Socioeconomic Status and Academic Performance: Serially Mediated by Social Support and Attitude to School

ABSTRACT Students' experiences of academic success have a lasting impact on various future outcomes such as future academic success, employment and financial stability, and reduced risk of substance use in adolescence and psychopathology in adulthood. However, a number of risk factors can be a barrier to students experiencing academic success, such as low socioeconomic status (SES). The literature consistently demonstrates discrepancy in academic outcomes for students from different SES backgrounds; in other words, students from lower SES backgrounds enter high school with lower reading skills and experience higher dropout rates than their higher SES peers. These findings highlight the need for identifying the mechanisms in which SES is associated with academic outcomes, not only with risk factors but also protective pathways. With a sample of middle school students, the present study explored the role of social support and students' attitudes toward school in a serial mediation model in the association between students' SES and academic performance. The results supported the model, where parental support and students' attitudes toward school serially mediated the association, such that students from higher SES background perceived higher parent support, which was associated with less problematic attitudes toward school, which ultimately was associated with higher GPA. Implications of the findings and suggestions for future research are discussed.