Adolescencia

Educ Psychol Rev (2009) 21:325363 DOI 10.
1007/s10648-009-9112-0 REVIEW ARTICLE
The Role of Parents in Adolescents Reading Motivation and Activity

Susan Lutz Klauda
Published online: 4 November 2009 # Springer Science + Business Media, LLC 2009
Abstract Parent support for reading is one of the many elements that may play a role in the development and sustainment of childrens reading motivation; to date, however, research has focused much more on the role that parents play in their preschool and primary-grade childrens reading than in their older childrens reading. Thus, this paper examines the findings and methodology of empirical studies concerning the ways and extent to which parent support for reading relates to the reading motivations and habits of students in the fourth through 12th grades. The review includes discussion of extant quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-method studies, theoretical models from the reading domain applicable to the socialization of reading practices, and extensive recommendations for future research. The dual purpose of this review is to present a sketch of the role of parents in adolescents reading motivation based on extant work and to encourage research that will help develop this sketch into a fuller portrait. Keywords Reading motivation . Reading activity . Adolescence . Parent support How can parents help their children become lifelong readers? Much research has addressed this question by examining the role that parents play in helping preschool and primarygrade children become interested and skilled in reading. Reviews of this research indicate that parent involvement in their childrens reading activities and their beliefs about reading both correlate with and have causal impact on reading motivation and achievement (Baker et al. 1997; Baker 2003; Senechal and Young 2008). Do these same positive effects occur at adolescence? Extant research concerning parent involvement in and encouragement of older childrens and adolescents reading motivation and activity suggests so, but this literature is limited in both quantity and methodology. To extend understanding of and, hopefully, inspire greater attention to the role of parents in adolescents reading, this review offers critique and synthesis of existing studies, aiming particularly for their integration with
S. L. Klauda (*) University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA e-mail: susan3@umd.edu
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Educ Psychol Rev (2009) 21:325363
theoretical models from the reading domain. The paper concludes with discussion of several key directions for future research.
Reading Motivation and Activity in Adolescence Deeper understanding of the ways and extent to which parents support for reading is related to their adolescent childrens reading habits, motivations, and attitudes may help inform the work of the many educators, researchers, and policy makers who are currently pursuing the goal of improving adolescent reading engagement and achievement. Positive forms of reading motivation, which encompasses the individuals personal goals, values, and beliefs with regard to the topics, processes, and outcomes of reading (Guthrie and Wigfield 2000, p. 405) appear to increase childrens reading amount, and the more children read for school assignments and in their free time, the stronger their reading skills become (Cunningham and Stanovich 1997; Guthrie et al. 1999; Taylor et al. 1990). It also appears that relations between reading attitudes or feelings related to reading which causes the learner to approach or avoid a reading situation (Alexander and Filler 1976, p. 1) and reading achievement grow stronger with age, at least into the junior high years (Kush et al. 2005). While research clearly points to the importance of reading motivation and frequency for reading achievement, there is, however, also a large body of evidence indicating that older children and adolescents have less positive attitudes and motivation for both academic and recreational reading than younger children and, accordingly, read less frequently (e.g., Eccles (Parsons) et al. 1983; Jacobs et al. 2002; Kush and Watkins 1996; McKenna et al. 1995; Wigfield et al. 1991). Before proceeding, further explication of reading motivation as defined in the literature and used in this review is warranted. In defining and measuring reading motivation in children and adolescents, Guthrie, Wigfield, and colleagues (e.g., Baker and Wigfield 1999; Guthrie and Wigfield 2000; Wigfield and Guthrie 1997) have adapted constructs from several theories of achievement motivation to reading (e.g., self-determination theory (SDT), Deci and Ryan 1985; self-efficacy theories, Bandura 1977; Schunk 1991; expectancy-value theory (EVT), Wigfield and Eccles 1992). They have reliably identified as many as 11 dimensions of reading motivation (Baker and Wigfield 1999), which may be grouped into three categories (Wigfield 1997): competence and efficacy beliefs (self-efficacy, challenge, work avoidance), intrinsic (curiosity, involvement, importance) and extrinsic reasons for reading (recognition, competition, grades), and social purposes of reading (compliance, social reasons, or reading to interact with others); in more recent studies, other constructs, such as perceived autonomy (Guthrie et al. 2007a) and perceived difficulty (Guthrie et al. 2009a), have also been studied. According to Guthrie and Wigfield (2000), reading motivation is different from reading attitude in that the former encompasses the variety of reasons one may or may not engage in reading, whereas the latter essentially represents one reason, like (or dislike) of reading. Thus, in this review, reading motivation is used to represent dimensions from broader motivation theories that have been studied in the reading domain, as well as reading attitudes and other constructs that represent reasons or purposes for reading. Reading activity is used to encompass indicators of reading amount, breadth, and frequency. When, however, I describe studies individually, I identify the specific constructs examined by the researchers. In this review, I use the terms adolescents and older children interchangeably to refer to individuals in the fourth to 12th grades. This span of grade levels is currently the focus of concerns about and efforts to improve adolescent reading engagement and achievement (Heller and Greenleaf 2007; Jacobs 2008). Adolescence is an interesting and important
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developmental period for which to examine parents potential influence on their childrens reading motivation and habits, in part because it is a time when parent (and teacher) support and involvement in both academic and nonacademic aspects of childrens lives often decline, at least as perceived by adolescents. Furthermore, these declines are associated with negative effects on adolescents achievement motivation. On the other hand, peers, especially close friends, come to play a more prominent role in childrens lives during adolescence, with the potential for either positive or negative effects on their motivation (Furman and Buhrmester 1992; Rubin et al. 2006; Wigfield et al. 2006). Thus, this review gives particular attention to the question of how parents may affect adolescents reading motivation and practices relative to peers and other socialization agents.
Overview and Scope of the Review Five main sections comprise the review. The first section describes two theoretical models from the reading field that are relevant to the question of how parent practices and beliefs about reading may be linked to their childrens reading motivation and engagement. The second section provides an overview of research that has examined adolescents social interaction and experiences of support for reading in a general manner (i.e., without making distinctions between the role of parents, friends, or others) as either a dimension or correlate of reading motivations and activity. The next two sections focus on empirical studies that specifically investigated (or identified based on participants responses to broad items about reading influences) associations of parent reading support and beliefs with adolescents reading motivations and activity. Whereas the third section synthesizes studies which primarily used inferential statistics to analyze data (henceforth referred to as quantitative studies), the fourth section brings together studies that largely employed qualitative analysis methods and descriptive statistics (henceforth referred to as qualitative/mixed-method studies). The final section delineates recommendations for future studies based on limits and gaps in extant research. As indicated above, a general criterion for inclusion in the sections on quantitative research or qualitative/mixed-method research was that the study concerned parent reading support or reading beliefs. I conceptualized reading support as behaviors and statements that reflect involvement in and approval or encouragement of anothers reading, emitted with or without the intention of promoting that individuals reading motivation and activity. For example, a parent buying books for his or her child would be an intentional act of reading support, while modeling reading, by reading frequently oneself, might be either an intentional or unintentional form of support. Reading beliefs includes parents beliefs about their childrens reading ability and their own, as well as their beliefs about the value and purpose of reading. Parent support and beliefs are the focus of this review because they are potentially more malleable than, for example, family background characteristics like parents education level or income. While the studies included in the sections on quantitative and qualitative/ mixed-method research emphasize connections of parent support and beliefs with their childrens reading motivation and activity, findings from the studies concerning reading achievementespecially those relevant to the question of how reading achievement may impact or be impacted by the relations between support and motivational variablesare also highlighted. Studies concerning both recreational reading and school reading are included, although studies relevant to the recreational domain or that refer to reading in general terms are most prevalent.
