Background and Objectives: In the family environment, parents' support and appreciation of students' efforts can help increase their academic quality and inspire academic goal-setting and productivity. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between parents' social capital and the academic achievement of second grade students in Rafsanjan.
Methodology: This applied research was conducted with a descriptive correlational approach in 2023. Its statistical population consisted of all the students of the second year of elementary schools in Rafsanjan, numbering 6914 people, and based on the Karjesi and Morgan’s table (1970), 360 people were selected as a statistical sample by stratified-random sampling method. In order to collect data, parents' social capital questionnaire with 20 questions as well as students' academic achievement test scores were used. The formal and content validities of the tools were confirmed by the experts and their reliability was obtained by using the Cronbach's alpha coefficient test which was α = 0.790 for the parents' social capital questionnaire. Pearson correlation and multivariate regression tests were used to analyze the data.
Results: The results of the regression test showed that the student's social capital had the most relationship with the students' academic achievement. There is a positive and significant relationship between the dimensions of parents' social capital (structural within the family, structural outside the family, cognitive within the family, and cognitive outside the family) with students' academic achievement.
Conclusion: Parents' social capital can be considered as an effective factor on students' academic achievement which includes social connections and personal and family relationships that a person has with a part of society. For students, parents' social capital plays an important role in increasing self-confidence, self-control, commitment to education and academic progress, motivation and critical thinking.