Socioeconomic Status of Parents and the Achievement of Children on Readiness for School Tests

Abstract

This article examines whether socio-economic status and geographic location im- pact children on readiness for school tests in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The sam- ple used in this study consisted of 296 children: approximately half of the children were from rural areas and the other half from urban areas in Bosnia and Herze- govina. Tests that were used included: Differences test, Similarities test, Numeri- cal test, Trace test, Knowledge Test, Questionnaire for measuring socio-emotional maturity, and Goodenough’s Draw-a-Man Test. Results show that there are sta- tistically significant differences between children from different socio-economic background on these tests. Children whose parents are low educated have lower results on Readiness for school test, compared to children whose parents have fin- ished high school or college. The results showed that geographic location was not as significant a factor in readiness for school tests. There were differences between village and town children only on Goodenough’s Draw-a-Man Test and on Similar- ity test, while on other tests showed no significant correlation between this variable.