Structures of multivariables affecting literacy: Cluster analysis

Abstract

Early literacy skills, the foundational abilities necessary for the development of literacy, must be examined holistically in preschool children. This study aimed to investigate early literacy skills in preschool children and determine how variables related to literacy development can be clustered by using a dendrogram. The study was conducted on 166 preschool children (75 female, 91 male; mean age: 65.9±4.4 months). Hierarchical cluster analysis (CA) was used to find the variable clustering trends. The 44 variables related to literacy (sociodemographic factors related to the child and family, child–parent relationship, child’s behavior, and social, sensory integration, motor, and auditory linguistic skills) that were closest to each other in the dendrogram were clustered, and the situation was summarized by reducing them to two main clusters and six sub-clusters. This study elaborates on the implications of reducing multivariate complexity using CA. It is recommended that the relationships among the variables in this dendrogram structure are considered when new hypotheses and studies related to early literacy are designed.