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Socioeconomic status and wellbeing as predictors of students’ academic achievement: evidence from a developing country

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 July 2021

Cahit Erdem  and
Metin Kaya
Cahit Erdem*
Affiliation:
Faculty of Education, Afyon Kocatepe University, Afyonkarahisar, Turkey
Metin Kaya
Affiliation:
Faculty of Education, Bayburt University, Bayburt, Turkey
*
*Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has deepened the effects of socioeconomic status (SES) and wellbeing (WB) on students’ academic achievement, particularly in developing countries; thus, it becomes necessary to understand the nature of these concurrent relationships. This study aimed to explore the relationships between SES, WB and academic achievement, based on the data from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) in 2018 within the Turkish context. In this cross-sectional study, we used hierarchical multiple linear regression analysis to explore how the independent variables predicted academic achievement in blocks based on data from 6890 students attending 186 schools. The study revealed that the model, including the independent variables, predicted students’ achievement in reading, mathematics and science; however, the prediction level of demographic factors and domains of WB were very low, while SES had the highest prediction level. The results offer insights into the predictors of academic achievement and educational inequalities in the context of a developing country.

Keywords

Wellbeingacademic achievementsocioeconomic statuseducational inequalitiespredictors of academic performance
Type
Original Article
Information
Journal of Psychologists and Counsellors in Schools , Volume 33 , Issue 2 , December 2023 , pp. 202 - 220
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Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

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