Family and Child Care Influences on Parent Involvement and Child Literacy Outcomes

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the efficacy of Walker et al.'s (2005) parent involvement model for explaining literacy outcomes for preschoolers by including variables that represent all components of this model. Data was used from the first year of a three year longitudinal study involving 76 childcare facilities across Oklahoma. Through hierarchical regressions, the model was found to be significant for all three examined child literacy outcomes. The model explained 6% of the variance in children's disposition for learning, 17% of the variance in children's interest in reading and close to 4% of the variance in children's print concept knowledge. Specifically, parents' perceived skills and knowledge was a significant contributor to disposition for learning, teacher's specific invitations and literacy-specific involvement were significant contributors to interest in reading, and lastly, parents' sense of efficacy was significant contributor for print concept knowledge.