What is it about?
Previous research suggests that adolescents from single-mother and stepfather families tend to have lower academic achievement than adolescents from intact families. However, it remains unclear what this is linked to and what role family relationships, specifically satisfaction with one’s family, and autonomous motivation for learning in general and going homework in particular play.
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Why is it important?
We found that adolescents (grades 5-9) from intact families reported greater satisfaction with family as well as higher autonomous motivation at school and doing homework, greater persistence, and higher academic achievement, and were less likely to cheat on homework than adolescents from single-mother and stepfather families. However, the impact of family structure on satisfaction with family was rather small. At the same time, motivation, persistence, academic achievement, and family satisfaction were very similar among adolescents from single-parent families and blended families. More importantly, we found that greater satisfaction with family relationships was associated with higher autonomous motivation and persistence, which, in turn, were associated with higher academic achievement and less homework cheating. Thus, satisfaction with family relationships proved to be a significantly more important factor for motivation and academic achievement (GPA) than the family type (intact, single-mother or stepfather).
Perspectives
I hope that our study has made a significant contribution to understanding the role of family structure in adolescents' academic achievement and that practitioners will now be able to view this issue from a new perspective. I also hope that similar studies will be conducted in other countries, allowing us to determine the extent to which our findings are universal. I also hope that this work will draw greater attention to the importance of parent education programs that promote positive parenting practices aimed at enhancing adolescents’ satisfaction with family relationships.
Elena Dvorskaya
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Family structure and family satisfaction as factors of adolescents’ autonomous motivation, cheating, and academic achievement, PLOS One, September 2026, PLOS,
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0357562.
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