Family Factors That Influence Students’ Behavior in School

The traditional family structure has changed over the years because of divorce, single parent homes, two-career families and financial hardship. In an unstable environment, a child may act out causing disruptive behavior in school. School personnel deal with each student on an individual basis to figure out what factors are influencing their disruptive behavior. It is worthy to note, family factors attribute to a broad spectrum of negative student behavior in school. Sponsored Link Free online learning Inspiring new ways to teach your students STEMFamily DynamicsThe first teacher in every child's life is his parent. Studies indicate that parental expectations towards education is evident in a child's behavior. This is true no matter the type of family dynamics. Children with parents who nurture learning in a positive encouraging way have a better chance of succeeding in school. Too much encouragement or a parent with a negative, non-caring attitude towards learning may lead to an und ue pressure on the child causing anxiety, stress, underachievement and rebellion. Divorce It is not uncommon for children in a divorce situation to have behavioral issues in school.Divorce causes distress within a child. Their mind wanders and worries about the divorce situation. Guilt, feelings of loss, dislike of a parent or parents within the divorce situation may cause a child's mind to wander during school hours. Possible behavioral issues include aggression, loss of friends, isolation, intolerance for authority, and lack of tenacity to complete assignments. Financial Hardship The socio-economic status of a family plays a role in a student's behavior. There are numerous educational advantages for children from well-to-do families, even though they may have behavioral issues in school.It is, however, more likely that a child who lives in poverty or in the lower end of the middle-class will repeat a grade, be suspended or may be expelled or drop out from school. Violence and Abus e The National School Safety and Security Services states children who come from abusive homes harbor violent tendencies. Violence or mental abuse between parents or between parent to child manifests within a child to create a fearful environment. The child learns that violence or mental abuse is the answer to numerous situations, and may cause aggressive, disruptive and violent actions within the school system.Children exposed to sexual abuse and those that have been sexually abused may resort to sexual acts at an early age or they may attempt to force sexual acts on others. How Can Behavior Affect Academics for Students? Academic achievement isn't always an absolute measure of a student's intelligence. Instead, a variety of factors, such as teacher involvement, parental investment, school quality and student motivation, can affect academic life. Student behavior also plays a major role in academic achievement. A student's behavior can affect her ability to learn as well as other s tudents' learning environment.Sponsored Link Free online learning Inspiring new ways to teach your studentsDisruptive BehaviorStudents who behave disruptively by bullying other students, talking during lectures or by requiring the teacher to interrupt lessons to discipline them can have a negative effect on an entire classroom. A 2010 study published in â€Å"American Economic Journal: Applied Economics† found that disruptive students can lower the test scores and academic achievement of an entire classroom.Teachers who have disruptive students in their classroom may have to spend additional time on behavioral management, reducing the time the teachers spend teaching. Impulse Control Neurologists Sam Wang and Sandra Aamodt argue in their book â€Å"Welcome to Your Child's Brain† that impulse control is one of the most significant factors predicting academic success. Students with poor impulse control have more difficulty motivating themselves to study, do homework and listen in class. This can decrease their ability to excel academically, even when they perform well on IQ and achievement tests.Wang and Aamodt emphasize that rule-setting and teaching frustration tolerance play critical roles in helping children develop impulse control. Student Motivation Even the best teachers can't force a student to learn if the student is completely unmotivated. Student motivation can determine whether a student studies or does her homework, whether she seeks additional help when she needs it and how carefully she listens in class. A 2006 paper published in â€Å"Annual Review of Psychology† emphasized the role that student motivation plays in learning and found that unmotivated students tend to perform more poorly.The textbook â€Å"Child Psychology† cites research from developmental psychologist Albert Banudra indicating that children who are internally motivated are more likely to excel than children who require external motivation in the form of punishments and rewards. Mental Health Disorders Learning disorders and mental health problems such as attention deficit disorder, dyslexia, autism and oppositional defiant disorder can dramatically affect student behavior. Students with oppositional defiant disorder, for example, struggle to accept authority and may frequently defy teachers and parents, according to â€Å"Child Psychology.†Students who need mental health interventions, occupational therapy or psychoactive drugs may behave poorly in class even when teachers have excellent classroom control. This can affect these students' ability to learn, and students with some disorders may be unable to achieve good grades in typical classrooms. Things That Affect Children's Behavior Many aspects of a child's life affect his behavior. Home and school experiences play a critical role — they shape the way a child develops socially, emotionally, physically and intellectually as well as how he learns to cope in diffic ult circumstances.Within these two environments, sleep, diet, peers and parent discipline each affect behavior. Sponsored Link Natural ADD/ADHD Relief Relieve ADD/ADHD Symptoms Fast with Safe & Homeopathic Synaptol ®. synaptol-for-adhd. hellolife. net Sleep According to the National Sleep Foundation, sleep is â€Å"the primary activity of the brain during early development. † According to an article at CNN. com, a study published in the journal â€Å"Pediatrics† shows that â€Å"sleepy school children make crabby classmates, while students who get plenty of sleep are better behaved.