Reading interest and family literacy practices from prekindergarten to kindergarten: Contributions from a cross-lagged analysis

Abstract

Most studies investigating the relationship between children’s reading interest and their parents’ literacy practices have assumed that it is the latter that sparks the former. Nevertheless, the transactional model of development (Sameroff, 2010) suggests that the relationship might run the other way as well. This research examined how children’s reading interest (as reported by their parents) and parents’ literacy practices remain stable or change over time, as well as cross-lagged relationships between reading interest and parents’ literacy practices from the beginning of prekindergarten to the end of kindergarten. The 721 participants were drawn from low-SES Chilean families participating in a larger study. The results show that in these low-income Chilean families, it is more likely for reading interest to predict parents’ practices than the other way around. Results suggest that interventions designed to improve the home literacy environment could be attained through improving parents’ perceptions of children’s reading interest rather than seeking only to change parents’ practices directly.