Socioeconomic status and parental support play important roles in determining academic achievement and have been positively correlated with academic success. It is important to determine if students from low-socioeconomic-status (SES) families perceive less parent support than students from middle-SES families. The participants (n = 54) were high school 9th graders who, with parental consent, completed an online survey. The survey was composed of questions from several instruments: Latino Youth Survey Questionnaire, Family Affluence Scale, and Academic Self-efficacy scale (2005). The scales measure three types of parental support: emotional support, monitoring of schoolwork/activities, and parental school involvement. Results of a 2 (ethnicity: Hispanic vs. non-Hispanic) × 2 (parent occupation: professional vs. non-professional) ANOVA revealed no significant differences in perceived parental and peer support. Only parent emotional support was found to be a consistently significant variable. A simultaneous regression analysis revealed that perceived parent emotional support was a more significant predictor (beta = .53, t = 4.03, p < .001) than perceived peer support (beta = .18, ns) in predicting academic self-efficacy scores. These findings indicate the need to emphasize to parents the importance of providing support, particularly emotional support, for their children.