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Two other criteria for inclusion applied to the section on adolescents experience of general social support in reading and the sections describing quantitative and qualitative/ mixed-method research on parent reading support and beliefs. First, studies needed to focus on children in the fourth to 12th grades. If a study employed a cross-sectional sample also including younger children, it is included, with emphasis placed on the results pertinent to older children. Retrospective studies are included that involved recollection of experiences during the age range of interest. Second, only studies written in English are included. Altogether, sections on general social support and parent support reference 48 empirical studies, which were identified using a variety of methods, starting with examination of two previous reviews of parent and home influences on childrens reading. (I counted multiple publications that described the same data as single studies.) The first review (Baker et al. 1997) primarily included studies involving preschool and primary-grade children but included a brief section on older children, which included four studies that met the criteria for this review. In another review, Baker (2003) focused on the issue of how parents may motivate school-aged struggling readers and included eight additional studies that met the criteria for this review. The current review is distinct from Baker s (2003) work in several regards. Namely, it includes only studies involving children in the fourth grade and higher, presents theoretical models that depict the role of social variables in students development of reading motivation, and stresses recommendations for future research (whereas Baker underscored practical implications for parents and educators). Also, a number of relevant studies have been conducted since 2003. In addition, given the overall limited quantity of research focused on parents roles in older childrens reading, the current review includes dissertations, books, and book chapters in the two sections describing research on parent support, as well as peer-reviewed articles. Lastly, the review focuses on ways that parents naturally occurring reading support and beliefs relate to their childrens reading motivations and habits; that is, it excludes studies of intervention programs involving parents, which Baker (2003) discussed substantially. Additionally, I identified studies by examining the reference lists of the 12 studies cited by Baker et al. (1997) and Baker (2003) and of additional articles as they were obtained. I also conducted several searches in PsycInfo, ERIC, and ProQuest Dissertations and Theses database. One key search term string was (parent* or mother* or father* or home*) AND (reading or literacy) AND (elementary or middle school or junior high or high school or adolescent* or children*) AND (motivation* or interest* or valu* or attitude* or activit* or practice* or habit* or amount*). Also, I searched on reading motivation* and social* and specifically for studies employing the Motivation for Reading Questionnaire (MRQ; Wigfield and Guthrie 1997).
Theoretical Models of Motivation from the Reading Field Many of the studies described later in this review were grounded in broadly applicable theories regarding socialization and motivation development, whereas very few had an explicit basis in models that specifically describe the socialization of reading practices. This is somewhat surprising given that theoretical models that give considerable attention to the role of social factors in the development of ones attitudes about, frequency of, and motivation for reading do exist, including McKennas model of reading attitude acquisition (McKenna 1994; McKenna et al. 1995) and Guthrie and Wigfields engagement model of reading (Guthrie and Wigfield 2000; Guthrie et al. 2004). These models also identify an array of other characteristics and experiences that influence childrens involvement in and
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feelings about reading; in the following discussion, however, I emphasize the social elements of these models. McKennas model of reading attitude acquisition McKennas model of reading attitude acquisition (McKenna 1994; McKenna et al. 1995) specifies three factors that directly influence ones reading attitude and several indirect paths through which it may be affected. In turn, the model depicts reading attitude as affecting ones decision to read or continue reading and this decision as indirectly feeding back to influence ones reading attitude. Two of the direct factors in the model reflect relatively personal, versus social, influences on ones reading attitude. One factor is ones own past reading experiences, which produce immediate impact on attitude without the cognitive mediation of belief change (McKenna 1994, p. 35). The other factor is ones beliefs about the outcomes of reading, such as whether reading will lead to a positive experience, like pleasure or rewards, or a negative experience, like boredom or failure. Both factors predict that with many successful, interesting, and useful text interactions, ones attitude toward reading should improve over time and, with the converse experiences, that ones attitude toward reading will worsen over time. The third direct social factor in McKennas model represents normative beliefs or ones beliefs about how much significant others in ones life value reading. Importantly, this factor includes consideration of whether one tends to conform to others values. For example, if a child perceives that others, like his or her parents, value reading but the child is not motivated to conform with their beliefs, then the parents value for reading may have no bearing, positive or negative, on the childs reading attitude. In other words, this factor implies that the extent to which reading support relates to reading motivation may vary considerably for different supporters. This is one reason why it may be important to compare the effects of reading support from different types of socialization agents. In addition, the model of reading attitude acquisition includes indirect influences on reading such as the social structure and the environment more broadly conceived. For example, parents might indirectly influence their childs reading by setting up a bookshelf containing a number of books and magazines related to their childs interests in sports, art, or other areas. According to McKennas model, this environmental feature may foster the childs intention to read these materials, which in turn may result in the child actually reading them, which would contribute to the childs general attitude toward reading. With respect to empirical backing for the model, McKenna (1994) identified a number of studies that supported the paths included in the model, although the evidence for the direct and indirect social paths was comprised mainly of research concerning younger childrens reading, teacher rather than parent influence, and attitude development in domains other than reading. McKenna (McKenna 1994; McKenna et al. 1995) also contended that gender, socioeconomic status (SES), and ethnic differences in reading attitudes reflect differential socialization of reading. Likewise, since the introduction of the model, researchers have focused primarily on how reading attitudes relate to demographic variables (e.g., McKenna et al. 1995; Kush and Watkins 1996; Kush et al. 2005), rather than socialization processes that may explain demographic differences. Guthrie and Wigfields engagement model of reading Guthrie and Wigfields engagement model of reading (e.g., Guthrie and Wigfield 2000; Guthrie et al. 2004), defines engaged readers as possessing four major characteristics: they
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are effective in using reading comprehension strategies, knowledge-driven, highly motivated to read, and regularly interactive with peers, family members, and others in reading activities. Engaged readers connect their reading with their friendships and their leisure timeengagement is a network of bonds among skills, strategies, knowledge, and motivation, in the social community (Guthrie et al. 2000, p. 209). Furthermore, Guthrie and Wigfield (2000) asserted that although the cognitive, motivational, and social dimensions of engagement are separable, all three are necessary for full reading engagement to occur. By the stress given to social interaction in reading as a distinct, key trait of engaged readers, this model underscores the idea that examining the nature and extent of these interactions can offer insight into how to help children and adolescents who struggle to engage with text. According to the engagement model, reading motivation leads to increased reading comprehension by spurring frequent, effortful reading, and improved comprehension has positive effects on motivation (Guthrie and Wigfield 2000). The model is grounded in several broader theories of motivation, one of which, self-determination theory (SDT) (Deci and Ryan 1985; Ryan and Deci 2000), especially gives attention to how interactions with others may influence ones reading motivation. At the broadest level, SDT proposes that individuals are most positively motivated when they feel like autonomous agents in their own behaviors and are thus motivated intrinsically to engage in their activities (Ryan and Deci 2000). According to SDT, significant others in childrens lives may play a key role in catalyzing this intrinsic motivation or drive to do things for internal reasons, like enjoyment and interest (rather than external reasons, like receipt of a reward) as well as in facilitating childrens internalization and integration into their self system of values and behaviors that they do not find intrinsically motivating. Reading might be considered to fall in the latter category, since people are not born with a tendency to read (although it might be argued that reading is a means by which people enact their innate curiosity). The facilitation of intrinsic motivation, internalization, and integration takes place when socialization agents support childrens three basic needs of competence, relatedness, and autonomy, by providing some structure for their activities