Sociocultural disadvantage is a cultural deficit resulting from a disadvantaged situation, which, according to the norms of the majority society, means a lower level of education, poorer school performance, a lower level of knowledge of the behavioral rules necessary for social advancement, and keeping to those norms, among other things. Increasing attention is devoted to under­developed social competencies as disadvantages (e.g. communication and cooperation skills, self-regulation), which help, for example, to achieve good school performance. Social competencies are fundamentally related to the family environment in childhood. Our study discusses the psychological effects of the family environment through a systematic literature search. The relationships are discussed between stress and children’s psychosocial and cognitive development; the relationship between parents’ attitudes towards school education and children’s learning attitudes and perseverance; and the relationship between parenting style and self-regulation. The study argues that parents cannot be excluded from disadvantage compensation programs aimed at reducing sociocultural disadvantages.