In Latvia this is the first year when educational reform takes place and the accent from formal teaching with teacher guided lessons is slowly moving to student’s self guided learning with the assistance of the teacher as it already is implemented in other European countries. The paradigm shift will leave it’s trails not only on students’ academic achievement but on students’ socioemotional development as well. In addition to academic achievement IEA’s (International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement) PIRLS (Progress in International Reading Literacy Study) and TIMSS (Trends In International Mathematics and Science Study) measures 4^th grade students’ socioemotional skills, i.e., self-concept with the “Self Confidence Scale”. Students’ self-confidence or academic self-concept is defined as a belief on one’s ability (Larson, 2009; Bandura, 2001; Branden, 2011) and success is very important (Pervin & Cervone, 2010).

Although the “Self Confidence Scale” varies in number and types of questions depending on a subject of the study and a year the study has been conducted. It is discovered that the strongest factor of student’s self-confidence is student’s academic achievement. Analysing the data from PIRLS 2016 and TIMSS 2019 the relationship between these concepts on international level is not so predictable. PIRLS 2016 showed that there are countries where students have both – high achievement and high self-concept, i.e., Poland, Sweden and in contrast – low achievement and low self-concept, i.e., Indonesia, Morocco, but there are countries where students have high achievement and low self-concept, i.e., Latvia, New Zeeland and low achievement and high self-concept, i.e., Georgia, Iran.

Looking down to individual students and class level it has been found that these concepts are mutually influenced (March & Craven, 2005; Mullis, Martin, Foy & Hooper, 2017), i.e., students with higher achievement have higher self-concept and vice versa, even in the class that has low academic achievement students that perform better are with higher self-confidence than peers (Johansone, 2009). In the educational system where student’s self guided learning is of significant importance it is crucial for students to know how to evaluate themselves according to their abilities and not to underestimate them. Studies have proved that persons with higher self-esteem are more self-confident (Larson, 2009). Persons with higher sense of efficacy are more productive and perform better (Hysong & Quiñones, 1997; Judge et. al., 2007; Pervin & Cervone, 2010), negative feedback affects their performance less (Mruk, 2006) and they are better in self-regulated learning (Campbell et. al., 2001; Margolis & McCabe, 2003). Higher self-concept facilitates development (Bjorklund, 2000). It is also studied that students with higher self-esteem experience less bullying (Leary, 2004) and have stronger sense of belonging to a school (Mullis, Martin, Foy & Hooper, 2017). There are plenty of studies that prove the significance of socio-economic status on students’ achievement (Mullis, Martin, Foy & Hooper, 2017) and there are studies that observed person’s self-confidence being influenced by childhood’s home environment throughout the life (Filippin & Paccagnella, 2011). It is believed (Bjorklund, 2000) that child’s home environment and first caregivers are the key persons that build his/her sense of effectiveness.

The purpose of this study is to select school and home environment factors that have impact on building student’s self-confidence from PIRLS 2016 home and students questionnaire data.

The research question is: which factors of school and home environment have a significant impact on student’s self-concept?

PIRLS 2016 data from six European countries – Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Poland, Latvia and Lithuania have been analysed with liner regression equations, Pierson’s correlation and descriptive statistics. The analysis steps were as follows: 1) to select different scales (i.e., “Student Confident in Reading Scale”, “Student Like Reading Scale”, “Could do Early Literacy Tasks When Beginning Primary School Scale”, “Parents Like Reading Scale”, “Parent’s Perception of Their Child’s School Scale”, “Safe and Orderly School Scale”, “School Discipline Scale”, “Students Engaged in Reading Lessons Scale”, “Student’s Sense of School Belonging Scale” description of the scales can be found in Mullis & Martin, 2015) from the PIRLS study as factors and find which correlate strongly with student confidence in reading; 2) to compare the national and international mean values of those scales; 3) perform linear regression to all countries of comparison to find factor dependency and significance; 4) to compare the results from linear regression analysis for all countries of comparison and select the factors, that are related with students’ self-confidence. After correlation analysis author found that from the set of chosen school factors following had the strongest correlations with student’s self-confidence: engagement in the reading lessons, sense of school belonging, bullying, school attendance. Correlations showed that attitude towards reading is very strongly correlated with student’s engagement in reading lessons, which in turn correlates with sense of belonging to school. The less bullying student experiences, the more he/she feels to belong to school. From home factors students’ self-confidence had strong correlations with ability to perform literacy tasks before beginning the first grade and home resources for learning. Other factors which had a strong correlation with self-confidence were students’ achievement in reading and enjoyment of reading. After performing a linear regression analysis author found that factor “Students Like Reading” is significant predictor of students’ self-confidence for all countries of comparison with relatively high beta coefficients varying from 0.17 to 0.25. The other significant factor for all countries of comparison was an ability to perform early literacy tasks with standardized regression coefficients varying from 0.12 to 0.22. From the set of school factors for all countries of comparison significant turned out to be the fact that students engage in reading lessons (regression coefficients varying from 0.11 to 0.17).

