Academic success is vital developmental task for school-aged children and youth in Western societies. Academic difficulties constitute a major problem of childhood in terms of prevalence, personal and societal suffering and resistance to most intervention strategies. In addition, this domain strongly predicts later (mal)adjustment in other domains (Hinshaw, 1992). Therefore, it is not surprising that vast body of studies investigated different precursors of academic achievement. Majority of these precursors were either at an individual level (e.g. child gender, intelligence, personality) or at the level of the microsystem (e.g. family, preschool, peers). The present study focuses on the predictors of academic achievement located in the microsystem, specifically on the social (maternal education, parenting, parental school involvement, enrolment into preschool) and psychological (maternal psychological functioning) characteristics of the environment. Previous research has demonstrated that these domains are significant predictors of academic achievement, even though the size of the effect was usually small. Effect of parental education on academic achievement is well established. It is believed that some of the effect of education on academic achievement is indirect – through parenting. The most consistent effect of parenting on academic achievement was found for the dimensions of responsiveness (characteristic of authoritativeness) and stimulation (e.g. Bradley, Corwyn, Burcinhal, Pipes McAdoo, & García Coll 2001). Brody and his colleagues (2002) found that maternal psychological functioning predicts her parenting. Parental school involvement is linked to later academic achievement (Izzo, Weissberg, Kasprow, & Fendrich, 1999). Andersson (1989) revealed that enrollment into preschool was linked to higher academic achievement later in school. Only few researchers tested complex models in which effects of multiple predictors in a single analysis would be considered. The aim of the present study is to verify the latent constructs of academic achievement, parenting and psychological functioning. Secondly, the aim is to test whether each predictor individually contributes to the academic achievement of the first-graders. Thirdly, the aim is to verify the single complex model with multiple predictors. We hypothesize that higher maternal education predicts her psychological functioning (optimism, satisfaction with life, self-esteem and low depressive tendencies) which predicts her parenting (authoritativeness, stimulation, low ineffective control and low power assertion) which contributes to child's academic achievement. In addition, we assumed enrolment into preschool and parental involvement contribute to the academic achievement of the first-graders. Moreover, we expected that including significant predictors in the model would weaken the path between academic achievement in the first and second grade. Elucidation of important precursors and underlying mechanisms is important in order to shape interventions and to inform policy makers in Slovenia as well as in other western (European, USA) societies.

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