Family support more strongly associated with academic performance in collectivist and in economically less developed societies

Parents and other family members play important roles in adolescents' academic success. Using a sample of 433,549 participants from 71 countries, we explored the relationship between family support and adolescents' academic performance, and the moderating roles of economic development and cultural individualism. The results suggest a positive association between family support and adolescents' academic performance in a global context, which may decrease to some extent with economic development and increase in cultural individualism. In developing countries family support is more important as it is a relatively scarce resource obtained from parents that cannot be compensated for by other resources. In individualist (relative to collectivist) societies adolescents are more likely to consider academic pursuit as personal affairs which should not be influenced by their parents. Excessive parental involvement may threaten autonomy and intrinsic motivation. The findings of this study suggest that parental involvement is a ubiquitous factor that still functions well in promoting children's academic success in today's world.