The answer on the question how current situation will influence the quality of education and student’s socioemotional development will be found in the data from PIRLS 2021 study, but while there are no data about it, researcher found that from PIRLS 2016 the most significant influence on building student’s self-confidence are student’s achievement in reading followed by fact that student likes reading and before beginning the first grade could do early literacy tasks. There were some factors which were not directly affecting self-confidence but were very strongly correlated with other factors that help to form students’ self-confidence, for example bullying has a stronger correlation with achievement and sense of school belonging than with self-confidence, but, as achievement has the strongest correlation with self-confidence and school belonging correlates with self-confidence too, one can say that bullying influences self-confidence directly and indirectly. Although in literature there are plenty of statements of significance of home environment on child’s development, there is not much information about that in the PIRLS 2016data . Home resources for learning have strong correlation with self-confidence, but further liner regression analysis is needed for more detailed conclusions. Further analysis will also be performed to find more school factors which help to build students self-confidence.

•Bandura A. (2001) Social Cognitive Theory: An Agentic Perspective, Annual Review of Psychology, Vol 52: 1-26 •Branden N. (2011) The six pillars of self-esteem. Brantam books, USA •Bjorklund D. F. (2000) Children’s thinking developmental function and Individual Differences 3rd edition. Whadsworth:Canada •Campbell J. R., Kelly D. L., Mullis I. V. S., Martin M. O. & Sainsbury M (2001) Framework and Specifications for PIRLS Assessment 2001. IEA PIRLS International Study Center, ASV •Filippin A. & Paccagnella M. (2011) Family Background, Self-Confidence and Economic Outcomes, The Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) Discussion Paper No. 6117, Germany •Hysong S. J. & Quiñones M. A. (1997) The Relationship Between Self-Efficacy and Performance: A Meta-Analysis. 12th Annual Conference of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology, April 11, 1997, St. Louis: USA •Johansone I. (2009). Kvalitatīvas sākumizglītības iespēju vienlīdzība Latvijā [Equity of qualitative primary education in Latvia]. Promocijas darbs [Promotion papaer], University of Latvia, Latvia •Judge T. A., Jackson C. L., Shaw J. C., Scott B. A. & Rich B. L. (2007) Self-Efficacy and Work-Related Performance: The Integral Role of Individual Differences, Journal of Applied Psychology, Vol. 92, No. 1, 107–127, American Psychological Association •Larson E. J. (2009) Educational Psychology: Cognition and Learning, Individual Differences and Motivation, Nova Science Publishers, USA •Leary M. R. (2004) The Sociometer, Self-Esteem, and the Regulation of Interpersonal Behaviour, Handbook of Self-Regulation, Research, Theory, and Applications, Boumeister R.F., Vohs K. D. (ed), The Guilford Press, USA •Margolis H. & McCabe P. (2003) Self-efficacy: A key to improving the motivation of struggling learners. Preventing school failure, 47, 4 •Marsh H. W. & Craven R. G. (2005) Reciprocal Effects of Self-concept and Achievement: Competing Multidimensional and Unidimensional Perspectives, Australian Association of Research in Education Perramatta Conference paper •Mruk J. C. (2006) Self-esteem Research, Theory and Practice Towards a Positive Psychology of Self-Esteem 3rd edition. Springer publications, USA •Mullis I. V. S., Martin M. O., Foy P. & Hooper M. (2017) PIRLS 2016 International Results in Reading, TIMSS & PIRLS International Study Center, USA •Mullis, I. V. S., & Martin, M. O. (2015). PIRLS 2016 Assessment Framework 2nd edition, Retrieved from Boston College, TIMSS & PIRLS International Study Center •Pervin L. A. & Cervone D. (2010) Personality Theory and Research 11th edition. Wiley, USA