Unpacking the relations between home literacy environment and word reading in Chinese children: The influence of parental responsive behaviors and parents’ difficulties with literacy activities

Abstract

In this study, we examined the relationship of family socioeconomic status (SES), children's interest in reading, home literacy environment and children's word reading, as well as the moderation of parents’ perceived difficulties with literacy activities on the relationship in China. One hundred and ninety-four first grade students and their parents (119 boys, 75 girls; mean age = 86.20 months) were recruited. The parents completed a questionnaire on their education, occupation, home literacy environment, and their children's interest in reading. The children were tested for Chinese character reading and reading fluency. The results showed that the effects of formal home literacy experiences and access to literacy resources on word reading were significant. Moreover, for parents having little difficulty with literacy activities (i.e., those more capable and more available to conduct literacy activities), the effect of formal home literacy experiences on word reading was negative when the frequency of formal literacy experiences was low, and became positive as the frequency increased. However, for parents experiencing high levels of difficulty, the effect of formal home literacy experiences increased monotonically. Finally, the indirect effects of children's interest in reading and family SES on word reading were significant. Our findings indicated that the difficulty of teaching to read Chinese and parents’ particular attentiveness to children's academic success may be keys to expound the unique results found in the home literacy environment studies in Chinese societies.