Family Background and Student Achievement in Vietnam: The Role of Parental Occupation

One of the most critical predictors of future academic success and career opportunities in Vietnam is academic achievement in schools. However, differences in socioeconomic statuses and parental backgrounds still have considerable impact on the performance of students. Even though many studies have explored how parents’ income and level of education affects the academic success of their children, very little research focuses on the role of parent occupational status. This work seeks to analyze the relationship of parents’ occupation with the academic achievements of Vietnamese high schoolers based on overall GPA and subject scores in mathematics, science, English and literature. Using a Kaggle dataset containing demographic, academic, and family background information from Vietnamese high school students, this study applies multiple linear regression analysis to estimate the relationship between parental occupation and academic performance while controlling for factors such as residential area, student gender, age, grade level, and parental age. Moreover, parents’ professions are categorized into four categories: farmers, trade workers, office workers, and unknown professions. According to the findings, students with at least one parent working in an office or professional occupation achieved higher GPA across all subjects, while students from farming backgrounds generally performed worse academically. The strongest relationship was observed in English and literature performance. Residential area, grade level, and gender were also found to be significantly correlated with achievement, with girls and higher grade students having better academic results. Taken together, these findings highlight the importance of both family background and individual characteristics in shaping educational outcomes.