TYPE Editorial

PUBLISHED 08 August 2023

DOI 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1258391

Editorial: The impact of home and

OPEN ACCESS school environment on early
literacy and mathematic skills
EDITED AND REVIEWED BY
Douglas F. Kauffman,
Medical University of the Americas – Nevis,
United States

*CORRESPONDENCE
Paola Bonifacci1*, Valentina Tobia2 , Tomohiro Inoue3 and
Paola Bonifacci
[email protected] George Manolitsis4
RECEIVED 13 July 2023 1
Department of Psychology, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy, 2 Faculty of Psychology, Vita-Salute
ACCEPTED 17 July 2023 San Raffaele University, Milan, Italy, 3 Department of Psychology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong,
PUBLISHED 08 August 2023
Shatin, Hong Kong SAR, China, 4 Department of Preschool Education, University of Crete, Rethymno,
CITATION Greece
Bonifacci P, Tobia V, Inoue T and Manolitsis G
(2023) Editorial: The impact of home and
school environment on early literacy and KEYWORDS
mathematic skills. Front. Psychol. 14:1258391.
doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1258391
home literacy, home numeracy, environmental factors, socioeconomic status,
bilingualism
COPYRIGHT
© 2023 Bonifacci, Tobia, Inoue and Manolitsis.
This is an open-access article distributed under
the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution
License (CC BY). The use, distribution or
reproduction in other forums is permitted, Editorial on the Research Topic
provided the original author(s) and the The impact of home and school environment on early literacy and
copyright owner(s) are credited and that the
original publication in this journal is cited, in
mathematic skills
accordance with accepted academic practice.
No use, distribution or reproduction is
permitted which does not comply with these
terms.
Introduction
Early development of literacy and mathematics skills has been shown to be a
cornerstone of children’s later academic achievement (e.g., Shanahan and Lonigan, 2010;
Watts et al., 2014). The roles of various environmental factors in the development
of cognitive and academic skills have received increasing attention from researchers,
practitioners, and parents. Current theoretical models such as the bioecological framework
(Bronfenbrenner and Morris, 2006) and neuroconstructivism (Westermann et al., 2007)
emphasize the dynamic reciprocal relationship between genetic, neurobiological, and
environmental factors in child development. In light of this, a growing number of studies
have examined the relationships between the home literacy and numeracy environment
(HLE and HNE, respectively) and the development of these academic skills (Noble
et al., 2019; for meta-analyses, see e.g., Daucourt et al., 2021). Several studies have
also shed light on the influences of environmental factors outside the home, such as
tutoring and schooling, where children primarily learn literacy and numeracy (e.g., Nag
et al., 2019). Furthermore, the profound influences of more distal environmental factors
such as family socioeconomic status (SES) and linguistic background (e.g., bilingualism)
have been well documented (e.g., Sirin, 2005; Kim et al., 2019; Dong and Chow,
2022). Despite these collective efforts in the literature, the precise mechanisms driving
the documented associations between factors inside and outside the child’s rearing
environment and literacy and numeracy development remain poorly understood. Thus,
further research is warranted to unpack the complex developmental dynamics among
these factors at different levels of analysis, including both distal and proximal factors.

