The Spanish and English Reading Questionnaire (SER-Q): Latinx parents’ beliefs, practices, and behaviors during shared reading

• In Event: Exploring the complex nature of shared reading interactions in Latinx families

Abstract

Parents play a crucial role in shaping children’s emergent literacy through shared book reading. Hispanic children score lower on early literacy tests in English in kindergarten and are at high risk for poor reading skills and later school failure (NCES, 2018). Hispanic families in the US have fewer books at home, are less likely to engage in reading, and do not tend to see reading as highly valuable for children (Boyce et al., 2010; Flores et al., 2005). Notably, reading practices seem to vary by dominant language and by parents’ education level (Yarsosz & Barnett, 2001). Therefore, while it is critical to understand the early literacy environment of Hispanic families, Hispanics should not be treated as a homogeneous group.
Existing surveys on shared reading usually ask questions about reading in general but do not distinguish whether the reading is occurring in English or Spanish. We created the Spanish and English Reading Questionnaire (SER-Q) to examine parents’ beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors during shared reading in English and Spanish to explore how Hispanic families’ reading practices may be different depending on the language of shared reading.
Ninety-one parents of 1- to 6-year-olds completed the SER-Q online or over the phone in English (54%) or in Spanish (46%). Thirty-three percent of mothers had completed high school or less (low education group), 28% completed college (medium education group), and 39% completed graduate school (high education group). Differences in beliefs about reading were compared based on maternal education. Mothers in the lower education group believed that reading in English was more important than reading in Spanish (p = .003). However, there were no differences in parents’ belief that reading in Spanish was more important than reading in English.
Mixed ANOVAs were run to explore differences between reading in English and Spanish based on maternal education. Overall, families reported having more books in English than Spanish (p< .001), and mothers with medium and high education had more books than those with low education (p< .001). Similarly, there were main effects of language and SES on the number of days a week parents read to children, p’s = .001 (Figure 1). Overall, families read more in English than in Spanish, and families with high and mid maternal education read more than those with low education. There was a main effect of maternal education (p= .039) and a significant interaction in how often parents defined words for children based on maternal education and language of the book (p = .022; Figure 2). Mothers with low education defined words less often in English. However, there was no significant difference in how often parents reported asking questions or teaching children letters and sounds while reading in each language.
In summary, Hispanic parents read more frequently in English than in Spanish and their behaviors differed by mothers’ level of education and the language of the book. Future research should further explore the complex nature of these reading interactions to inform interventions to promote reading in Hispanic families.

Authors

• Daniela Avelar, University of Delaware
  Presenting Author

• Adriana Weisleder, Northwestern University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Roberta M Golinkoff, University of Delaware
  Non-Presenting Author