The impact of family background variables on the reading skills of children in elementary schools

Educational studies indicate that various aspects of family background have an impact on the educational success of students. Among those, socio-economic status, multilingualism and migration background are the most relevant variables. The findings of these studies show that disparities resulting from immigration and social contexts cause lower reading skills. However, it is not known if these disparities are already significant during the first years of school. This longitudinal study examines the disparities resulting from immigration, linguistic and social background at the end of first and second grade. Students (n=992) from the federal state of Schleswig-Holstein were tested. Information on family background was gathered through aparental questionnaire. Reading skills were measured using astandardized test procedure. The results reveal that, when controlling for socio-economic status and intelligence, migration background and multilingualism do not have significant influence on reading skills as of the end of second grade.