This mixed methods project examines home learning environments in Danish families. The project establishes a typology of different learning environments and uses panel data to examine to which degree different types of home learning environments supports children’s development of cognitive and non-cognitive skills. In the project, we thus ask the following research questions: 1. What are the different types of home learning environments in Danish families? 2. What is the relationship between home learning environments and children’s cognitive and non-cognitive skills?

In this paper presentation, we focus on the first, qualitative part of the research project, and we present an outline of a typology of Danish home learning environments – a typology we will apply in later surveys to investigate if certain types of home learning environments are particularly likely to foster the development of children’s cognitive and non-cognitive skills.

A large body of research finds positive correlations between a good quality home learning environment and children’s outcomes (see Watkins & Howard 2015 for an overview). While most home learning environment studies conceptualizes the characteristics of the home learning environment gradationally, by using scales for measuring, e.g., hours spent on reading, number of books, etc., only a few studies approach the home learning environment categorically in trying to capture distinctively different types of home learning environments (see Suizzo, Pahlke, Yarnell, Chen, & Romero 2014, and Suizzo & Stapleton 2007). Inspired by scholars like Baumrind (1966), Kohn (1969) and in particular Lareau (2011) and her work on child rearing practices, we identify qualitatively different sociocultural types of home learning environments in a socioeconomically representative sample of 40 Danish families with children aged 3-6.  

The project uses mixed methods to a) qualitatively outline a typology of Danish home learning environments, and b) operationalize this typology in representative surveys using multiple generation data from the Danish Longitudinal Survey of Youth (DLSY). In the surveys we plan to ask parents, now 3rd generation in the panel, about home learning environments, and to measure their children’s cognitive and non-cognitive skills at two points in time (at age 3 and 6). Data for the qualitative part of the project is collected through two methodological strategies, sampling 40 families from the DLSY: a digital diary and semi-structured qualitative interview. First, the parent(s) use a smartphone diary app for a 12-week period. Each week the parent receive questions and assignments on different topics related to home learning environments, and in addition, the parent(s) are urged to upload diary clips to the app (notes, photos, videos, sound clips). After about 4 months, we conduct in-depth semi-structured qualitative interviews of approximately 90 minutes with the parent(s) based on the texts, photos, videos and audio files that they have uploaded to the app.

In the qualitative part of the project, we will produce a typology of home learning environments in Danish families with children aged 3 to 6. The typology will capture the amount and type of activities in the families (including everyday home learning activities, parenting style, emotional climate of the home, parental expectations, parental network, etc.). We expect to outline 4-6 sociocultural types of home learning environments and we will discuss how these different types of home learning environments relate to the socioeconomic characteristics of the families.

Baumrind, D. (1966). Effects of Authoritative Parental Control on Child Behavior. Child Development,, 37(4). Kohn, M. L. (1969). Class and conformity; a study in values. Homewood, Ill.: Dorsey Press. Lareau, A. (2011). Unequal Childhoods. Class, Race, and Family Life (Second Edition ed.): University of California Press. Suizzo, M.-A., Pahlke, E., Yarnell, L., Chen, K.-Y., & Romero, S. (2014). Home-Based Parental Involvement in Young Children's Learning Across U.S. Ethnic Groups: Cultural Models of Academic Socialization. Journal of Family Issues, 35(2), 254-287. Suizzo, M.-A., & Stapleton, L. M. (2007). Home-Based Parental Involvement in Young Children's Education: Examining the Effects of Maternal Education across U.S. Ethnic Groups. Educational Psychology, 27(4), 533-556.