Examining the influence of family socioeconomic status indicators and other family factors on children’s pre-academic skills

We examined the relationship between individual and cumulative components of family socioeconomic status (SES), controlled variables, and the development of pre-academic skills in reading, writing, and numeracy among children aged 4–6 using correlation analysis and hierarchical linear regression models. We examined two samples, comprising 1087 and 776 children, respectively. For each participant, the Parent Survey and Teacher Survey of the Early Childhood Developmental Screening Toolkit (E-BAASIK; acronym in Latvian) were completed by the children’s parents and teachers, respectively. The results indicated that certain individual SES indicators, such as parental education and employment, alongside controlled variables (e.g. the child’s gender, health of the child and mother, number of children in the family, and others in various combinations across skill models), weakly but significantly predicted pre-academic skills. Cumulative SES also emerged as a significant predictor in all regression models for pre-academic skills, although these models explained a slightly smaller proportion of the variance than those that incorporated individual SES components. The findings did not support the conclusion that family SES indicators are particularly useful in predicting parent- and teacher-assessed pre-academic skills, as these models showed limited strength in the socioeconomic context of Latvia. We accordingly discuss implications for stakeholders.