We compared the school success of children, which our survey found in the eighth grade during their schooling so far, with some more significant data on their family situation. We considered only success types A to E; type F and G were omitted from consideration due to too scarce data.
The Only Children among Our Respondents, Are Better Students Than Children Who Have Siblings
The only children among our respondents, are better students than children who have siblings. More can be found among excellent and very good students, and there are fewer of them among children with mediocre and poor performance, as well as among those who achieve lower success in higher grades than in lower ones. This is consistent with our finding that only children, develop mentally more properly than other children on average.
A Falling Success Is Attained by Average Children: The Case of Children from Families with Three or More Children
Children from families with three or more children stand out even more than the average in their school performance than individuals, but in a negative sense. These children are poorly represented among very good and excellent students, and there are relatively many of them among mediocre and weak students. They are also more strongly represented among students who achieve less and less success the higher the grade they attend. But there are fewer of them than other children among those students who show a “fall” in their school success. The relatively low success of children from large families is in line with the fact that we found a relatively large number of behavioral disorders in these children. Their relatively smaller share among students with a “fall” in their school success, confirms our assumption that “a falling success is achieved by average children, i.e. children with relatively healthier mental development.
The Effect of a Grandmother on the Success in School
Children who have a grandmother are slightly better students than children who do not live with their grandmother. In the first group of children there are more excellent and very good students, and slightly fewer who achieve lower success in higher grades than in lower grades. In both groups, there is an equal number of children with consistently mediocre and poor performance. This means that the presence of the grandmother in the family has a positive effect on the child’s success in school.
When the mother is employed, a slightly larger number of children achieve very good and excellent success, and they are somewhat less likely to be mediocre students than when their mother is not employed outside the home. There are an equal number of weak students and those who achieve lower success in the upper grades than in the lower ones, regardless of whether their mother is employed or not.
The Relationship between Mother and Student Success
Unemployment of the mother seems to hamper to some extent normal and above-average gifted children to achieve success in school that would be a realistic reflection of their abilities. Probably the reason is the fact that many mothers who are not employed have enough time to pamper their children, to serve them too much and those children get used to the lack of independence and incompetence at work. Then their children do not have enough persistence or self-confidence to fully mobilize their abilities.
Children with more modest intellectual abilities, due to insufficient talent, achieve poorer success, so the greater or lesser tendency of their mothers to pamper them does not significantly affect their success.
