Determining the Parental Variables That Explain Students’ Reading Success by Using CHAID Analysis

Abstract

The importance of reading skills both in daily life and in other courses, the fact that PISA 2009 parent questionnaire was not conducted in Turkey and that the relationship between parental variables and reading skills was not investigated within the framework of this questionnaire necessitate this study. The purpose of this study is to determine the parental variables that explain the reading skills success scores of the students with the information gathered from the parent questionnaire and students’ answers to the selected items of the PISA 2009 reading literacy test. Using the correlational model, this study has been carried out with 170 10th graders in Ankara and their parents. Data consists of information gathered from the parent questionnaire and the responses students give to the selected items of the PISA 2009 reading literacy test. Explanatory variables of the reading skills of the students have been determined with one of the decision trees methods, CHAID analysis. According to the findings of the study, it was found that the students whose parents think that most of the teachers in their school are qualified in their field and devoted to their work have higher scores in terms of reading success.