Family engagement in literacy activities: revised factor structure for The Familia – an instrument examining family support for early literacy development

Abstract

This study evaluated a data-set drawn using The Familia – a measure originally developed to evaluate shared-reading activities. A newly developed set of conceptual supports and a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) were applied to a new factor structure/model. Data were drawn from 219 young children and their families (mean age = 43 months) participating in a longitudinal intervention study of early childhood school readiness. The new factor model, using recent conceptual frameworks in early literacy, included the factors. Family engagement in learning, Family involvement in school activities and exposure to printed materials. The CFA indicated that the model demonstrated acceptable fit to the data and additional analyses demonstrated that the factors/scales produced acceptable reliability and validity statistics. The revised factors and scales present conceptually based, efficient, valid and reliable indices of family contributions to young children’s literacy development for use in early literacy or school readiness research and related applications.