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Home Socioeconomic Status – Parents’ Reports

Home socioeconomic status has a strong relationship with fourth-grade students’ achievement in mathematics and science. Higher socioeconomic status is associated with greater average achievement. The TIMSS 2023 Home Socioeconomic Status scale (Exhibit 3.1.1) is based on parents’ reports about the number of books and children’s books in the home, as well as self-reported parental education level and occupation.

Based on these reports, students were classified as “higher,” “middle,” or “lower,” socioeconomic status. On average internationally, 30% of students were classified as having “higher” home socioeconomic status, 48% were classified as having “middle” home socioeconomic status, and 22% were classified as having “lower” home socioeconomic status. These percentages varied widely across countries. There are relatively large achievement differences across the three groups for both mathematics and science. Average achievement differences are particularly large between the “higher” and “lower” home socioeconomic status groups (85 points in mathematics and 91 points in science). In mathematics (Exhibit 3.1.2), students with “higher” home socioeconomic status had an average achievement of 544, students with “middle” home socioeconomic status had an average achievement of 502, and students with “lower” home socioeconomic status had an average achievement of 459. There is a similar pattern in science achievement (Exhibit 3.1.3): students with “higher” home socioeconomic status had an average achievement of 535, students with “middle” home socioeconomic status had an average achievement of 490, and students with “lower” home socioeconomic status had an average achievement of 444.

Mathematics Grade 4

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Higher Socioeconomic Status

Middle Socioeconomic Status

Lower Economic Status

Exhibit 3.1.1: Home Socioeconomic Status – Parents’ Reports

About the Scale

Students were scored according to their parents’ reports regarding the four indicators on the Home Socioeconomic Status scale. Cut scores divide the scale into three categories. Students with Higher socioeconomic status had a score at or above the cut score corresponding to their parents reporting they had more than 25 books and more than 25 children’s books in their home, that at least one parent finished university, and that at least one parent had a professional occupation, on average. Students with Lower socioeconomic status had a score at or below the cut score corresponding to their parents reporting they had 25 or fewer books and 25 or fewer children’s books in the home, that neither parent had gone beyond upper-secondary education, and that neither parent was a small business owner or worked in a clerical or professional occupation, on average. All other students had Middle socioeconomic status.

Number of books in the home:

0–10
11–25
26–100
101–200
More than 200

Number of children’s books in the home:

0–10
11–25
26–50
51–100
More than 100

Highest level of education of either parent:

Finished some primary or lower-secondary or did not go to school
Finished lower-secondary
Finished upper-secondary
Finished post-secondary education
Finished university or higher

Highest level of occupation of either parent:

Has never worked outside home for pay, general laborer, or semi-professional (skilled agricultural or fishery worker, craft or trade worker, plant or machine operator)
Clerical (clerk or service or sales worker)
Small business owner
Professional (corporate manager or senior official, professional, or technician or associate professional)

Higher

Middle

Lower

11.1

8.7

Scale Cut Scores

This TIMSS context questionnaire scale was established in 2019 based on the combined response distribution of countries that participated in TIMSS 2019. To provide a point of reference for country comparisons, the scale centerpoint of 10 was located at the mean of the combined distribution. The units of the scale were chosen so that 2 scale score points corresponded to the standard deviation of the distribution.

( ) Standard errors appear in parentheses. Because of rounding some results may appear inconsistent.

An “r” indicates data are available for at least 70% but less than 85% of the students.

An “s” indicates data are available for at least 50% but less than 70% of the students.

An “x” indicates data are available for at least 40% but less than 50% of the students—interpret with caution.

A “y” indicates data are available for less than 40% of the students.

A dash (-) indicates comparable data not available.

SOURCE: IEA’s Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study – TIMSS 2023

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