES. A MANOVA model with covariates was applied. Standard errors were calculated using the bootstrap method with data grouping (schools) included. The results did not support the hypothesis that older parental age promotes higher school achievement. It can also be stated with high confidence that young parental age is not a significant risk factor for a child’s intellectual functioning in school. The second hypothesis, that young parental age is a risk factor for a child’s social functioning at school, was not confirmed. In contrast, a slightly higher risk of peer rejection was found for students of older parents. Careful statistical control of the variables and a representative large sample allows us to have high confidence in the results obtained. The results support strong recommendation for teachers and educators: either young or advanced age of a student’s parents cannot be treated as a significant educational risk factor.