Associations Among Child and Family Characteristics, Home and Classroom Environments, and Children's Emergent Literacy Skills

• In Event: Early Literacy at Home and School

Abstract

This study used data from the Head Start Family and Child Experiences Survey (FACES) 2009 4-year-old cohort to examine associations among child and family characteristics, home and classroom environments, and the emergent literacy skills of Head Start children. Overall, findings supported a strong link between family socioeconomic status variables and child outcomes. Additionally, parental warmth was positively related to children’s oral-language skills (i.e., receptive and expressive vocabulary knowledge), and the quality of classroom instructional support was significantly associated with their code-related skills (i.e., letter-name and letter-sound knowledge). These findings suggest that both family and classroom contexts play a crucial role in supporting Head Start children’s development of different sets of emergent literacy skills.

Authors

• Jisu Han, University of Michigan - Dearborn

• Marisa Leigh Schlieber, Southern Utah University

• Bradley Gregory, North Carolina State University