Parental support and preschool: Do they matter for primary students’ reading literacy? Evidence from six Southeast Asian countries

As reflected in the Sustainable Development Goal 4.6, reading literacy is a cornerstone of education, which makes it essential to understand factors affecting this educational goal. With reading literacy as the educational outcome and the educational prosperity framework as the basis, three related hypotheses (H1–H3) are tested with data from the Southeast Asia Primary Learning Metrics (SEA-PLM), the first cross-country student assessment in that region. In line with current regional priorities, the study focusses on three key variables: how parental attitudes towards learning (H2) and preschool attendance (H3) mediate the effects of socio-economic status (SES, H1) on reading literacy. Moreover, other influencing variables such as gender, literacy resources at home, grade repetition, outside school activities, learning time at school, teacher absenteeism, and student interest at school are included in consideration of the complexity of factors affecting reading literacy. SmartPLS (Partial Least Squares) analyses of data from more than 31,000 primary school students (Grade 5) in over 1000 schools reveal positive effects of both, parental attitudes towards learning and preschool attendance, on primary students’ reading literacy in the six participating countries: Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, and Viet Nam. These results indicate that – over and above the strong effects of SES – policy support of interventions for improving parental attitudes towards their children’s education and preschool attendance are effective investments to benefit the reading literacy skills of students near the end of their basic education.