and becoming involved in them, but not being too controlling (Grolnick et al. 2002; Ryan and Deci 2000). With regard to reading, then, SDT implies that when children recognize that their parents or other important figures in their lives value reading and support their reading endeavors, they will personally develop the sense that reading is a worthwhile activity (Guthrie and Davis 2003; Ryan and Deci 2000). Much research guided by the engagement model concerns the impact that an intervention program based on itConcept-Oriented Reading Instruction (CORI)has on students reading comprehension, engagement, and motivation (e.g., Guthrie et al. 2007b, 2009b). The model specifies a set of practices, which CORI teachers employ to increase students reading engagement in the classroom, especially the intrinsic motivation and efficacy dimensions of it. These practices include implementing real-world interactions related to texts, encouraging learning and knowledge goals (versus performance goals), providing interesting texts, supporting readers sense of autonomy, promoting student success in reading, and supporting collaboration in reading activities (Guthrie et al. 2007b). This set of practices could also provide a framework for investigating and working to improve parent impact on their childrens reading motivation. Comparison of the reading attitude acquisition and reading engagement models The two models just outlined have several key similarities and thus enable a few predictions about how parent support relates to adolescents reading motivation and engagement. First,
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both models portray a social element among one of three or four broad elements directly contributing to individuals choice to read. Second, both models imply that the impact of social experiences and perceptions is cumulative and ongoing. Ones attitude and motivations for reading ordinarily are not going to change sharply because of a single encounter with another. This implies, with regard to parents, that it is not only critical for them to strive to promote their childrens reading when the children are young but also as they grow older. It also suggests that the frequency with which parents engage in readingsupportive behaviors should matter, though no predictions are possible from these models about the ideal frequency. Third, neither model specifies a distinct role for parents or any other socialization agent, with McKennas model (1994) implying that the influence of another depends not on who that person is but on the quality of the relationship with that person. This suggests that positive effects of parent support may only occur for adolescents in the context of a positive parentchild relationship in general. Lastly, both models suggest that it is not only what children think others believe about reading or the regularity or quality of the interactions they have with others in reading activities that influences their reading but the literacy environment that others create. The environment conveys a message about the value that others place on literacy, seen for example, in McKennas (1994) model in a path from the environment to ones beliefs about others expectations regarding literacy. Provision of access to an environment with many quality books that match childrens interests and reading abilities, a practice for increasing reading engagement specified in Guthrie and Wigfields (2000) model, not only makes reading a possible activity but facilitates childrens discovery on their own that reading can be a great source of both enjoyment and knowledge. Both models imply that, when parents create a strong literacy environment at home, their adolescent children should be more positive about and likely to engage in reading. One key difference between the reading attitude acquisition and reading engagement models is that the former stresses the importance of perceptions of others beliefs about reading while the latter stresses the role of positive, regular interactions within a community of readers. As the subsequent sections will show, research has more closely investigated the latter and the environment created by parents, which both models stress. A second key difference is what the social factors in these models directly influence. In the reading attitude acquisition model, it is the decision to read; in contrast, the engagement model suggests that social support is most directly connected to childrens motivations for reading, which in turn spur not just the decision to read but meaningful interaction with text. With regard to this difference, extant research has most often examined childrens reading frequency or amount, in line with the placement of the decision to read as the effect of interest in McKennas model, but increasingly studies have also been concerned with the connection of parent support to various motivational factors. Adolescents Experience of General Social Support in Reading How do support from and interactions with any individuals in reading relate to adolescents reading motivation and activity? The studies discussed in this section address this question as they examined the extent to which individuals interact with others in reading with measures that did not distinguish interactions with parents from those with others. Six studies in this area employed the MRQ (Wigfield and Guthrie 1997). This self-report questionnaire was designed to tap the 11 dimensions of reading motivation theorized by Guthrie and Wigfield (Wigfield and Guthrie 1997; Wigfield 1997). MRQ items intended to
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represent social reasons for reading refer to parents, brothers and sisters, friends, and family, as shown in Table 1. In the studies employing the MRQ (see Table 2), these items formed scales with Cronbachs alpha values ranging from 0.72 to 0.78; in one study, however, the social items factored together with interest items, forming a scale with an alpha of 0.88 (Pecjak and Peklaj 2006). Studies using the MRQ offer evidence that social interaction in reading is positively and weakly to moderately related to other dimensions of reading motivation in third- to ninthgrade students. Generally, social interaction correlated most positively with efficacy, reading involvement, curiosity, and recognition; specifically, social interaction correlated 0.44 or higher with these dimensions in at least four of the five studies that reported intercorrelations of the motivation dimensions. Notably, with the exception of recognition, these correlates of social interaction represent more internal and personal motivations. There are inconsistent findings, however, regarding the relations of social interaction with work avoidance and the extrinsic motivations of competition and grades, as well as with reading activity and achievement. With one exception (Tercanlioglu 2001), the MRQ studies demonstrated that girls experience more social interaction in reading than boys. They also suggest some declines in social motivation, more so between fourth and sixth grades than beyond sixth grade. Furthermore, with regard to demographics, two studies in which ethnic and family income comparisons were possible indicated no differences in social motivation in these regards (Baker and Wigfield 1999; Mucherah and Yoder 2008). Tercanlioglus (2001) and Pecjak and Peklajs (2006) studies also provided important cultural extensions of the study of social interaction and reading motivation more broadly, as they were conducted in Turkey and Slovenia, respectively. Lastly, with regard to social interaction as measured with the MRQ studies, two studies showed that mean scores for this dimension are significantly lower than those of all other dimensions, except competition and work avoidance (Baker and Wigfield 1999; Wigfield and Guthrie 1997). These comparatively low means do not necessarily mean that the participants in these studies did or would not experience social interactions as motivating. Rather, they might simply be indicators that they had little chance to interact in reading or lacked awareness of their social reading experiences, as most items comprising the social scale asked as much about frequency of behaviors as enjoyment of them. Eight studies examined some aspect of older childrens social interaction in reading in relation to their reading activity or motivations using measures other than the MRQ (see Table 3). Two of these studies (Palmer et al. 1994; Guthrie et al. 2007a) used both self-
Table 1 Motivation for Reading Questionnaire: Social Scale, Revised Version (Wigfield and Guthrie 1997) Item I visit the library often with my family. I often read to my brother or sister. My friends and I like to trade things to read. I sometimes read to my parents. I talk to my friends about what I am reading. I like to help my friends with their schoolwork in reading. I like to tell my family about what I am reading. Response scale ranges from 1 (very different from me) to 4 (a lot like me)
Table 2 Studies Employing the 11-Scale Motivation for Reading Questionnaire Differences in social dimension by: Reading achievementa Gender Fall: girls > boys Not examined Grade level Fall: 4th > 5th
Study Reading activitya Fall 0.18 (nonsig.) to 0.27 Spring 0.13 (nonsig.) to 0.31 0.46 with reading for fun Nonsig. Not examined Nonsig. Girls > boys No difference Spring: girls > boys
Students
Correlations of social dimension with
Other motivation dimensionsa
Wigfield and Guthrie 1997
105 4th5th gr.
Fall 0.26 to 0.62, except competition nonsig.
Spring 0.27 to 0.52, except competition, compliance nonsig.
Spring: no difference 5th > 6th No difference
Baker and Wigfield 1999
371 5th6th gr.
0.15 to 0.58, except work avoidance non.-sig.
Tercanlioglu 2001
151 7th9th gr.
0.33 to 0.48, except 0.17 with grades and work avoidance nonsig. Not examined Not examined
Watkins and Coffey 2004 Not examined
Study 1 328 3rd5th gr.; Study 2 735 3rd5th gr.
Study 1 0.21 to 0.50; Study 2 0.26 to 0.55
Not examined
Not examined
Pecjak and Peklaj 2006b Not examined
1,000 7th gr.
Not examined
Good readers > avg. readers; avg. readers = poor readers 0.28 controlling for demographics, other motivations
Girls > boys
NA
Mucherah and Yoder 2008
388 6th and 8th gr.
0.38 to 0.57, except work avoidance nonsig.
