Parental involvement in shared book reading for preschoolers in China: Patterns and risks

Abstract

Previous studies have elucidated the positive effect of the quantity and onset age of shared book reading on children's language development. Few studies have addressed the profiles of parental involvement in terms of different key aspects of shared book reading. This study adopted a latent profile analysis to examine the patterns of parental involvement in shared book reading and associated factors; 980 Chinese parents of kindergarten children were investigated. Three profiles were identified: (1) late start and infrequent reading; (2) early start and frequent reading; (3) medium start and intensive reading. Higher socioeconomic status, more literacy resources, and older age of the children were all found to be more likely to be associated with identification with Profile 2 than Profile 1. Implications for more targeted parental intervention programmes to broaden access to home literacy resources are highlighted.