The findings revealed a negative relationship between STAY and reading achievement. This is
consistent with previous research that students living with parents tend to do better than those
who live with people other than their parents. These results may give credence to stress theory
(Elder, 1974), concerned with children who are physically removed from parental nurturing and
socialisation. The SACMEQ reading study questionnaire did not include information on the
number of siblings, so we were unable to confirm findings from previous research (Astone and
McLanahan, 1991; Sputa and Paulson, 1995) showing that adolescents from smaller families fare
better in reading.