†The study was performed by Reut Gruber, director of the Attention Behavior and Sleep Lab at the Douglas Research Center in Quebec, Canada. For one week, half the children in a class went to bed earlier than the other half. They were healthy children with no prior sleep or behavioral issues. Teachers noticed significant differences in the children's behavior. Students who slept less were overtired, impulsive and irritable. They had much more difficulty handling their emotions. Children who got more sleep were more resilient and alert. Diet A child's diet can also influence his behavior.In 1970, Ben Feingold created a diet that eliminated artificial colors, flavors, sweeteners and preservatives. It was intended as a treatment for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Feingold suspected that such artificial ingredients led to hyperactivity in children. WebMD notes that â€Å"while most scientific studies have disproved Feingold's theory, some parents who have tried the elimination diet have reported an improvement in their child's behavior. † A new study performed in 2007 supported the theory. Claudia Wallis, in a â€Å"Time† article titled â€Å"Hyper Kids?Cut Out Preservatives,† discusses this study, which was published in the British medical journal â€Å"The Lancet. † The study found that common food dyes and the preservative sodium benzoate can cause children to become hyperactive and distracted. Peers Peers play a powerful role in how a child behaves. Young children learn a lot about behavior through observation and often copy each other. For instance, if a child cleans up his toys in a classroom and gets positive feedback from a teacher, another child might be encouraged to clean up her toys.If a  child throws food and other children laugh, another child might then want to throw food, too. Peer influence on adolescents might be even more powerful. A study performed by researchers at the University of Western Ontario and published in the July/August 2007 issue the â€Å"Child Development† journal showed that a teenager's desire to fit in and be part of a popular group played a role in his behavior. While being part of a group can lead to positive feelings and actions, being part of a deviant group can lead to riskier behaviors in adolescents.Parent Discipline AbilityPath. org describes the aff ect of consistent positive discipline on behavior in an article titled â€Å"Positive Discipline and Guidance for Children. † The goal of positive discipline is to guide your child to behave in socially acceptable ways. The article reviews several parent discipline styles. The authoritarian style emphasizes obedience and might include corporal punishment. This style of discipline can lead to insecure or aggressive behavior in children and an inability to make decisions, according to the site.The neglectful style, in which parents are minimally involved with their children, can cause low self-esteem, little trust in people and trouble learning new skills. The permissive style of discipline lacks structure. Permissive parents rarely enforce rules and tend to allow children to do whatever they please. Children parented in this way may have difficulty handling their emotions and may be less mature. Lastly, an authoritative-democratic –or positive — parenting style i nvolves teaching children to take responsibility for their actions. Appropriate expectations and consequences are made clear.Good behavior is encouraged, modeled and supported. This type of discipline promotes self-control and influences how a child makes decisions and interacts with the world around him. Behavior problems can affect a child's ability to learn and retain new information. Behavior problems at a young age can even predict future academic problems. Children who exhibit behavior problems at age 6 are more likely to struggle in math and reading at age 17, according to a study published in Pediatrics. Address behavior problems as early as possible to increase your child's chances of academic success. Sponsored Link ADD/ADHDNatural ReliefEnjoy Fast ADD/ADHD Symptom Relief with Safe & Homeopathic Synaptol ®. synaptol-for-adhd. hellolife. net Examples of Behavior Problems That Interfere With Learning Hyperactivity Hyperactive children have difficulty staying seated, which makes it difficult to complete school work. Hyperactive children also tend to be forgetful, according to the Johns Hopkins Medicine website. Children who forget things repeatedly struggle to memorize information, making learning very difficult. Hyperactive children may have difficulty participating in quiet activities, such as reading or writing, because they often talk incessantly.Hyperactivity causes children to shift their attention from one activity to another quickly, which poses challenges to a child trying to complete an assignment or task. Impulsivity Impulsive children may disrupt the entire classroom by blurting out answers without raising their hand. Children who answer homework and test questions by writing down the first answer that comes to mind, may score poorly on their assignments. Impulsive children struggle to think ahead, plan and problem-solve effectively, according to Michelle Anthony at Scholastic. com. These impulsive behaviors often interfere with learning a nd applying new concepts.Other impulsive behaviors, such as physical aggression or talking in class, may require disciplinary action that results in a child's removal from the classroom. Inattention Inattention deters a child from being able to focus on a single task. Instead of paying attention to the teacher, a child with attention problems may be watching other children, playing with things in his desk or just staring out the window. At home, children with attention problems may take a long time to complete their homework or they may not have enough mental energy to complete their assignments.Attention problems can also interfere with organization. An inattentive child may forget his homework or lose his assignments. Oppositional Behavior Children with oppositional behavior argue with adults and refuse to follow rules. Oppositional children also struggle to take responsibility for their mistakes, according to the John Hopkins Medicine website. An oppositional child may refuse to attempt any of his work. He may also refuse refuse to participate in certain activities, such as group projects.At home, oppositional children may argue with parents about homework and may refuse to put any effort into completing assignments. What Are the Factors That Affect Academic Achievement of Students? Factors that affect academic achievement include their level of intelligence. Social factors can greatly impact the academic achievements of children as well. Some social factors that should be monitored include aspiration levels, academic inclination, peer relations, social class, and home conditions. What are the factors that affect academic achievement of students?