Homes filled with books give some adolescents a leg up: study

A bookish adolescent who ended school at year 9 but grew up in a home with large library is likely to be just as literate as a university graduate whose home lacked books. That’s according to a new study that collected Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies data from just under 163,000 participants across 31 countries, including Australia. The positive effect of books was just as potent for numeracy as it was for literacy. The researchers said the effect was weaker for digital skills, but still significant. Lead author Dr Joanna Sikora, from Australian National University, said the study shows that homes full of books can compensate for some educational disadvantage. Sikora said this suggests that books are part of a culture of learning, not just a symbol of cultural status. The authors said the findings stand in opposition to the theory that cultural capital “has no relationship to concrete skills and, instead, functions as a signal that legitimises the social exclusion of non-elite persons”. Sikora said: "Early exposure to books in the parental home matters because books are an integral part of routines and practices which enhance lifelong cognitive competencies.” The average size of home libraries varied between countries. In Estonia, there was an average of 218 books while there was 143 and 114 in the UK and the US, respectively. Australian homes reached above the overall average across the 31 countries of 115 books, with 148. The authors didn’t pin down an exact reason behind the link between home libraries and literacy, numeracy and digital skills. But they suggested possible explanations such as the simple availability of the books to read, children following their parents' examples, and family practices such as storytelling, imaginative play and charades.

Homes filled with books give some adolescents a leg up: study

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