Girls > boys
No difference
All studies examined the 11 dimensions of reading motivation, with two exceptions. In Watkins and Coffey (2004), factor analysis led to formation of eight scales, including a distinct social scale, whereas in Pecjak and Peklaj (2006), it led to four scales, including a joint social/interest scale
a All values in these columns represent significant zero-order correlations, except as specified. All correlations were positive, except those with work avoidance, which were negative b MRQ translated to Slovene
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Table 3 Studies Employing Diverse Methods to Examine General Social Interaction in Reading Key findings Home reading impacted achievement directly and indirectly through attitudes, whereas SES effects nonsig. to weak; path coefficients for home reading composite and achievement increased with age Social interaction identified as one of four reading motivations; 25% of interviewees cited influence of others on recent book choice Social interaction had positive direct effects on reading frequency, similar in magnitude for all ages; relations between social interaction and reading frequency mediated by library usage and study strategies; social interaction showed stronger relations than reading materials at home with other variables
Study
Students
Key measures
Rowe 1991; Rowe and Rowe 1992
5,092 514 years
Self-report survey: home reading activity, reading attitudes
Teacher ratings: reading ach., attentiveness
Reading comprehension test
Palmer et al. 1994; Gambrell et al. 1996
330 3rd and 5th gr.
Self-report survey: reading motivations
Interview (n =16): book reading
Guthrie et al. 1995
2,795 9, 13, and 17 years
Self-report survey: social interaction, reading materials at home, study strategies, library usage, instruction, reading habits
Sweet et al. 1998
374 3rd6th gr.
Teacher survey/interviews (n =6): students reading motivations
Report card grades in reading
Social ratings correlated 0.640.80 with other motivations and 0.65 with grades; social ratings equal across grade levels; teachers perceived that students enjoyed social interaction but performed as well/better when working alone Home environment influenced leisure reading (0.69 standardized direct effect), which influenced orthographic processing (0.44), controlling for intelligence and phonological processing skill One component of culture and language, family promotion/participation in religious literacy activities, correlated 0.49 with childrens reading self-concept; no components correlated with valuing reading
Brten et al. 1999
117 3rd4th gr.
Self-report surveys: home literacy environment, leisure reading
Reading skill, nonverbal intelligence tests
Arzubiaga et al. 2002
18 3rd4th gr.
Self-report survey: reading motivations
Guthrie et al. 2007a
31 4th gr.
Family interview: five aspects of family life, inc. culture, and language Self-report survey/student interview/teacher survey: reading motivations
Katzir et al. 2009
67 4th gr.
Self-report survey: competence, ease, attitude
Parent survey: family literacy
Reading comprehension, word reading, verbal ability tests
In Sept., collaboration/social interaction correlated 0.390.68 with other interview dimensions and composite motivation score; no sig. corrs. in Dec.; the most socially interactive students shared reading with others everyday Family reading and writing habits correlated 0.27 with reading attitude; no sig. correlations between family literacy teaching/help and affective variables or cognitive measures
All correlations reported under key findings are zero-order correlations unless otherwise noted
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report surveys and semistructured student interviews, a mixed-method approach that offered a broad yet rich view of older childrens reading-related preferences and motivations in and out of school. These studies, however, reached conflicting conclusions about the prominence of social interaction as a motivation for reading, with Palmer et al. (1994; see also Gambrell et al. 1996) contending that it was one of four main motivating factors for students at varied achievement and motivation levels and Guthrie et al. (2007a) pointing out that many motivated readers did not report sharing their reading with others. Three other studies utilized self-report data representing a variety of constructs to test complex models of how reading support factors relate to reading frequency, attitudes, and achievement. In these studies, social interaction in reading at home and in other settings showed strong positive effects on reading frequency (Brten et al. 1999; Guthrie et al. 1995) and reading attitudes (Rowe 1991; see also Rowe and Rowe 1992). Notably, in the large-scale studies of Guthrie et al. (1995) and Rowe (1991), the magnitude of relations was similar across a large span of ages. Furthermore, Brten et al. (1999) provided evidence that leisure reading mediates the relationship of home literacy interactions with some reading skills. The final three studies employed other informants to learn about older childrens social interaction in reading. Two of these studies notably found weaker relations between social factors and older childrens reading motivation and attitudes than did studies employing other methods. For example, Arzubiaga et al. (2002), who interviewed parents of third- and fourth-grade children who were second-generation US immigrants from Mexico and El Salvador, showed that only one of six components of family encouragement of literacy and cultural activitieschild involvement in the familys religion-related literacy activities positively related to childrens reading self-concept. No components were related to their valuing of reading. Similarly, Katzir et al. (2009) found little relation between parentreported family literacy elements and fourth graders self-reported reading attitude, competence, or ease. On the other hand, teacher ratings of students social motivation correlated strongly with their ratings on other motivation dimensions in a study by Sweet et al. (1998). In interviews, however, teachers often expressed the belief that social interaction did not impact or inhibited student performance, buttressing Mucherah and Yoder s (2008) finding of a negative relationship between social interaction and achievement. Altogether, the 13 studies discussed in this section generally cohere with the reading attitude acquisition and engagement models emphases on social factors by demonstrating that social interaction in reading activities, regardless of specifically with whom the adolescent interacts, is indeed a common experience of many active readers. These studies also largely indicate that the social dimension of reading has moderate to strong positive associations with a variety of reading motivation dimensions; however, these relations occurred primarily in studies relying on self-report measures, which raises the specter of monomethod bias. Also, the correlations of social factors with reading activity and achievement are less clear. Furthermore, these studies prompt the question of the role that interactions with and support from particular socialization agents, like parents, play in older childrens reading lives.
Quantitative Research on Parent Support and Beliefs This section describes research which employed inferential statistics to analyze relations between parent reading support or beliefs and adolescents reading motivation and activity, divided into two main categories: (1) studies focused solely on parent support or beliefs and (2) studies that compared reading support or beliefs of parents and other socialization agents.
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Table 4 Quantitative Studies Focused on Parent Reading Support and Beliefs Key findings
Study
Students
Key measures
Hansen 1967, 1969
48 4th gr.
Self-report survey: self-commitment to reading
Library records: book reading activity
Mother interview: home literacy environment
Home literacy environment correlated with reading attitudes (0.71 zero order, 0.60 with father occupation, father education, IQ controls), achievement (0.68 zero order, 0.51 with controls), book reading (0.48 zero order, nonsig. with controls) Only significant correlations (of 10 dimensions studied) were parent and child perceived reading skills (0.37), library use/attitude (0.27), book use (0.18) Home literacy correlated with leisure reading (0.53 zero order, 0.41 with gender, SES controls); of composite items, parent reading to child when young correlated strongest with leisure reading (0.42 zero order, 0.32 with gender, SES controls); more parents of heavy readers than light readers were avid readers, read aloud, discussed books with children, had TV off during dinner Home press composite correlated with reading attitudes (0.26), book reading (0.23), and enjoyment purpose (0.19), but correlation with book reading nonsig., controlling for achievement, library membership, gender; home press correlated with achievement (0.33) Parents and children rated ability and effort most important, but parentchild ratings showed few sig. relations, controlling for other attributions; variation across grade, achievement level in parent ratings of attributions
Reading achievement test
ORourke 1979
300 9th gr.
Student/parent self-report surveys: reading habits, motivations/attitudes
Neuman 1986a, 1986b
84 5th gr.
Parent survey: home literacy and television viewing, including parent and child reading and viewing habits
Greaney and Hegarty 1987
127 5th gr.
Self-report survey: leisure book reading, reading attitudes, purposes for reading
Parent survey: home press for reading Reading comprehension, vocabulary tests
OSullivan and Howe 1996
513 3rd, 6th, and 9th gr.
Self-report/parent surveys: importance of seven causal attributions for childs reading performance
Table 4 (continued) Key findings
Study
Students
Key measures
Halle et al. 1997
41 3rd4th gr.
Self-report survey: reading competence
Parent survey: childs reading competence; reading instruction, childrens books at home
Shapiro and Whitney 1997
39 4th5th gr.
