The social integration of the Turkish immigrant population is an important topic in the ongoing public debate in the Netherlands and other western European countries. This research aimed to...Show moreThe social integration of the Turkish immigrant population is an important topic in the ongoing public debate in the Netherlands and other western European countries. This research aimed to investigate the way school attitude and acculturation of Turkish parents influences their children’s school attitude, school performances and acculturation. The socioeconomic status (SES) of the family was used as a covariate. The sample consisted of 53 families with children in the eighth grade of Dutch primary school (the year before the transition to secondary school) . During, and prior to a home visit the father, mother and the child filled in a questionnaire. The degree of acculturation was measured by two items of the Acculturation Questionnaire –Short Form. The mother’s school attitude was measured by two items that were developed by researchers who took part in the project De Volgende Stap. In addition, four items were taken from a questionnaire of The Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, to measure the school attitude of the child. School performances were reflected by the teacher’s secondary school advice for the child. The hypotheses were that the parent variables would be positively related to the child variables and that the children with a higher degree of acculturation and more positive school attitudes would perform better at school. Positive correlations were found between the acculturation of the mother and the acculturation and school performances of the child. However, these relations were no longer significant after the SES variable was added as a covariate. An SES indicator, the annual family income, was related to the child’s school performances: on average, children from families with a high, annual income perform better at school. The SES turned out to be the underlying, explanatory variable in the relation between parent variables and the child’s school performances.Show less