The relationship between students' behaviour at home and attention and achievement in elementary school

Abstract

In this study a model is proposed in which attention in the classroom is supposed to mediate the relationship between home background factors and achievement in school. Home background factors in the study were the socioeconomic status of the parents (SES) and the amount of problem behaviour of the child at home. The latter was supposed to be an indicator of the adequacy of parental discipline practices. For attention a distinction is made between a behavioural component termed attentional behaviour, and a cognitive component termed attention regulation. The effects of attention were studied for two domains of achievement, namely reading comprehension and arithmetic. The model was tested by means of structural equations modelling in a sample (N = 376) of 9-year-old children attending grade 6 of regular elementary schools in the Netherlands. The results showed that attention can be considered as an important mediator between home problem behaviour and achievement in school. The absence of problem behaviour at home had a substantial positive relationship with attention, the latter having moderate effects on arithmetic achievement and reading comprehension. No effects of SES on attention were found. Distinguishing between attentional behaviour and attention regulation, it appeared that the latter is equally related to both types of achievement. Interestingly, however, classroom attentional behaviour was more closely related to arithmetic achievement than to reading comprehension. Finally, SES appeared not to be related to arithmetic achievement but exerted a small direct effect on reading comprehension.