The influence of school and home context on emergent literacy in kindergartens: a longitudinal study

The negative influence of economic and socio-cultural disadvantage on students’ literacy performances is widely documented. Less investigated is the effect of schooling to counterbalance the predictive effect exerted by inequality in the family context. This study aims to investigate longitudinally, in 193 kindergartens, the impact of the family context (Parents’ Occupation and Educational Level-PE-, Home Literacy) and school’s educational program on emergent literacy skills (phonological awareness, notational skills and textual competence). GLMs confirm that the lowest PE-level is associated with low levels of emergent literacy performance. However, after a year of schooling, while the lower groups remain significantly lower than their peers, the medium-PE group closes the gap that separated them from the advantaged group in notational and phonological skills.