Parental reading beliefs, home literacy practices, and children's development: Examination of a parental reading beliefs model in China

Prior studies based on data in the United States demonstrate that parental reading beliefs are significantly influenced by demographic characteristics, and their beliefs are significant predictors of home literacy practices and children's literacy development. Based on these findings, a model of parental reading beliefs was developed and tested. This study examined whether components within this model based on prior research findings in the United States would generalize to a sample of families in China. The study employed quantitative research methods, and parental reading beliefs, home literacy practices, children's reading interests, children's literacy development and literacy development served as variables. Instruments used to measure these five variables had been used in prior studies, and were adopted, modified, and translated into Chinese. The social-economic status (SES) of the family, gender and employment status of parents were controlled throughout the study. The sample for this study consisted of 795 parents of three- to four-year-old children attending Level A preschools in Shanghai. Participants were recruited through teachers in preschools, and data were collected via an online surveytool (SurveyMonkey RTM). Multiple regression analysis was used as the main statistical method to examine the associations between parental reading beliefs, home literacy practices, children's reading interest, and children's literacy and cognitive development, while incorporating control variables. Research findings demonstrated that demographic characteristics like socioeconomic status( SES), parents' gender and employment influenced parental reading beliefs significantly (p<.001); home literacy environments, children's reading interests, children's development both in literacy and cognition were closely related with parental reading beliefs (p<.001); although both parents' beliefs influence home literacy practices, mothers' beliefs played a more significant role in creating home literacy environments; the association of parental reading beliefs with children's reading interests and between parental reading beliefs and literacy development were mediated by home literacy practices; and the associations of parental reading beliefs with children's literacy and between cognition were mediated by children's reading interest. The present study demonstrated that the many parts of the model of parental reading beliefs may be generalized to a Chinese sample.