The science-specific home learning environment of elementary school children – how are science experiences and science talk associated with the children’s science achievement?

Figures & data

Table 1. Results of EFA for the science activities scale.

	Loadings λ
Variable	Factor 1 (λ1)	Factor 2 (λ2)	h	u
(a) Shared Reading about Science	0.54	0.26	0.37	0.6336
(b) Talking about Everyday Phenomena	0.30	0.95	1.00	0.0047
(c) Talking about Science School Topics	0.45	0.56	0.51	0.4859
(d) Experimenting	0.63	0.25	0.46	0.5359
(e) Jointly Watching Science TV Shows	0.58	0.19	0.38	0.6238

h = communality; u = uniqueness. Considerable factor loadings are in bold type.

Table 2. Results of CFA for the science activities scale. Standardized loadings within each model are shown.

	Baseline Model	Model 1	Model 2
Variable	λB	λ1	λ2
(a) Shared Reading about Science	0.551	0.622
(b) Talking about Everyday Phenomena	0.793		0.775
(c) Talking about Science School Topics	0.788		0.859
(d) Experimenting	0.588	0.662
(e) Jointly Watching Science TV Shows	0.512	0.614
AIC	37672.34	24301.07	14380.50
BIC	37733.76	24337.93	14398.93

Figure 1. Proposed model to identify direct and indirect effects between the manifest and latent variables. For each pattern of science activities identified by factor analysis, separate SEMs were calculated. Covariates are omitted in this figure.

Table 3. Descriptive statistics and bivariate correlations r between variables.

							Manifest Bivariate Correlations r
	Variable	M	SD	Min	Max	Ncmplt	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9
1	ScAchievement	517.48	76.93	220.04	736.57	3437	1
2	ScExperiences	2.24	0.65	1	4	2160	−.03	1
3	Science Talk	2.88	0.73	1	4	2165	.12***	.56***	1
4	ScBeliefsAttit	3.15	0.53	1	4	2129	.11***	.15***	.17***	1
5	HISEI	52.21	20.07	14.21	88.96	2054	.38***	−.03	.10***	.09***	1
6	Language	3.37	0.87	1	4	2940	.30***	−.04	.06**	.01	.17***	1
7	CFT	100.58	3.19	87.38	108.39	3406	.44***	−.03	.05*	.07**	.21***	.12***	1
8	Age (years)	10.39	0.51	8.83	13.33	3432	−.24***	.01	−.06**	−.05*	−.19***	−.12***	−.14***	1
9	Gender (in %)	50.50				3433	.03	−.02	.01	.03	.01	.02	−.09***	.07***	1

***p < .001; **p < .01; *p < .05. N_cmplt = Number of complete cases. ScAchievement = Science Achievement, ScExperiences = Science Experiences, ScBeliefsAttit = Parents’ Science-Specific Beliefs and Attitudes, HISEI = Highest International Socio-Economic Index of Occupational Status, CFT = Culture Fair Intelligence Test. Gender: 1 = boys.

Table 4. Results of structure equation modeling for both proposed models.

	Model 1			Model 2
Regressions	β	b	(SE)	β	b	(SE)
Science Achievement ~
HISEI	.253***	.012	(.001)	.251***	.012	(.001)
ScBeliefsAttit	.070**	.128	(.041)	.057**	.106	(.042)
Science Experiences	−.014	−.025	(.047)
Science Talk				.053*	.078	(.034)
Age	−.120***	−.223	(.036)	−.118***	−.220	(.035)
Language	.209***	.228	(.019)	.207***	.226	(.019)
CFT	.352***	.105	(.005)	.352***	.105	(.005)
Science Experiences ~
HISEI	−.050	−.001	(.001)
ScBeliefsAttit	.193***	.197	(.032)
Science talk ~
HISEI				.084***	.003	(.001)
ScBeliefsAttit				.189***	.237	(.036)
R^2			.355			.357
RMSEA			.029			.031
SRMR			.042			.043
TLI			.984			.976
CFI			.987			.989

***p < .001; **p < .01; *p < .05. R² represents the amount of explained variance in science achievement. For the measurement model of the latent variable science talk, loadings of both variables were τ-equalized. HISEI = Highest International Socio-Economic Index of Occupational Status, ScBeliefsAttit = Parents’ Science-Specific Beliefs and Attitudes, CFT = Culture Fair Intelligence Test.