Frontiers in Psychology 01 frontiersin.org

Bonifacci et al. 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1258391

In this Research Topic, we sought to address this issue Considering the importance of mathematics-related activities in
and examine how environmental factors influence children’s the home environment, Tomasetto et al. offer promising evidence,
early literacy and numeracy, namely the roots of later academic showing how a non-intensive intervention program delivered
achievement. Indeed, existing empirical studies have produced by community pediatricians can improve parents’ provision of
mixed findings that do not allow us to draw any definitive these activities.
conclusions (e.g., Noble et al., 2019; Daucourt et al., 2021). For Finally, methodological issues were addressed. Eriksson et al.
example, while most previous studies found a positive association managed an original point related to estimating the number
between HNE and children’s early numeracy (e.g., counting, of books at home as a proxy for SES. By analyzing the data
number sense), the results varied widely in terms of the strength from a large international sample, they showed unsystematic
of the associations (see Daucourt et al., 2021). Studies on the role errors in estimates of books, revealing an important risk for
of shared book reading, an important aspect of HLE, have also educational studies: The strength of the association between
reported mixed results (Noble et al., 2019). These heterogeneities books at home and achievement may generally be underestimated,
in existing findings may be due, at least in part, to the involvement particularly in low-achieving countries and/or students. Similarly,
of other (possibly confounding) factors that may affect the home Krousorati et al. noted the methodological limitations of the
environment, early numeracy/literacy, or both. This may include current literature, particularly about the conceptualization
family SES, ethnic and linguistic background (e.g., bilingualism), and measurement of the home learning environment. They
parental expectations and beliefs, parental attitudes toward literacy proposed a home learning environment questionnaire that
and numeracy, as well as parental practices (see Nag et al., 2019). goes beyond the assessment of home learning activities and
This Research Topic brings together a Research Topic of ten provides us with a wider range of information, including the
articles that explore the role of the home environment on literacy quality of parent-child interactions (support, conflict, and
and numeracy skills from preschool to primary school in different inconsistent discipline).
contexts. The contributions depict a complex picture that underlies To conclude, this Research Topic of articles highlights the
the multifaceted nature of home learning environment and of early importance of considering various aspects of children’s learning
literacy/numeracy, which includes many dimensions. environment, with the need for further validated tools that embrace
First, some studies focused on HLE and related children’s the different dimensions and extend current theoretical models
skills. Tanji and Inoue reported differential effects of subdomains of HLE and HNE. Future development should also include the
of HLE on reading skills in two different scripts of the Japanese evaluation of other environmental variables, such as the school
writing system. In particular, the dimensions evaluated were domain, and combine them into integrated models of how
parent teaching, shared book reading, and access to literacy contextual variables dynamically impact children’s early literacy
resources. The results suggested that Japanese parents might and numeracy development.
adjust their involvement according to both their children’s reading
performance and social expectations for academic achievement.
Moving to school-age children and the analysis of writing Author contributions
skills, Su et al. examined the associations between the onset age
of parental home teaching and the informal occasions of exposure All authors listed have made a substantial, direct, and
to literacy outside the home (e.g., science center, art gallery). intellectual contribution to the work and approved it
Their findings suggested a significant role of both dimensions. for publication.
Also, in a longitudinal perspective, Bigozzi et al. showed that HLE
predicted reading speed and writing accuracy from preschool to
primary school, mediated by notational awareness. From a different Conflict of interest
perspective, Aram and Yashar evaluated parents’ awareness of
children’s writing abilities. They suggested that parents’ general The authors declare that the research was conducted in the
knowledge and understanding of literacy development play a role absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be
in fostering their children’s literacy skills. construed as a potential conflict of interest.
Turning to the numeracy domain, Wei et al. revealed the role
of home numeracy practices in a longitudinal study. Specifically,
they showed a unidirectional relationship between parents’ basic Publisher’s note
teaching activities (e.g., teaching counting) and subsequent basic
number processing (i.e., digit comparison) and between advanced All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the
teaching activities (i.e., related to written numbers) and the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated
following children’s arithmetic skills. DePascale et al. add another organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the
piece to this picture by showing that home-based advanced reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or
math activities, literacy activities, and SES are all associated claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or
with strategy sophistication in solving numerical problems. endorsed by the publisher.

Frontiers in Psychology 02 frontiersin.org

Bonifacci et al. 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1258391

References
Bronfenbrenner, U., and Morris, P. A. (2006). “The bioecological model of from low- and middle-income countries. Rev. Educ. 7, 91–150. doi: 10.1002/
human development,” in Handbook of Child Psychology: Theoretical Models of Human rev3.3132
Development, eds R. M. Lerner and W. Damon (London: John Wiley and Sons,
Noble, C., Sala, G., Peter, M., Lingwood, J., Rowland, C., Gobet, F., et al. (2019). The
Inc), 793–828.
impact of shared book reading on children’s language skills_ A meta-analysis. Educ.
Daucourt, M. C., Napoli, A. R., Quinn, J. M., Wood, S. G., and Hart, S. A. (2021). Res. Rev. 28, 100290. doi: 10.1016/j.edurev.2019.100290
The home math environment and math achievement: a meta-analysis. Psychol. Bullet.
Shanahan, T., and Lonigan, C. J. (2010). The national early literacy panel. Educ. Res.
147, 565–596. doi: 10.1037/bul0000330
39, 279–285. doi: 10.3102/0013189X10369172
Dong, Y., and Chow, B. W. Y. (2022). Home literacy environment and English Sirin, S. R. (2005). Socioeconomic status and academic achievement: a meta-analytic
as a second language acquisition: a meta-analysis. Lang. Learn. Dev. 18, 485–499. review of research. Rev. Educ. Res. 75, 417–453. doi: 10.3102/00346543075003417
doi: 10.1080/15475441.2021.2003197
Watts, T. W., Duncan, G. J., Siegler, R. S., and Davis-Kean, P. E. (2014). What’s
Kim, S., Cho, H., and Kim, L. Y. (2019). Socioeconomic status and academic past is prologue: relations between early mathematics knowledge and high school
outcomes in developing countries: a meta-analysis. Rev. Educ. Res. 89, 875–916. achievement. Educ. Res. 43, 352–360. doi: 10.3102/0013189X14553660
doi: 10.3102/0034654319877155
Westermann, G., Mareschal, D., Johnson, M. H., Sirois, S., Spratling, M.
Nag, S., Vagh, S. B., Dulay, K. M., and Snowling, M. J. (2019). Home language, W., Thomas, M. S. C., et al. (2007). Neuroconstructivism. Dev. Sci. 10, 75–83.
school language and children’s literacy attainments: a systematic review of evidence doi: 10.1111/j.1467-7687.2007.00567.x

Frontiers in Psychology 03 frontiersin.org