Czech mothers read books to their young children: association with mothers’ education

Abstract

The study concentrated on mothers’ reading to their preschool children. Three broad questions were posed about how the mother’s educational level is associated with: (1) the mother’s reasons to read to the child, (2) frequency and duration of this reading, (3) mother-child literacy interaction with the child. The sample of low education mothers (n=55) and high education mothers (n=213) was recruited to fill in a questionnaire of 46 items. Higher education mothers outperformed low education mothers in these variables: reading to the child in order to enhance cognitive development, appreciate the time they are with the child in reading sessions, reading to child frequency, and the number of books the child possesses. On the other hand, low education mothers more frequently than high education mothers ask children about book characters and explain reasons for reading.

Keywords

• early literacy
• reading to the child
• home literacy environment
• parent-child interaction