Family relationships and school achievement among boys of lower-income urban Black families.

This study of poor, black, urban families relates mothers' views of the ideal relationship between their sons and the world to the sons' academic achievement. In open-ended interviews, mothers of high achievers express ideals for their sons that emphasize self-motivated, active, learning engagement with the world; mothers of low achievers express ideals that emphasize constraint, isolation, and adult control. The effects of a hostile environment on this family interaction among low achievers are considered.