Reading achievement tests Self-report survey: read, attitudes, motivation
Controlling for maternal education, parent rating of childs reading competence correlated with childs self-rating (0.41), home reading instruction (0.49), achievement 1 year later (0.40); books in home correlated with reading achievement 1 year later (0.29)
Daily record of leisure reading
Interview: home factors related to reading
Avid readers scored higher than not readers on four of seven parent support items; several interactions between gender and reading amount, most favoring avid-reading girls in home factors Child ratings correlated with ratings by mothers (0.310.40) and fathers (0.230.38); parent ratings related more strongly than child grades to child self-ratings; parent ratings partly mediated relations of child grades and self-ratings; mothers slightly overestimated daughters English ability and slightly underestimated sons Money from parents for reading unrelated to reading enjoyment or amount, controlling for other study variables; majority of those paid for reading reported zero or positive effects on reading amount, no impact on reading enjoyment or skill
Frome and Eccles 1998
914 6th gr.
Self-report survey: English self-concept, expectancies, task difficulty Parent survey: expectancies for child, childs English ability, need for effort
English grades for 5th and 6th grade
Flora and Flora 1999
171 college students
Self-report survey: money from parents for 1st6th grade reading activity/English performance; current reading enjoyment, perceived competence, leisure reading
Conlon et al. 2006
174 7th gr.
Self-report survey: reading competence, attitude
Parent survey: personal difficulty with reading, current reading habits
Reading, spelling, nonverbal ability tests
Parent difficulty correlated 0.16 to 0.23 with child competence, attitude, and cognitive variables; parent reading history contributed to child word identification, reading comprehension, and spelling, controlling for gender, nonverbal ability; relations diminished when child competence, attitude, other cognitive variables included
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Studies focused on parents Studies concerning parent behaviors As outlined in Table 4, I identified ten studies that focused on parent support or beliefs in relation to adolescents reading motivation and activity. Five of these studies focused on parents supportive behaviors, each employing a parent or child survey concerning the home literacy environment created by parents. Although these studies employed different surveys, each survey typically included items about parents reading habits, provision of books and other reading materials at home, reading with the focal child currently or before the child could read independently, general offering of encouragement for the child to read, and library or bookstore visits with the child. In this category, the study by Hansen (1969; see also Hansen 1967) is noteworthy in two regards. First, it was the earliest study to explore relations of parent variables with aspects of childrens reading engagement, namely self-reported commitment to independent reading and reading activity based on library records, as well as with childrens achievement. It was also among the first studies to investigate whether what parents do, rather than just socioeconomic indicators and other simple family descriptors, predicted aspects of older childrens reading. Importantly, Hansen found that parents behaviors positively related to their fourth-grade childrens reading attitudes (r =0.71, partial r =0.60) and achievement (r =0.68, partial r =0.51) both independently and controlling for father s occupation, father s education, and childs IQ; in contrast, IQ and the SES variables only showed significant zero-order correlations with the outcome variables. In two additional studies in which parents reported on their reading-supportive behaviors, the researchers reported positive, weak to moderate zero-order correlations between composite measures of parent support and fifth graders amount of leisure reading, reading attitudes, reading for the purpose of enjoyment, and reading achievement (Greaney and Hegarty 1987; Neuman 1986b); Neuman also obtained a partial r of 0.41 for parent support and leisure reading when controlling for SES and gender. Because, however, Greaney and Hegarty (1987) found that their 26-item home press for reading composite did not correlate with reading for utility or escape from everyday life and did not contribute to book reading amount after controlling for reading achievement, library membership, and gender, they cautioned against overestimating parental influence on childrens reading activity. But as they acknowledged, the relations may have been stronger had the sample not been so homogeneous in home press and background characteristics. In addition, the high home press reported overall by parents raised concern regarding the degree to which social desirability affected their responses, a concern shared by Neuman (1986b). Relatedly, another question raised by studies relying on parental report is whether adolescents would agree with their parents estimates of the support they provide; if adolescents did not themselves perceive much support or if they did not find it very motivating, this could explain the lack of stronger relations. Collection of data on childrens perceptions, as well as parents reports of their own behaviors, would align well with the reading attitude acquisition models emphasis on the importance of perceiving that others value reading (McKenna 1994). Both Neuman (1986a) and Greaney and Hegarty (1987) conducted additional analyses comparing the parent behaviors of especially avid leisure readers and light leisure readers. This type of analysis was also the focus of Shapiro and Whitneys (1997) study of fourth and fifth graders reports of the reading support provided by their parents. Each of these three studies showed that parents of avid readers talked about books or generally encouraged reading more, and two studies each demonstrated that parents of more frequent readers: (1) were more frequent readers themselves (Greaney and Hegarty 1987; Neuman 1986a) and (2) gave more books as presents (Greaney and Hegarty 1987; Shapiro and Whitney 1997). In
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Greaney and Hegartys study, though, the differences were rather limited given the number of items considered (i.e., avid readers were higher on only four of 26 items). On the whole, though, these findings illustrate how using a composite parent support measure may camouflage the importance of some individual items or distinct factors comprising it. The last study that focused exclusively on parent behavior was Flora and Floras (1999) retrospective study of college students memories of their parents paying them as a reward for reading or doing well in English class during grades 1 through 6. Unique in centering on a single parent behavior that, furthermore, was not measured in any other studies in this review, the study suggested that this extrinsic motivation practice was unrelated to students current reading amount or intrinsic motivation. Given that about 30% of participants did report being paid for reading by their parents but that accuracy of recollection is particularly a concern for retrospective studies, the extent and impact of this practice warrant further investigation. Studies concerning a mixture of parent behaviors and beliefs Three studies were identified that focused on a combination of parent behavior and beliefs related to reading. In two of these studies, the authors themselves did not theoretically or empirically distinguish between parent behaviors and beliefs; rather, examination of the measures that they used revealed that the items they used to measure parent reading habits (ORourke 1979) and parent reading history (Conlon et al. 2006) tapped both parent engagement in reading activities and parents own motivations for reading. ORourkes (1979) study was unique in using the same questionnaire with parent and child participants, whereas the study of Conlon et al. was distinctive in focusing on parents perceptions of their own difficulties with reading and their reading attitudes and habits. Both studies showed relatively weak, positive relations between parent and child variables; furthermore, Conlon et al. (2006) found that parent reading difficulty did not significantly predict childrens word recognition and comprehension reading and spelling skills when their motivations, more basic reading skills, and gender were controlled. In the third study that examined both parent behavior and beliefs, Halle et al. (1997) separately measured behaviors that low-SES AfricanAmerican parents engaged in to improve their childrens reading and the parents beliefs about their childrens reading ability. Furthermore, they compared the relations of parents behaviors and beliefs with childrens reading achievement, finding that the latter correlated significantly whereas the former did not. They reported only the correlation of parents ability perception, however, with childrens ratings of their own competence, a correlation that was moderate in magnitude, controlling for maternal education (partial r =0.41). Importantly, this was one of few studies in the entirety of this review to center on a low-income, minority sample. Studies concerning parent beliefs Two studies exclusively assessed parent beliefs about reading. As did Halle et al. (1997), these studies focused specifically on parent beliefs pertaining to their childrens competence in reading. First, in a low-SES Canadian sample, OSullivan and Howe (1996) studied parent attributions for their childrens reading performance in relation to childrens own attributions. Although both parents and children rated ability and effort as the most important causes of success in reading, parents attributions often did not predict their childrens. For example, whereas parent attribution to ability for good reading performance significantly predicted third graders ability attributions (controlling for six other parent attributions), parent ability attributions did not significantly explain sixth or ninth graders ability attributions; rather, parent attributions to liking of reading and teacher factors were significant predictors for the older students. The other study that focused on parent beliefs (Frome and Eccles 1998) was
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unique in separately assessing mothers and fathers expectancies for their children, finding that they correlated similarly with self-perceptions in sixth-grade English and that parents perceptions were equally correlated with girls and boys perceptions of themselves. Mothers and fathers perceptions of their childrens ability and needed effort each more strongly predicted students perceptions than did past grades, and, furthermore, parent perceptions largely mediated relations between childrens grades and their self-perceptions. Summary The quantitative studies reviewed thus far showed positive relations between parents reading-supportive behaviors and beliefs and a variety of aspects of older childrens reading motivation and activity. In several instances, these relations remained significant after controlling for demographic factors. A few studies, however, obtained limited if any positive relations. These quantitative studies will be discussed in the context of the reading models reviewed earlier, following the next section, which outlines quantitative studies that assessed reading support from parents as well as other sources.
