INVESTIGATING THE ASSOCIATION OF PARENTAL INFLUENCE AND CHILDREN'S SCHOOL READINESS AND EARLY ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT: AN ANALYSIS USING EARLY CHILDHOOD LONGITUDINAL STUDY - KINDERGARTEN (ECLS-K)

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the associations between parental and social factors, parents' academic belief systems and parenting practices, and its influence on children's school readiness and early academic achievement. Efforts to do so involved utilizing the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study - Kindergarten (ECLS-K) First Grade Data to investigate the relationship between parental academic beliefs and parenting behaviors and its association with predicting children's kindergarten readiness (spring kindergarten cognitive and social development assessment scores) and early academic achievement (spring first grade cognitive and social development assessment scores). Significant findings from this study provide evidence that parental attitudes and parenting behaviors do impact children's cognitive and social-developmental performance in kindergarten and first grade. However, those parental beliefs and behaviors that are significant predictors of children's cognitive and social development readiness in kindergarten were not as significant in predicting children's first grade performance on these measures. Such phenomena raises important questions with respect to the necessity of educational institutions having a better understanding of the influential role parents play in their young children's education. Findings from this study also encourages the broadening of the definition of school readiness to not only acknowledge the influence of various parental and social factors on the development of parents' academic beliefs for their children, but also how these beliefs in turn shape those parenting practices that are important for children's school readiness and academic achievement.