Parents and More: The Multidimensional Factors Involved in Children’s Cognitive Achievements

ABSTRACT

The association between parents’ work–family conflicts and children’s academic outcomes is an understudied topic. The present research investigates the role of quadratic measures—parental working hours’ scale, parental age, parental interaction quality, and learning materials at home—in children’s cognitive outcomes. It employs a community sample of 91 children aged 4–5 years, their parents and their kindergarten teachers. The results indicate that parents’ interaction quality and learning materials at home are the main factors affecting children’s academic outcomes. Notably, mothers provide higher interaction quality than fathers. Parental education and age play roles in children’s academic outcomes, but probably in a less direct manner and likely indirectly through learning materials. “Working hours” is a factor associated with the interaction quality affecting mothers to a higher degree. The results are discussed in terms of resource allocation modality; they emphasize the importance of parental interaction quality in shaping children’s cognitive environment and development.

KEYWORDS:

• Cognitive growth
• parental interaction quality
• home environment
• learning materials
• parental career

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Edna Orr

Edna Orr, The head of the Quantitative Unit for Final project M.Ed. and M.Ed Thesis supervisor in “Gordon academic college of education”, Haifa. Her research focuses on the cognitive development of infants and children. The essential cognitive skills that she explored pertain to play, language, early literacy, and school readiness, which were examined from a dynamic perspective that considers the ecological and personal factors involved in the developmental process. This inclusive trajectory seeks a better understanding of the mechanisms involved in development.

Rinat Caspi

Rinat Caspi, Ph.D. Over 16 years of teaching and studying early childhood education and special education. Currently works at the Givat Washington Academic College of Education. She is the head of the Department of Education and a member of the Research Authority in Givat Washington Academic College. Her fields of expertise: mediated learning experience, kindergarten teachers, kindergarten assistants, the process of training pre-service kindergarten teachers, and the implications of media consumption among children.