Parent’s Attitudes and Behavior, the Learning Environment, and Their Influence on Children’s Early Reading Achievement

Abstract

Three different models predict the relationship between parents' attitudes toward reading, their behavior and the learning environment that they provide, and their influence on the reading performance of their children in first grade. The first model specifies the direct influence of each of the independent variables (attitudes, behavior and learning environment) on the dependent variable (reading performance of the child). The second model emphasizes the behavior as mediator between attitudes and reading perform-ance, and also the direct influence of learning environment on performance. In contrast, the third model relates to the influence of attitudes on reading performance, with behavior as a mediator just in a suppor-tive learning environment. In order to examine these models, we investigated a population of fifty first-grade pupils and their parents, measuring these variables with the help of questionnaires, interviews, ob-servations and reading tests. The findings suggest that parents' supportive attitudes have a significant positive influence on the reading performance of their children in first grade. This conclusion is actually consistent with all three models. The more specific conclusion, however, is that attitudes are partially me-diated by parents' behavior in a supportive learning environment, which partially supports the third model.