Studies comparing parents and other socialization agents Studies concerning parents and teachers In five studies, the researchers inquired both about reading support from parents and from other socialization agents and in some respect compared their contributions to older childrens reading engagement (see Table 5). Three of these studies focused on parents and teachers, with each suggesting a different conclusion about the relative importance of parent and teacher behavior or beliefs. First, R. Wells (1978) surveyed 250 fifth graders about experiences that made them want to read more than they had ever read before and those which made them want to give up and not read at all (p. 22) using a checklist of behaviors derived from an earlier unpublished interview study (L. Wells et al. 1974). He identified six factors, including five related to parent behaviors and only one related to teacher behaviors, thus suggesting that parents may contribute in a greater variety of ways (although perhaps not in more powerful ways) to older childrens reading motivation than teachers. Interestingly, three of the parent factors that Wells (1978) identified reflected negative behaviors, related to overstress on reading, punishment, and failure to provide assistance, suggesting that parents need especially to be careful to refrain from doing or saying things which may discourage their children from reading. Together, the six factors accounted for 38% of the variability in the students reading scores on the Iowa Test of Basic Skills, but Wells (1978) did not report the amount of variance accounted for by each factor, nor did he examine how the factors related to any outcome variables representing reading engagement. Herbert and Stipek (2005) conducted a longitudinal study involving 345 low-income, ethnically diverse children, involving data collection at three points from kindergarten to fifth grade. Compared to Wells (1978), this study produced equivocal evidence about the relative importance of parent and teacher beliefs about childrens reading ability. On the one hand, Herbert and Stipek (2005) found that parent and teacher ratings correlated similarly with childrens self-rated reading ability at each grade level they studied. When, however, reading achievement was controlled, teacher ratings added to the prediction of students concurrent self-ratings at third grade but not fifth, and parent ratings were never significant. Thus, for the grade level more of interest in this review, neither parent nor teacher beliefs were key predictors of childrens sense of competence in reading, a finding which also conflicts with the results of Frome and Eccles (1998). In contrast to both Wells (1978) and Herbert and Stipek (2005), Chen (2008) found that parent support and teacher support for reading both had relatively strong connections to
Table 5 Quantitative Studies Comparing Parent Reading Support and Beliefs with Support and Beliefs of Other Socialization Agents Key findings
Study
Students
Key measures
Wells 1978
250 5th gr.
Self-report survey: factors that encourage and discourage reading Reading achievement test
Lau and Cheung 1988
2,114 high schoolers
Self-report survey: self, mother, father, sister, brother, friend, classmate reading habits
Identified two parent factors that encourage reading, three parent factors that discourage reading, one teacher factor that discourages reading; the six factors accounted for 38% of variance in achievement Focal students reading habits strongly associated with those of their parents, siblings, and peers At 5th grade, parent-rated ability correlated with concurrent reading achievement (0.49) and child rating (0.19), but correlation with child rating nonsig. controlling for achievement; parent-rated ability at 3rd grade correlated with 5th-grade child rating (0.25) Generally, high levels of parent and teacher variables were significant predictors of avid reader status, controlling for other factors; reading materials at home generally 1.11.2 times more likely to be characteristic of avid readers
Herbert and Stipek 2005
345 elementary students (longitudinal study)
Self-report/parent survey: childs reading ability
Reading achievement tests
Chen 2008
21,055 9th and 12th gr.
Klauda 2008
302 4th5th gr.
Self-report survey: summer reading activity, teacher encouragement to read Survey (unclear if parent or student surveyed): parent reading habits, bookstore visits, education; magazines, encyclopedias at home Self-report survey: recreational reading motivations, activity, support from mother, father, friend
Reading fluency tests
Parent and friend dimensions of reading support identified; with controls for fluency, gender, and grade level, parent and friend support showed some differential, some additive positive relations with reading motivations and activity
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adolescents reading habits, using data from a large, nationally representative sample of secondary-school students in Taiwan. Moreover, parent and teacher behaviors showed stronger associations with adolescent reading habits than parents education level or the mere availability of reading materials at home, for both ninth and 12th graders. Studies concerning parents, other family members, and peers Two studies assessed adolescents reading-related perceptions of their parents as well as of other family members and/or peers. First, Lau and Cheung (1988) found strong associations between Chinese students reading habits and the reading habits of their mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, friends, and classmates. Thus, both Lau and Cheungs (1988) and Chens (2008) studies also conflict with ORourkes (1979) findings that high-school students reading behaviors and attitudes showed little connection to their parents. Perhaps the different cultures in which these studies were conducted partially explain the contradictory findings, in line with research on cross-cultural parentchild relationships which suggests that adolescents from cultures considered more collectivistic perceive more overlap between their own and their parents identities than adolescents from more individualistic cultures (Imamolu and Karakitapolu-Aygn 2007). Lastly, in my own recent study (Klauda 2008), I examined the relative contributions of perceived support for recreational reading from parents and friends to five dimensions of reading motivation and four aspects of recreational reading frequency in fourth and fifth graders. The 302 participants, who attended rural schools, separately rated their mother, father, and a friend on 11 reading-supportive behaviors previously studied by others. Factor analysis led to identification of four dimensions of reading support, including one that combined mother and father support for book reading and general encouragement to read and one that encompassed nearly the same set of items for friends. Controlling for participants gender, grade level, and reading fluency, when parent and friend support were examined simultaneously, each positively and uniquely contributed to the motivations of having knowledge goals and specific reading interests and to having a sense of efficacy and desire to be challenged in reading, with parent support showing standardized effects only 0.05 to 0.07 higher than friend support. In addition, only parent support contributed to the motivations of recognition and autonomy, whereas friend support alone predicted participants recreational reading of information books and web sites. In each full model predicting a reading motivation dimension, parent support was the strongest predictor, except for self-efficacy/ challenge (for which fluency was the strongest predictor). Altogether, this study suggested that parent support is connected to older childrens reading motivation in ways that are both distinct from and shared with friend support. Key limitations of this study are that all survey data were self-report, and the data were collected at one time point. Summary Quantitative research comparing adolescents experiences of reading support from parents and other socialization agents is rare, and extant studies offer somewhat disparate findings. More research is needed to delineate how parent support functions relative to support from other sources; for example, does support from multiple sources have additive benefits for adolescents motivation?
