Poster #179 - The Home Environment and Early Literacy Skills in Native Hawaiian and non-Hawaiian Children From a Rural Community in Hawaiʻi

• In Event: 2-110 - Poster Session 07
  In Poster Session: PS 07 Section - Race, Ethnicity, Culture, Context

Integrative Statement

Studies of minority and immigrant families have shown that early literacy skills associated with later reading ability and school success originate and develop in the home environment. However, little is known about early literacy development in indigenous children, particularly those from rural communities where the primary vehicle of daily communication is their native, tribal, and/or Creole language(s). The current study sought to fill this gap by examining factors that may help explain discrepancy in early literacy skills between Native Hawaiian and non-Hawaiian children from the same rural community on the island of Kauai, such as home literacy resources, parent-child shared reading, exposure to Hawaiʻi Creole English (i.e., Pidgin), and school participation.

The participants were 120 (58 girls, 62 boys) children (M = 59.79 months; SD = 5.00), including 71 Native Hawaiian and 49 non-Hawaiian children. Given the quasi-experimental nature of the design, we used the Matchit package in R. 3.3.5 and applied Coarsened Exact Matching (CEM) to create comparable Native Hawaiian (n = 58) and non-Hawaiian (n = 45) groups based on equivalent children’s age and parents’ education. Children’s early literacy skills were assessed at the beginning (T1) and end of kindergarten (T2). Parents at T1 reported home literacy resources, frequency of parents’ involvement in literacy-related activities, and parent-child shared reading. Teachers at T1 reported children’s independent and cooperative participation at school Children’s exposure to Pidgin at T1 was measured as aggregated frequencies of speaking Pidgin among parents, grandparents, siblings, and other adults (e.g., aunties) and cousins living in the same home.

Compared to non-Hawaiian children, Native Hawaiian children had lower literacy skills at T1 and T2, spoke Pidgin more frequently, and had higher exposure to Pidgin at home. In addition, their parents reported less literacy resources and their teachers reported lower school participation. There were no group differences in frequencies of parent’ involvement in literacy-related activities, and parent-child shared reading. Mediation path analyses showed that lower school participation partly explained the lower early literacy skills at T1 and T2 among Native Hawaiian children than non-Hawaiian children; lower home literacy resources partly explained group differences in literacy skills at T1 but not T2. Although Native Hawaiian children spoke Pidgin more frequently and had more exposure to Pidgin, these group differences failed to explain their lower early literacy skills than non-Hawaiian children. The findings of the current study have the potential to begin to empirically “unpack” some cultural myths (e.g., Pidgin speakers as inferior “broken English” speakers) that may have misled current educational policy against indigenous populations.

Authors

• Yiyuan Xu, University of Hawaii at Manoa
  Presenting Author

• Puanani Hee, University of Hawaii at Manoa
  Non-Presenting Author