The effect of perceived parents' attitude on elementary school students' attitude toward reading and Turkish lesson academic achievements

The aim of this study is to research the effects of parent attitudes perceived by 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th grade students on their attitude towards reading and their Turkish lesson academic success.The working group of the study is constituted by 569 students who study at three primary schools, two are public and one is private school, (one is low, one is middle and one is upper socio-economic status) in Istanbul in 2011-2012 academic year. "Parent Attitude Scale", "Elementary Reading Attitude Survey" and "Individual Information Form" were applied to the working group. Besides, 2011-2012 Academic Year 1st Term Turkish Lesson Academic Record were used in order to determine the academic success level of the students in Turkish lesson.SPSS-15.0 package program was used during the data analysis of this quantitative study. 't test', 'one way variance analysis' (ANOVA) and "correlation" were used. In consequence of the study, it is understood that gender factor has an effect on perceived father attitudes while it does not have an effect on perceived mother attitudes. Grade level of the students, family's level of income and education level are also determined to cause some differences in terms of perceived mother-father attitudes. It is also found that parent attitudes have effect on the reading attitudes and academic success of the students participated in the research and family's level of income, education level and students' grade levels cause some differences as well. Key Words: Parent attitudes, reading attitude, academic success