Parental Support, Growth Mindset, and Children’s Reading Literacy in South Korea

• In Event: Redefining Korean Families and Their Roles in Children’s Academic Success in South Korea

Proposal

Children’s reading literacy develops throughout their lives under the influence of individual and family factors and plays a crucial role in their academic achievement by serving as the foundation for learning across subjects. While previous research has proven that parental support and children's growth mindset are influential factors in explaining children’s academic achievement, there is limited understanding specifically focused on reading literacy. In addition, existing literacy studies predominantly explored individual and family factors in terms of reading strategy, modeling, and performance.
Accordingly, this study aims to address the research gap by examining the relationships among parental support, children’s growth mindset, and children’s reading literacy in South Korea while controlling for children’s background characteristics. The research questions are as follows: (1) How does parental support influence children's growth mindset? (2) Does children's growth mindset mediate the effects between parental support and children’s reading literacy?
Using data from 15-year-old South Korean students (N=4,161) who participated in the 2018 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), the author conducted ordinary least squares (OLS) regression analyses to explore the interplay between parental support, children’s growth mindset, and children’s reading literacy while controlling for variables indicating children’s background characteristics. Children’s reading literacy was measured by the performance of South Korean students in the reading literacy. The control variables pertaining to children’s background encompassed individual factors (gender, attitude towards reading, current and past additional instructions in Korean literacy, early childhood education) and family factors (highest parental occupational status, parental education, family wealth, home educational resources, parental objectified cultural capital, number of books in home).
Results showed that the relationship between parental support and children’s reading literacy was partially mediated by children’s growth mindset after controlling for children’s background factors. Both the effect of parental support on children's growth mindset and the mediating effect of children's growth mindset were found to be significant. Specifically, a one-unit increase in parental support was associated with an approximate 7-point increase in Korean children's reading literacy, while a one-unit increase in children's growth mindset was associated with a 4.52-point increase. Furthermore, approximately 7.5% of the influence of parental support on children's reading literacy was mediated by children's growth mindset. These findings highlight the potential for reducing educational inequality in enhancing children's reading literacy, irrespective of their background, and shed light on the underlying mechanism linking parental support, growth mindset, and children's reading literacy.

Authors

• Seoyoung Lim, Ewha Womans University, Seoul, Korea

• Soo-yong Byun, Penn State University