Abstract
This study investigated the relationships between parents and their children on oral health behaviors, reading behaviors, reading attitudes, and liking perceptions of one chapter from an eBook curriculum intervention. A Qualtrics platform was used to survey 316 parent-child dyads across the United States before and after the shared reading of one chapter from the eBook for Oral Health Literacy© entitled “Setting Goals for Going to the Dentist”. Participants answered 75 questions about their teeth brushing and flossing behaviors, number of cavities, how often they visited libraries and bookstores, enjoyment of reading, and perceptions (liking) of the words and pictures of the chapter that they read and heard. Statistically significant relationships were found between parents and their children on oral health behaviors (?2 = 49.12, p < 0.001); reading behaviors (?2 = 10.4, p < 0.01), reading attitudes (?2 = 8.773, p < 0.01), and perception (liking) of the eBook chapter that they read and heard (?2 = 113.813, p < 0.01). Results from 301 parent-child dyads point to the importance of social modeling that parents play in the development of their children’s oral health behaviors, reading behaviors, and reading attitudes. Testing of additional chapters from the eBook intervention is warranted.
Highlights
Oral health is a high-priority health issue as indicated by the Healthy People 2030 document which sets public health agenda in the United States for the ten years
Our dependent variables were child oral health behaviors, child reading behaviors, child reading attitudes, and child perception of the eBook chapter. 3.1 Research Question 1: Are Parents’ Oral Health Behaviors Related to their Children’s Oral Health Behaviors? The first research question examined the relationship between the oral health behaviors of parents with the oral health behaviors of their children
Positive oral health behaviors are linked to good overall health (USDHHS, 2000b), but a lack of positive oral health behaviors and dental checkups have been linked to heart disease (Takahashi, Davey, Yumoto, Gibson, & Genco, 2006) and cancer
Summary
Oral health is a high-priority health issue as indicated by the Healthy People 2030 document which sets public health agenda in the United States for the ten years. The home literacy environment has been found to mediate between parental attitudes toward shared reading time with their children and their children’s language comprehension and production (Niklas, Wirth, Guffler, Drescheer, & Ehmig, 2020). According to an earlier report of a workgroup sponsored by the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (USDHHS, 2000b), the above definition addressed functional oral health literacy which includes the ability to use and apply knowledge when making oral health decisions and when communicating oral health information via speech, conversation, reading, writing, numeracy, speaking, and listening. Guidelines for oral health hygiene include brushing teeth with fluoride toothpaste twice a day, flossing daily, eating a healthy diet that limits sugary beverages and snacks, and visiting the dentist regularly for a check-up (American Dental Association, 2021). The fourth purpose was to determine if there was a relationship between parents’ perceptions (liking) of one chapter from the eBook for Oral Health Literacy© curriculum and their children’s perceptions (liking) of the same chapter
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