Books can open up new worlds for children and young people, but their mere presence isn’t enough – they need to have the time, confidence and support to read them, finds this Social Psychology of Education article…
For many years, researchers have used the number of books in a family home as an indicator of socioeconomic status and educational opportunity. But what does this measure actually capture? A new study of families in Spain by Birgit Heppt, Anna Volodina, Patricia A. Iglesias and Melanie Revilla offers us an insight, finding that children’s books appear to be more important than adults’ books when it comes to explaining pupils’ achievement.
Book study methodology
The study analysed data from 332 parents of primary school children in Grades 1, 3 and 5 in Spain. Parents estimated the number of adult and children’s books in their homes through open-ended questions – and a subset was also asked to photograph the books in their homes.
The researchers then examined how these measures related to children’s grades in Spanish and mathematics, parental education and the home literacy environment – including shared reading, library visits and family attitudes towards reading.
What researchers found
When parents answered open-ended questions, the number of children’s books (but not the number of adults’ books) helped explain pupils’ grades in Spanish and mathematics beyond child gender and parental education.
However, the link was not strong and so the study does not demonstrate that higher grades are directly attributable to these books. That said, the result supports the idea that children’s books provide accessible resources for learning and parent-child interaction. A selection of age-appropriate books may therefore create more opportunities for children to read, discuss stories and develop their language skills.
The researchers also expected the home literacy environment to connect books with achievement. Interestingly, although children’s books were positively associated with a richer home literacy environment, this was not significantly related to grades in Spanish or mathematics in this study. As a result, the researchers could not test whether the home literacy environment significantly helped with the relationship between books and achievement.
Moving forward
The presence of books in the home can offer researchers valuable information, but the study shows it should not be regarded as a complete measure of family resources or children’s potential.
Books are important because of how they are used, but their presence alone isn’t enough, and the paper recommends that schools, parents and policymakers ensure they focus on creating the time, confidence and support needed to make reading a shared part of family life.
Reference
- Heppt, B., Volodina, A., Iglesias, P.A. et al. Number of books at home and student achievement: new insights from two assessment methods and their interplay with the home literacy environment. Soc Psychol Educ 29, 36 (2026). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11218-026-10198-x
