Poster #48 - Beyond the Book: Parental Practices and Beliefs on Oral Storytelling

• In Event: Poster Session 10

Abstract

The home literacy environment provides a foundation for children’s early learning and is thus an important context for children’s language and literacy development (e.g., Muhinyi & Rowe, 2019). Much of this research has focused on print exposure via shared book reading experiences between parents and children (e.g., Kucirkova et al., 2018). Less attention, however, has focused on the contribution of oral narrative, or storytelling, experiences. Oral narrative experiences at home may be a particularly important early context of learning for parents to teach children complex oral discourse with implications for children’s emergent literacy development (Luo & Tamis-LeMonda, 2019). Yet there is little known about the oral storytelling experiences among families with young children or parental beliefs and background characteristics associated with storytelling practices. To address these shortcomings in the literature, the current study explores the oral storytelling practices among a diverse group of families with young children.

The following research questions guided the study:
Which oral storytelling practices do parents report engaging with their young children?
What background characteristics and beliefs are associated with parents’ oral storytelling practices?

Parents of children between the ages of 4 and 8 years old were recruited through advertising on social media platforms. After providing informed consent, 268 parents (29.4% mothers/female guardians; 47.4% held a master’s degree or higher; 25% Black; 59% White; 7% Latinx; 6% Asian, or 3% other) completed an online survey of their storytelling beliefs and practices.

Parents reported on the frequency of personal stories (i.e., real-life past experiences; 4 items; alpha = .74) and fictional stories (i.e., imaginary events; 3 items; alpha = .65). Storytelling beliefs assessed the extent to which parents believed oral storytelling without using books was advantageous for children (6 items; alpha = .75). Parents rated their perceived storytelling ability on a scale from 1 to 10 (5 items; alpha = .85) and their own reading interest (Boerma et al., 2018; 5 items; alpha = .83).

Parents were more likely to engage in personal storytelling than fictional storytelling with their children [contrast (SE) = 0.87 (.05); t=16.7, p < .000; see Figure 1]. Results of a linear fixed effects model showed that telling fictional stories, being Black, being other people of color and having more children’s books at home were associated with lower storytelling frequencies (Wald χ2(13) = 380.66, p < .0001; Table 1). Storytelling beliefs, perceived storytelling ability, and reading interest predicted higher storytelling frequencies. There was a significant 2-way interaction between storytelling type and race, with higher levels of personal storytelling by White parents compared to Black and other parents of color and no differences by race in fictional storytelling.

This study reveals that oral storytelling experiences among families with young children center on personal storytelling. Parents’ race, perceived storytelling ability, and reading interest were some of the most influential predictors of storytelling practices. These results have important implications for designing research instruments that better assess oral storytelling practices and support parents of diverse backgrounds in fostering their young children’s language and literacy development.

Authors

• Angelica Ramos, University of Michigan - Ann Arbor
  Presenting Author

• Nicole Gardner-Neblett, University of Michigan - Ann Arbor