The dynamic interaction between parents' and teachers' instructional support and affect, and children's academic performance and adjustment

This 3-year project investigated the role of parents and teachers in children's academic development across the transition from kindergarten to Grade 1. New 3-wave longitudinal data was collected in Lithuania ('Get involved!') to compare Lithuanian and Finnish data. The results showed that preschool teachers' affective relationship with children (vs instruction) was a key factor promoting children's interest in reading and math, task persistence, and self-regulation, which, in turn, facilitated the acquisition of reading and math skills in Grade 1. Parents appeared to be especially sensitive to their children's performance at the start of Grade 1 and increased their teaching/instruction in response to their children's difficulties in reading and math. Overall, these patterns of results seemed to be surprisingly similar in Finland and Lithuania—countries with transparent orthographies and similar educational systems (e.g., age of school entry, preschool curriculum).