Parents play a major role in their children’s education (Neuman, 1996; Baker, 2003). As pointed out by Parcel and Bixby (2016) parents' working conditions, including occupational complexity and work schedules, influence children's home environments as well as their children's development. They also proved that family social capital is more important than school social capital in influencing both cognitive and social outcomes of child (Parcel & Bixby, 2016). Large number of studies show that parents are associated with children’s reading achievement (e.g., Kush, Watkins, & Brookhart, 2005; Olofson & Niedersoe, 1999; Weinberger, 1996), for example parents’ educational level shows a strong relationship with third graders reading achievement (Myrberg & Rosen, 2006). Chiu and Ko (2008) claim that high school is the critical level of mothers’ education on fostering children’s literacy development. As proven by Myrberg and Rosen by PIRLS 2001 data analysis of Swedish students, well-educated parents use their knowledge to create an educational environment for their children (Myrberg & Rosen, 2009). Of all school subjects, reading has been found to be most sensitive to parental influences (Senechal & LeFevre, 2002) although the benefits of parental involvement extend beyond the realm of literacy and educational achievement (Clark, 2007).

In this paper changes on parents influence on children’s reading literacy is studied. It has been 17 years since the first IEA PIRLS study of 4^th grade students reading literacy. As mentioned above, there has always been a strong parental influence on the achievement, but during 21^st century parents have changed, so has their characteristics. The research question of this paper is: how has the influence of parental characteristic on primary school children’s reading literacy changed during last 17 years?

The objective of the research is find out how changes in society (e.g. higher average level of parents education, less number of printed books at home etc.) have influenced the impact parents make on their children’s reading literacy achievement.

In this study IEA PIRLS 2001, 2006, 2011, and 2016 data from parents’ questionnaires and students’ achievement are used to analyze parents influence on students’ reading literacy. Data about countries’ socioeconomic background are also used. The countries of the research interest are those European countries which participated in two or more cycles of PIRLS study. Research unit is a country. Panel data analyze has been performed. Panel data method is appropriate when the researcher has available observations that are both cross-sectional and time series. This method makes it possible to follow changes in previous years but actually give effect in a longer period of time.

In the dynamically changing social environment new methods for children’s early reading development will be needed. Part of old indicators of high achievement might lose its’ significance. This research is a try too look behind this curtain of what we already know into the future of different parents and their children in a diverse set of European countries. Outcomes of the study could be a source of recommendations for parents, policy makers, teachers and education experts.

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