Academic achievement in children adopted: interaction and influence of school and behavioral variables

Abstract

Academic achievement is one of the most studied variables in educational media by researchers who try to clarify those determinants with greater influence in it. In this paper we intend to know those variables related to academic and behavioral difficulties that may have a greater relationship with the academic performance of children adopted in Spain. The data comes from 209 participants with an average age of 3.1 years at the time of adoption and with an average cohabitation with the adoptive family of 7.8 years. The proportion between men and women is 56% in the first case and 44% in the second case, the vast majority coming from international adoption in 8 out of 10 cases. Adoptive and welcoming families (10% of the total) come from the 17 autonomous communities. The results indicate that there are significant differences between school / academic variables and some related to behavior problems. Moreover, the analysis carried out with predictive models indicates that a school variable, the presence of educational reinforcement, has a good predictive capacity with association and positive impact on academic achievement, while two other variables that show deficits or behavior alterations in house and school show a significant influence on performance, although with a negative association and incidence on it. All these results are relevant for an adequate psychotherapeutic intervention and psychopedagogical attention focused on the real needs of these children.