Family socioeconomic status and Chinese preschoolers’ early academic skills: parenting style and self-regulation as sequential mediators / El nivel socioeconómico familiar y las competencias académicas tempranas de los preescolares chinos: el estilo de crianza y la autorregulación infantil como mediadores secuenciales

Abstract

Family socioeconomic status (SES) has been widely reported to relate to children’s academic achievement, but limited research has focused on the link between SES and Chinese preschoolers’ early academic outcomes, or the underlying mechanism through which family SES influences children’s early academic skills. This study examined the relations between family SES and Chinese preschool children’s early academic skills (i.e., literacy and numeracy) as well as the mediating role of parenting style (i.e., authoritative and authoritarian parenting) and self-regulation in this association. Participants were 307 children aged 5–6 years old and their parents from four kindergartens in Shanghai, China. Results of structural equation modelling indicated that: (1) family SES was positively related to preschool children’s early literacy and numeracy skills; (2) authoritative parenting partially mediated the relation between family SES and children’s literacy skills; authoritarian parenting was not identified as a significant mediator in this relationship; (3) authoritative and children’s self-regulation sequentially mediated the relationship between family SES and children’s literacy and numeracy skills. Implications for early childhood education and suggestions for further studies were discussed.