General discussion of quantitative studies Quantitative studies examining parent reading support and beliefs generally indicate positive, weak to moderate linear relations between these variables and older childrens reading motivations and activity, thus aligning with the general tenet of the reading attitude
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and reading engagement models that social factors are linked to, if not have causal impact on, individuals involvement in reading (McKenna 1994; Guthrie and Wigfield 2000). More specifically, these studies suggest that frequent interactions with others in reading activities, exposure to positive beliefs and encouragement to read, and others provision of physical environments conducive to reading are indeed associated with a more positive orientation about reading and greater reading frequency. A key limitation of the quantitative studies, when considered in the context of the reading attitude acquisition and reading engagement models, however, is that they typically examined social factors in isolation, rather than relative to other key factors hypothesized to simultaneously play important roles in reading attitudes and engagement. Interestingly, though, five studies examined the role of different socialization agents reading-supportive behaviors and beliefs. While these studies were varied in their specific foci and findings, collectively they suggested that parent behaviors are significant predictors of their childrens reading motivation and beliefs to a similar or greater degree than teacher and peer behaviors. Furthermore, in showing that parent support and beliefs relate differentially to adolescent variables, they underscore the value of inquiring about their interactions and experiences of support from particular socialization agents. In order to help explain why support from different figures may relate differentially to adolescents reading activity and motivation, future studies should measure aspects of the quality of their relationships with the figures under study, as suggested by McKennas (1994) model. Clearly, much further research is needed to determine whether models that include social influences on childrens reading should make predictions specific to different socialization agents. The typical finding of weak to moderate rather than stronger correlations between the parent variables examined in the quantitative studies and adolescents reading activity and motivation might evoke the question of whether social factors should indeed be so prominent in the models of reading attitude acquisition and engagement. A number of research design issues, however, including sampling, measurement, and analytical limitations, may have contributed to stronger relations not being observed, as noted earlier within the discussion of Greaney and Hegartys (1987) and Neumans (1986a, b) studies and as will be discussed more extensively in the future research recommendations in the final section of the review. At the same time, it is noteworthy that the general finding of significant positive relations between support and motivation held with the inclusion of a variety of controls in the analyses and across several countriesIreland (Greaney and Hegarty 1987), China (Lau and Cheung 1988), Canada (OSullivan and Howe 1996), Australia (Conlon et al. 2006), Taiwan (Chen 2008), and the USA (all other studies)and with some range in socioeconomic status. Also, the studies involved a wide range of grade levels, though most focused on the upper elementary and early middle-school years, and taken together, the studies offer some evidence of weaker relations between parent and child variables with increasing child age. Given that with entry into adolescence children typically seek increasing separation from their parents, the indications of somewhat weaker relations of parent support and beliefs with middle-school- and high-school-aged students reading motivations and activity suggest a plausible developmental trajectory. Further, this trend meshes with the idea represented in the reading attitude acquisition model that individuals desire to conform with socializers beliefs about reading are a determining factor in whether those socializers will bear influence (McKenna 1994). Lastly, it is notable that four studies focused on a parental support factor not explicitly included in either the reading engagement or reading attitude acquisition model: parents beliefs about their childrens competence in reading (Frome and Eccles 1998; Halle et al. 1997; Herbert and Stipek 2005; OSullivan and Howe 1996). These studies offered mixed
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findings about the degree to which parents and adolescents competence-related beliefs are connected that could not be easily reconciled, for example by considering demographic characteristics of the participants such as age or SES. Given the ambiguity of current findings and recognizing that individuals competence beliefs in various domains are known to be a key influence on their activity choices (Wigfield et al. 2006), this seems an important issue for further research that could lead to elaborations within the reading attitude acquisition and engagement models.
Qualitative and Mixed-Method Research on Parent Support and Beliefs Qualitative and mixed-method studies offer many concrete examples of how support from parents and others relates to older childrens engagement in reading. To be included in this section, studies needed to investigate linkages between adolescents reading activity or some aspect of their reading motivation and their parents behavior or beliefs. Studies that documented how parents encouraged or interacted with their children in reading but did not consider how those efforts related to the quantity or nature of adolescents reading are not included. In many studies, adolescents or their parents were asked explicitly about influences on the adolescents reading attitudes and practices. In a few cases, researchers also made inferences about influence based on their observations and interpretation of participant comments. Therefore, in this section, terms like influence and impact refer to perceived causation, primarily from the adolescents viewpoint but also sometimes from parents or researchers perspectives. Studies focused on parents Only two of the 19 qualitative/mixed-method studies identified centered on parental influences on childrens reading (see Table 6). First, Chandler (1999) interviewed 12 highschool students who were avid readers of Stephen Kings horror novels. She decided that the role of parents in these adolescents reading lives specifically merited focus upon discovering that a parent had introduced eight of the 12 students to Kings books. Additionally, Chandler found that all students had received King books as presents from
Table 6 Qualitative and Mixed-Method Studies Focused on Reading Support from Parents Study Chandler 1999 Students 12 high schoolers (avid Stephen King readers) Key measures Key findings
Student interview/parent survey: Strong parent influence on reading and sharing of Stephen childs initial and ongoing interest in Stephen King King novels and other books novels and other books for Reading grades, English class students diverse in reading level, self-rating of reading achievement skill Fathers especially supported older committed readers, whereas mothers supported younger boys more; Parents of committed and reluctant readers more alike than different in how they supported reading
Hamston and Love 166 1117-year-old Self-report, mother, father surveys: child and parent boys (committed 2003; Love and reading practices, perceptions and reluctant Hamston 2001, of childs reading ability, ways readers) 2003, 2004 that parents encourage reading Reluctant reader/parent interviews (n =7)
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their parents or other relatives and that parent influence was not limited to King novels. For instance, eight childparent pairs regularly discussed books by many other popular authors. Chandler s concluding point was that informal, enjoyable interactions with parents around literacy may be crucial in keeping students involved in reading as they grow older, particularly as schools and teachers often neglect or even undermine students interest in popular fiction and convey to them that there is a right way to interpret the typically classic novels assigned in school. Second, Love and Hamston (Hamston and Love 2003; Love and Hamston 2001, 2003, 2004) examined the reading practices of 166 boys and their parents from middle-class families in Melbourne, Australia, through questionnaires and interviews with structured and open-ended items. All participating boys were competent readers, but parents and teachers identified 91 of them as committed recreational readers and the remainder as reluctant recreational readers. One key finding, which conflicts with much of the quantitative studies reviewed and some of the qualitative/mixed-method studies that will be considered shortly, was that the parents of reluctant and committed readers did not differ substantially in the ways they supported reading in their homes (Love and Hamston 2004). The authors attributed this finding to the boys in the two groups differentially resisting their parents influence, an explanation that accords with the idea in the reading attitude acquisition model that ones tendency to conform to another s beliefs is an important factor in whether they will adopt that persons views on reading (McKenna 1994). Among the few differences between parents of committed and reluctant readers was that the former indicated somewhat greater valuing of fiction reading. In Love and Hamstons (2001) work, the committed readers responses to an open-ended prompt to describe themselves as readers also illustrated the influence of parents in several ways. For example, some boys reported reading books their parents had read as children, either because their parents recommended them or because the boys themselves sought to read them, thereby forming a cultural and even spiritual link with their parents (Love and Hamston 2001, p. 43). Love and Hamston (2001) also observed a difference in relative influence of mothers and fathers by boys age. The older boys appeared to be influenced especially by their fathers, with whom they particularly enjoyed exchanging and discussing nonfiction materials on traditionally masculine topics like cars and military history; in contrast, mothers appeared to be the stronger influence on younger boys reading. Summary These two qualitative/mixed-method studies offer particularly detailed accounts of ways in which some parents support and share in their adolescents reading, sometimes with clearly positive consequences for the adolescents reading habits and feelings about reading but other times with more ambiguous effects.
