This is the fourth in a series of six papers from the Center on Education Policy exploring issues related to students' motivation to learn. This paper examines findings from research about the impact of various family background and cultural factors on student motivation, as well as the role of parental beliefs, attitudes, and actions in fostering children's motivation. The paper does not attempt to be a comprehensive review of the broad literature on family background and achievement, but rather is a sampling of some current findings from the field that appear to impinge on motivation. [For the "3. Can Goals Motivate Students?", see ED532668.]