Maternal and Paternal Reading Quality and Children’s Vocabulary Skills: Mediation Through Children’s Interest in Reading

• In Event: Supporting Young Children’s Literacy and Language Development

Abstract

Using data from a diverse sample of low-income mothers, fathers and their toddlers who participated in Early Head Start (n=64), the current study explored the association between parents’ reading quality (i.e. metalingual talk) while reading with their 2-year-old children and their children’s receptive vocabulary skills prior to kindergarten entry. It further examined whether children’s interest in reading mediated this association. Mothers’ and fathers’ reading quality significantly predicted children’s receptive vocabulary skills and children’s interest in reading mediated this association. Findings indicate that both mother-child and father-child reading quality may be an important point of intervention to foster low-income children’s vocabularies.

Authors

• Jenessa Malin, University of Maryland

• Natasha Cabrera, University of Maryland

• Meredith Rowe, Harvard University