Assessing Shared Reading in Families at Risk: Does Quantity Predict Quality?

Area of Science:

• Child Development
• Literacy Studies
• Parenting Research

Background:

• Early at-home reading quantity and quality significantly impact literacy development.
• While reading frequency is a common intervention metric, it may not fully represent interaction quality, such as print referencing.
• Print referencing during reading is crucial for language and literacy acquisition.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the association between reported reading frequency and duration with parent and child print referencing.
• To control for factors like parenting self-efficacy, developmental knowledge, and child sex in the analysis.
• To understand how different aspects of reading contribute to early literacy interactions.

Main Methods:

• Secondary analysis of baseline data from 30 parent-child dyads (ages 1;1-2;3).
• Parents reported weekly reading frequency and duration.
• Parent-child book-sharing interactions were coded for print referencing behaviors.

Main Results:

• Higher reported weekly reading frequency correlated with increased parent print referencing.
• Reading duration in minutes was not significantly associated with parent print referencing.
• Parent print referencing was linked to perceived self-efficacy, developmental knowledge, and child sex (more references with male children).
• Neither reading frequency nor duration predicted increased child print referencing.

Conclusions:

• Weekly reading frequency, rather than duration, positively predicts parents' use of print references.
• Parental self-efficacy and knowledge may be as important as reading quantity in fostering quality early interactions.
• Findings suggest focusing on the frequency and quality of reading interactions for improved literacy outcomes.