The study used only quantitative methods to collect data, that came from the fourth sweep of the Millennium Cohort Study (MSC). The article describes the Millennium Cohort Study as a longitudinal birth cohort study, which offers a large-scale information about the ‘New Century Children’ and their family in the UK. The sample for the surveys was a clustered and disproportionately stratified. The sample selection is adequate and has a clear rationale, as it include children born in UK in 2000/01 that were largely identify from Child Benefit records. The fourth sweep was carried out in 2007, 2008 when the cohort child reached the age of 7 that is the developmental age of the current study. It achieved a response of 72.2% of the target sample.
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Children’s outcomes were rated in relation to all children of the same age group. Teacher’s observations of children were preferred to the national standardised test results because, as the article reports, provide a better picture of the child.
Maternal affect: patterns related to maternal affection with responses ranging from’1’= ‘never’ to ‘5’ = ‘always’ (for questions such as ‘how often do you express your affection by hugging, kissing?’) and ‘1’ = ‘not very close’ to ‘4’ = ‘extremely close’ (for questions such as ‘how close would you say you are to child?’) were individualized through the exploratory factor analysis.
Home learning support: responses were obtained through the Likert five-point scale, ranging from ‘1’ = ‘every day’ to ‘5’= ‘less often’ for questions such as ‘how often do you read to your child?’.
Maternal reading habits: a measure indicative of mothers’ habit of reading for pleasure was implemented with responses ranging from ‘1’= ‘every day’ to ‘7’= ‘less often or …show more content…
According to Hartas, the strengths of the study are represented by the children’s participation. It gave children a ‘voice’ in matter regarding them. The examination of all what regards and surround the child, such as parents qualifications, family’s income, child’s attitude to school, teachers’ observations, gives us a whole picture of the child and the multiple and dynamic factors that surround his/her life.
Examining home learning environment and its socio-economic status helps us to reflect about the need to support families with low incomes and low educational qualifications in enhance a general culture for learning.
Limitations mothers completed part of the surveys. The author suggests that a possible weakness of this study regard the reliability of mothers’ self-completed reports information. In fact there is a possible discrepancy between mother’s self-report and actual behaviour. As recognized in the paper, teachers completed the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire and as well this can bring possible discrepancy.
The author explains also that the analyses of secondary data can have limitations. However, Hartas confirms that the validity of the MCS data is of the highest standards because of the technical expertise involved in MSC longitudinal
Children’s outcomes were rated in relation to all children of the same age group. Teacher’s observations of children were preferred to the national standardised test results because, as the article reports, provide a better picture of the child.
Maternal affect: patterns related to maternal affection with responses ranging from’1’= ‘never’ to ‘5’ = ‘always’ (for questions such as ‘how often do you express your affection by hugging, kissing?’) and ‘1’ = ‘not very close’ to ‘4’ = ‘extremely close’ (for questions such as ‘how close would you say you are to child?’) were individualized through the exploratory factor analysis.
Home learning support: responses were obtained through the Likert five-point scale, ranging from ‘1’ = ‘every day’ to ‘5’= ‘less often’ for questions such as ‘how often do you read to your child?’.
Maternal reading habits: a measure indicative of mothers’ habit of reading for pleasure was implemented with responses ranging from ‘1’= ‘every day’ to ‘7’= ‘less often or …show more content…
According to Hartas, the strengths of the study are represented by the children’s participation. It gave children a ‘voice’ in matter regarding them. The examination of all what regards and surround the child, such as parents qualifications, family’s income, child’s attitude to school, teachers’ observations, gives us a whole picture of the child and the multiple and dynamic factors that surround his/her life.
Examining home learning environment and its socio-economic status helps us to reflect about the need to support families with low incomes and low educational qualifications in enhance a general culture for learning.
Limitations mothers completed part of the surveys. The author suggests that a possible weakness of this study regard the reliability of mothers’ self-completed reports information. In fact there is a possible discrepancy between mother’s self-report and actual behaviour. As recognized in the paper, teachers completed the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire and as well this can bring possible discrepancy.
The author explains also that the analyses of secondary data can have limitations. However, Hartas confirms that the validity of the MCS data is of the highest standards because of the technical expertise involved in MSC longitudinal