1. The European Conference on Educational Research
17-21 September 2012
Cadiz
The Effect of Family and Preschool on Academic Achievement in Primary School
Dr. maša Vidmar
Educational Research Institute, Slovenia

2. BACKGROUND Ecologocial system theory Academic achievement
Individual‘s development takes place in a complex system of relations that are affected by multiple levels of the environment
Academic achievement
Early achievement is among the best predictors for later academic achievement
Academic achievement is linked to later (mal)adjustment in other domains, i.e. social and personal

3. Different precursos at the microsystem level
problem
Academic achievement
Family Preschool
Different precursos at the microsystem level

4. PRECURSORS At the microsystem level Family Preschool
Maternal education
Maternal psychological functioning
Parenting
Parental school involvement
Preschool
Enrolment into preschool

5. AIMS
Latent contructs
Contribution of each predictor for academic achievement in grade 1
Contribution of all predictors in a single complex model for academic achievement in grades 1 and 2

6. Method: Participants 39 Slovene basic schools Students:
T1 = Start 1st grade : N = 328, M = 6;3
T2 = End 1st grade: N = 325, M = 6;11
T4 = End 2nd grade: N = 323, M = 7;10
49% girls
Three groups of preschool enrolment: never, 3 years, 5 years
Mothers, teachers

7. METHOD: INSTRUMENTS Academic achievement
Attainment of Performance Standards for 1st grade (Zupančič, 2006) and for 2nd grade (Vidmar & Zupančič, 2007; Zupančič, 2006)for Slovene, Math and Environmental Education
Maternal psychological functioning
Life orientation test – revised, Scheier, Carver, & Bridges, 1994
Rosenberg self-esteem scale, Rosenberg, 1989
Satisfaction with life scale, Diener, Emmons, Larsen, & Griffin, 1985
Depressed mood/Depressive tendencies, Alsaker, 1992
Parenting
Family Environment Questionnaire, Zupančič & Kavčič, 2005
Parental school involvement
Teacher Questionnaire, Vidmar, 2007

8. Method: procedure T1: mom-reported questionnaires
Education
Psychological functioning
Parenting
T2: teacher-reported questionnaires
Academic achievement
Parental involvement
T4: teacher-reported questionnaire

9. Results: CFA Parenting Power assertion Authoritativeness
anchor
Power assertion
Authoritativeness
Stimulation
Ineffective control
CFI = 0,997 RMSEA(IZ) = 0,05(0,00-0,17) SRMR = 0,02 χ2(1) = 1,92, p = 0,17

10. Results: CFA Maternal psychological functioning Depressive tendencies
anchor
Depressive tendencies
Optimism
Self-esteem
Satisfaction
with life
CFI = 0,99 RMSEA(IZ) = 0,07(0,00-0,15) SRMR = 0,02 χ2(2) = 4,80, p = 0,09

11. Results: CFA Academic achievement Academic achievement Grade 2 Grade 1
anchor
anchor
Math
Math
Environmental Education
Environmental Education
Slovene Language
Slovene Language
CFI = 0,99 RMSEA(IZ) = 0,11(0,07-0,15) SRMR = 0,03 χ2(6) = 30,47***

12. Results: single predictor models
Predictor Academic achievement
Maternal education: coefficient = 0,30***
Parenting: coefficient = 0,22**
School involvement: coefficient = 0,32***
Maternal psy. functioning: coefficient = 0,19**
Preschool: n.s.

13. Results: complex model
Education
Mediation test:
Parenting – AA1 – AA2 = 0,28**
0,36***
Psychological functioning
Academic achievement Grade 1
Academic achievement Grade 2
0,52***
0,86***
0,28***
0,15*
Parenting
CFI = 0,96 RMSEA(IZ) = 0,07(0,05-0,08) SRMR = 0,07 χ2(83) = 199,08***

14. Results: complex model
Education
Parental involvement
0,36***
0,40***
0,27***
Psychological functioning
Academic achievement Grade 1
Academic achievement Grade 2
0,41***
0,85***
0,26***
0,16**
Parenting
Mediation tests:
Parenting – AA1 – AA2 = 0,28**
Involvement – AA1 – AA2 = 0,21**
CFI = 0,96 RMSEA(IZ) = 0,06(0,05-0,07) SRMR = 0,07 χ2(96) = 215,67***

15. conclusions Protective factors
Possible mechanism of effect of maternal education is through her psychological functioning and parenting
Enrolement into preschool
Family-level interventions should target:
parenting : workshops, continuous seminars, counseling
parental school involvement: building teacher-parent relationship, educational seminars
psychological support for mothers: counseling

16. PROS AND CONS Structural equation modeling Longitudinal design
Large sample of children from randomly selected schools
Complex models
Errors: same reporter, hallo effect, different assessment criteria
Generalizability
Other predictors

17. Future studies
Enrolment into preschool and academic achievement: maternal eduation as a moderator
Follow-up on academic achievement in later grades

18. THANK YOU!