G5 Doctoral dissertation (article)
Parental factors in the development of foundational academic skills from childhood to adolescence (2024)
Perheen rooli lukemisen ja matematiikan taitojen kehityksessä lapsuudesta nuoruuteen

Khanolainen, D. (2024). Parental factors in the development of foundational academic skills from childhood to adolescence [Doctoral dissertation]. University of Jyväskylä. JYU dissertations, 741. https://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-951-39-9902-5

JYU authors or editors

Publication details

All authors or editors: Khanolainen, Daria

eISBN: 978-951-39-9902-5

Journal or series: JYU dissertations

eISSN: 2489-9003

Publication year: 2024

Number in series: 741

Number of pages in the book: 1 verkkoaineisto (73 sivua, 54 sivua useina numerointijaksoina, 3 numeroimatonta sivua)

Publisher: University of Jyväskylä

Place of Publication: Jyväskylä

Publication country: Finland

Publication language: English

Persistent website address: https://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-951-39-9902-5

Publication open access: Openly available

Publication channel open access: Open Access channel

Abstract

The present dissertation sought to examine how reading and mathematical skills developed from childhood to adolescence and how various family-related factors predicted this development. The three studies included in the dissertation addressed important knowledge gaps by utilizing multiple longitudinal data sets with unique features and extensive follow-ups. The research findings indicated that the two methods most often used for identifying parental reading difficulties (skill assessments and self-reports) yielded nearly equivalent levels of prediction for difficulties in children suggesting that the more cost- and time-efficient method, parental self-reports, could be effectively employed on a broader scale for identifying children at family risk. Importantly, however, self-reports were only as predictive as short reading assessments when they were comprehensive and included a variety of items. It was also found that parental reading and mathematical difficulties were significantly predictive of the corresponding skills in offspring measured in childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. Parental mathematical difficulties further predicted children’s reading comprehension. The research findings also suggested that comorbid reading and mathematical difficulties were more prevalent than single difficulties in these domains. Moreover, the learners with single difficulties often underperformed in the other domain, most noticeably in early grades. Finally, out of all home learning activities organized with pre-school children, shared reading was the only positive predictor of children’s skills measured at school age. At the same time parental academic support offered at school age was negatively associated with children’s skills suggesting that parents recognized and tried to remediate their children’s difficulties. Nevertheless, the gaps in skills between low-performing and typically performing children not only persisted but widened over time. Notably, parental own difficulties were not associated with the amount of any learning activities.

Keywords: children (age groups); children (family members); young people; literacy; text comprehension; reading disorders; mathematical skills; learning difficulties; families; learning environment; effects (results); heritability; doctoral dissertations

Free keywords: reading fluency; reading comprehension; arithmetic fluency; family risk; home learning environment; reading difficulties; mathematical difficulties

Contributing organizations

Ministry reporting: Yes

VIRTA submission year: 2024