Il ruolo della relazione madre-bambino sul rendimento scolastico: Uno studio longitudinale.

The role of mother-child relationship on child’s school achievement: a longitudinal study. Academic achievement represents a core aspect of children’s adjustment. Research has shown that early cognitive abilities and social relationships with teachers and peers play a crucial role in determining it (Alexander, Entwisle, Blyth & Pipes McAdoo,1988). Much less is known on if and how children’s relationship with their mothers affects school outcome (Pianta & Harbers, 1996). In this study we addressed this gap following a group of 68 Italian children (40 boys) from the last year of preschool (mean age: 5 years and 6 months) until the third year of primary school (mean age: 8 years and 6 months). The main aim was to examine the link between mothers’ perception of the relationship with the child evaluated through the Child-Parent Relationship Scale (Pianta, 1992) and children’s later school achievement, controlling for children’s verbal ability and mothers’ socioeconomic status. Results showed that Time 1 mother-child conflict and dependency (but not closeness) predict unique variance in children’s school achievement at Time 2, after the effects of verbal ability and mother socioeconomic status are removed.