Learning Difficulties and Environmental Factors: The Role of Socioeconomic Status, Maternal Literacy, and Supplementary Education

Learning difficulties refer to challenges that students may experience in understanding academic content, completing homework, or applying effective learning strategies. These difficulties may manifest as academic underachievement, reduced self-esteem, and even school dropout. Unlike specific learning disorders, learning difficulties are more strongly associated with environmental factors and are therefore considered controllable. This study aimed to examine the role of these environmental factors by comparing learning difficulties among students with different socioeconomic statuses, access to supplementary education, and maternal literacy. For this purpose, 129 students from Syed Jamaluddin Afghan School were selected using stratified sampling. Data were collected using the Colorado Learning Difficulties Questionnaire and analyzed in SPSS version 29. The results indicated that overall levels of learning difficulties in the studied population were below the average level (although 16% of the sample exhibited learning difficulties). Furthermore, students from low socioeconomic backgrounds, those whose mothers were illiterate, and those who did not attend supplementary courses demonstrated significantly higher levels of learning difficulties. It is recommended that learning difficulties receive greater attention in schools and that efforts be made to reduce them through improving teaching quality, providing remedial classes, and similar interventions.