Home environment and reading achievement research has been largely dominated by a focus on
early reading acquisition, while research on the relationship between home environments and
reading success with preadolescents (Grades 4-6) has been largely overlooked. There are other
limitations as well. Clarke and Kurtz-Costes (1997) argued that prior research has failed to
examine the relationship between certain home environment variables and achievement of
children of poverty. For example, if having a television (and television viewing) does have
positive influences on children’s developing academic skills, one might expect similar effects to
be found in economically-disadvantaged homes where children typically have fewer educational
resources available to them, such as books and other literacy materials.