The relationship between parental attitudes and children's academic readiness for first-grade entry

Abstract

This study investigated the relationship of both mother's and father's attitudes to their child's academic readiness for first grade. The five parental attitudes considered were: Creativity, Frustration, Control, Play, and Teaching-Learning. Academic readiness was defined in terms of pre-reading and quantitative skills. Sixty kindergarten children and their parents completed the Metropolitan Readiness Test (MRT) and the Parent as a Teacher (PAAT) Inventory, respectively. Correlation coefficients were computed between the MRT Pre-Reading Composite and Quantitative scores, and the five subset and total scores of the PAAT. Multiple regression analyses were performed to determine the best possible predictors of children's MRT scores. Results showed that parental attitudes have a significant influence on children's academic readiness. When the total sample of parents and children were considered, parents having positive attitudes concerning their children's creative development, play, and the teaching-learning process had children with correspondingly higher pre-reading skills. Control for parent sex showed that this was a significant differential factor, but other factors were found to have stronger effects. Control for both parent and child sex indicated that girls are strongly influenced by their mothers' attitudes. For mothers with college degrees, the relationship to their children’s quantitative readiness was negative. Fathers with college degrees possessed attitudes which favorably influenced their children's pre-reading readiness. No definite trend was found when controlling for family income, indicating that a broader measure of socioeconomic status may be a more useful control variable.