Parental Education and Mathematics Achievement among Junior High School Students: A Comparative Study

Andi Nurannisa; Evi Juliah; Nur Ikhwan Rezki  Asman; Sukmawati Sukmawati

Authors

Andi Nurannisa Master of Mathematics Education, Graduate Program, Muhammadiyah University of Makassar, Makassar Author https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8586-8375
Evi Juliah Master of Mathematics Education, Graduate Program, Muhammadiyah University of Makassar, Makassar Author
Nur Ikhwan Rezki Asman Master of Mathematics Education, Graduate Program, Muhammadiyah University of Makassar, Makassar Author
Sukmawati Sukmawati Master of Mathematics Education, Graduate Program, Muhammadiyah University of Makassar, Makassar Author

Keywords:

Comparative Study, Junior High School Students, Mathematics Achievement, Mathematics Education, Parental Educational Attainment

Abstract

Mathematics achievement is shaped by multiple individual, family, and school-related conditions, yet the extent to which parental e ducational attainment differentiates students’ mathematics performance remains unclear, particularly at the junior high school level in Indonesia. This study aimed to examine whether mathematics achievement differed significantly among Grade IX students according to their parents’ educational attainment. A quantitative comparative design was employed using secondary data from 80 students at SMP Negeri 1 Kolaka during the 2024/2025 academic year. Students were classified into four parental educational attainment groups elementary school, junior secondary school, senior secondary school, and higher education with 20 students in each group. Mathematics achievement was measured using Mathematics School Examination scores, while parental educational attainment was obtained from school administrative records in DAPODIK. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, the Shapiro-Wilk normality test, Levene’s test for homogeneity of variance, and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) at the .05 significance level, with eta squared used to estimate effect magnitude. Descriptively, mean mathematics achievement increased from 79.62 among students whose parents had elementary education to 83.40 among those whose parents had higher education. However, the one-way ANOVA indicated no statistically significant difference in mathematics achievement across the four groups, F(3, 76) = 1.343, p = .267, with a small effect size (η² = .050). The findings indicate that parental educational attainment, considered as a single background characteristic, provides limited differentiation of mathematics achievement in this context. The study contributes empirical evidence that challenges a simple interpretation of parental educational attainment as a direct indicator of students’ mathematics achievement and highlights the need to examine more proximal educational conditions, including instructional quality, student engagement, learning motivation, and forms of learning support. These findings have implications for mathematics education by directing attention toward modifiable learning conditions rather than relying primarily on students’ family educational background.

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