Social inequalities in Irish children’s cognitive and mental health during secondary school transition: the role of the home learning environment

The transition from primary to secondary education is a pivotal stage in children’s development, often marked by a widening of socioeconomic disparities in cognitive and mental health outcomes. While formal schooling is known to shape these inequalities, less is understood about how the home learning environment (HLE) contributes to developmental outcomes, particularly when schools are disrupted, such as during COVID-19-related school closures. This study examines the extent to which the HLE accounts for socioeconomic differences in cognitive ability and mental health among Irish adolescents. Three measures of social origin are employed simultaneously: parental education, occupational social class and household income. Using longitudinal data from the Growing Up in Ireland study (Cohort ’08), we follow a nationally representative sample of children from age nine (2017–2018) to age 13 (2021–2022), capturing both the transition to secondary school and the aftermath of school closures. Regression analyses show that parental education strongly predicts cognitive ability and externalising difficulties, whereas family social class is associated with internalising problems. Several HLE indicators, including access to books, parent–child conflict and parental mental health, are significantly associated with outcomes at age 13, even after controlling for social background and pre-pandemic outcomes. However, path analysis indicates that the HLE only partially mediates these socioeconomic differences, suggesting that other mechanisms contribute to the persistence of unequal developmental trajectories during this formative period.