Influences of early home factors on later achievement in reading, math and science: An analysis of the Swedish data from PIRLS and TIMSS 2011

• The purpose is to investigate the influence from early home background factors on achievement in reading, math and science. The effect of SES on school achievement has in Sweden been shown to be fairly large and stable across studies. However, less is known about what role early educational activities at home and early skills may have on achievement differences found in grade 4. With the TIMSS and PIRLS 2011 study a unique opportunity to investigate this matter in some detail is offered, as pupils in grade 4 have been tested in the three subject domains, and their parents provide information on a wide range of early home activities, early reading and numerical skills and other potential influences from the children’s homes. In this paper the data from the Swedish participation has been utilized for analyzing such relationships. A latent variable approach was adopted and the effects of early home factors were investigated in a path analysis, which allowed determination of direct and indirect effects. The results show a somewhat differential pattern of relations for math achievement as compared to science and reading. No gender differences were found in any of the factors that were related to achievement in grade 4, whilst boys were found to have a higher average performance in math and science and girls in reading.

Subject headings

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Utbildningsvetenskap -- Pedagogik (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Educational Sciences -- Pedagogy (hsv//eng)

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Utbildningsvetenskap (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Educational Sciences (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Home factors

Early skills

reading‐ science‐ and math‐achievement

SEM

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

kon (subject category)