Socioeconomic background, maternal parenting style, and the language ability of five- and six-year-old children

Abstract

We examined the pathways through which language ability components, such as reading and writing at the age of 5, and socioeconomic and environmental variables, such as maternal parenting style, affect the language ability of children in the first grade. The focal point of this study's structural modeling analysis was that family socioeconomic factors of income and parental education level directly affect children's vocabulary power and, through mothers' parenting style, affect their language test scores at the age of 5. In turn, the scores of language tests done during a child's first grade year reflect the age 5 test scores. Thus, it was found that language ability is affected by socioeconomic factors. Results also indicate that, for young children, parenting style has a great impact on childhood language ability. © Society for Personality Research.