Studies concerning influence of parents and other socialization agents Studies focused on avid and/or infrequent readers I located 17 studies that inquired broadly about the influence of socialization agents on adolescents reading. In these studies, summarized in Table 7, the researchers typically asked a general question akin to Who influences your reading? although sometimes they asked about the role of specific people (e.g., parents, teachers, friends). Of these studies, six focused on the motivations and practices of particularly frequent and motivated readers (Carlsen and Sherrill 1988; Cherland 1994; De Leon 2005; Fielding et al. 1986; Lee 2007; Trevino-Diaz 2009). These studies clearly indicate that many avid adolescent readers do feel that others, including their
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Table 7 Qualitative and Mixed-Method Studies Concerning Reading Support from Multiple Socialization Agents Key findings Student comments demonstrated that they were part of communities of readers (p. 155); parents reported encouraging children to read in varied ways Many examples of how parents, other relatives, friends, librarians, romantic interests influenced reading practices Amount of reading unrelated to parent support or home literacy environment, but unique forms of family influence seen in most cases; students showed limited interest in book recommendations from parents or others Supportive parent and teacher behaviors largely ended after primary grades, with negative impacts on reading activity Reading (esp. fiction) transmitted through generations as appropriate practice for females to practice and share with each other; many examples of parents, esp. mothers, and peers influencing students reading (and writing) practices
Study
Students
Key measures
Fielding et al. 1986 8 5th gr. (avid readers)
Student interview: influences on reading habits Parent interview: home literacy environment, expectations, support
Carlsen and Sherrill 1988
>1,000 adults (avid readers)
Prompt for participants to write autobiographies about why and how they became readers
Thompson 1991
7 3rd7th (low achievers)
Student/parent interviews: reading attitudes, influences
Observations: activities at home and public library
Duchein and Mealey 1993
90 alliterate college students
Records: reading log, points earned during summer reading program, achievement test scores Prompt for participants to write about their history and development as readers since early childhood
Cherland 1994
7 6thgr. girls (avid fiction readers)
Student/parent interviews: literacy practices, daily life
Observations: school and nonschool events
Student discussions during literature-response groups; dialogue journals between students and researcher
Finders 1997
5 7th gr. girls
Student/parent interview: literacy practices, daily life
Observations: school and nonschool events
Literacy-related artifacts created by students
Literacy practices, nature of reading influences varied across social groups; many examples of parent influence, or a perceived lack thereof, on student literacy practices
Millard 1997
255 secondary-school students
Girls, compared to boys, influenced more by family and friends Self-report survey/interview (n =16): personal and in reading practices; mothers main source of books and book family reading practices, influences on learning to read, sharing of reading materials with family and friends recommendations for both girls and boys AsianAmericans differed from other ethnic groups in frequency of citing parents and others as influence; talk about books with peers more influential than talk with parents One student cited father influence on reading activity, motivation; a second student cited mother, aunt, teachers Boys more social in literacy activities than widely believed; Several examples of positive parent influence, how desire to
Pavonetti 1997
626 college students
Self-report survey/interview (n =25 females): definition of reading, motivational factors in school and recreational reading since childhood
Ivey 1999
3 6th gr.
Interview: reading practices, influences Observations: school activities
Smith and Wilhelm 2002
49 7th12th-gr. boys
Reading log: reading activities by hour, with comments
Interview: ranking of personal activities, reading log
Table 7 (continued) Key findings
Study
Students
Key measures
Prompt to respond to scenarios of boys reading
Strommen and Mates 2004
De Leon 2005
interact with peers drove some reading choices, resistance to reading assigned or recommended by teachers Think aloud while reading stories 9 6th and 9th gr. (readers Interview: reading attitudes, parent and teacher influences, Readers influenced to read in varied ways by parents, and and nonreaders) family and friend reading habits somewhat by others; nonreaders received limited parent encouragement to read 3 8th gr. (highly Self-report survey (MRQ)/interview: reading motivations One student cited mother as good reading role model, but motivated readers) at school and home overall parents offered general encouragement for learning more than specific support for reading Faculty interviews: focal students, school climate Friends most often cited source of book recommendations Mothers most often cited as person who causes interest in reading, followed by other family members and teachers
Observations: classroom activities
Edmunds and Bauserman 2006
16 4th gr.
Interview: recent narrative text reading, expository text reading, reading in general
Huang 2007
247 7th gr.
Self-report survey/interview (n =8 high-achieving and 8 low-achieving readers): reading motivations
Observations: school, after-school programs
Lee 2007
6 7th gr. (engaged readers)
Student/parent/teacher interviews: students reading practices, interactions
Self-report survey: reading attitudes, interests
Observations: classroom, after-school activities, home
Students read many books suggested by parents, teachers; most students wanted to satisfy their parents and teachers expectations in reading; nature of friend influence varied for achievement groups Most parents attempted to restrict their childrens recreational reading, esp. on internet, but students averted these restrictions with 12 strategies; students did some reading and shared materials (e.g., manga) to earn classmates approval, but preferred keeping reading private Social networks identified as one of two categories of why and how adolescents read; vast majority cited peers as source of reading material, but few described parental influence; girls more social than boys in literacy activities
Various student artifacts (e.g., emails, portfolios)
Moje et al. 2008
Wave 1 329 6th, 8th, 9th gr.
Wave 2 716 7th, 9th, 10th gr.
Self-report survey/interview (n =79): literacy perceptions, motivations, practices, preferences, general nonschool activities Various school record data (e.g., grades)
Trevino-Diaz 2009
4 4th gr. (avid readers)
Interview: reading experiences, influences in/out of school Teacher support most significant influence on students reading; parent influence/support varied from general encouragement to Observations: school activities read to special permission for reading at unusual places/times Reading logs to active, frequent involvement Accelerated reader reports 347
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parents, other relatives, friends, romantic interests, teachers, and librarians, have influenced their general recreational reading attitudes and amount of activity as well as their specific reading choices. For instance, most of the seven sixth-grade girls in Cherlands (1994) ethnographic study wanted to read the violent and sexually explicit Flowers in the Attic series of V. C. Andrews because their mothers were reading it. The studies focused on avid readers also showed that exposure to a parent who reads regularly is an especially common characteristic of such adolescents, but when such a parent model does not exist, the adolescent usually has been regularly exposed to a different avid reader. At the same time, two of these studies keenly demonstrated how parent support for reading has its bounds. Cherland (1994) assembled a variety of evidence from the suburban, middle-class community she studied, showing that fiction reading was passed on through families from generation to generation as an appropriate practice for females, but inappropriate one for males. Furthermore, Lee (2007), who studied six seventh graders in Seoul, Korea, illustrated how parents largely attempted to discourage their childrens recreational reading habits, especially their online reading activities, as they desired their children to wholly devote themselves to academic pursuits. Students in this study also largely professed a desire not to share their personal reading with their schoolmates (but considerable interest in sharing with online friends). This study thus clearly conveyed the importance of taking into consideration cultural values when examining parent and broader social factors in childrens reading. In contrast to these studies which centered on avid readers, Duchein and Mealey (1993) focused on the reading histories of 90 college students whom they characterized as alliterate, using a writing prompt to obtain retrospective accounts of their experiences from early childhood to adolescence. Students reported that they often experienced and enjoyed parent and teacher read-alouds when they were young and believe that continuation of this practice beyond early elementary school would have helped them become better and more frequent readers. Further, the study suggested how the appeal of other activities during adolescence can work in concert with changes at school and home to cause developmental declines in reading engagement. An important limitation of the studies which focused solely on avid readers, or the opposite, is that they do not identify experiences that are necessarily unique to frequent or infrequent readers. Like Love and Hamston (2004), two other studies that attempted to distinguish such groups offer mixed findings. Strommen and Mates (2004), for one, found that sixth and ninth graders who regularly read for pleasure had parents who currently and regularly engaged in book discussions with them, helped them choose books and build their own libraries, frequently read themselves, and clearly prioritized reading for the family, unlike not-readers who rarely read for pleasure. Interestingly, not-readers reported that their parents, like those of the readers, had read with them when they were younger and still sometimes encouraged them to read but did not offer specific book recommendations, as the parents of readers did. These differences align with the reading engagement and reading attitude acquisition models in suggesting that continuing involvement, beyond early childhood, is important. Also, the not-readers reported that their parents and they themselves generally viewed reading in a utilitarian manner, whereas the readers and their parents more so emphasized the experience of pleasure as a reason for reading. On the other hand, Thompson (1991), who studied low-achieving readers entering third through seventh grade, did not find distinct patterns of parent support for the less and more active readers she studied. A very important factor to take into consideration, however, is that this study was conducted in the context of a summer reading program offering prizes for amount readthat is, students reading amount may have been connected more to the importance to them of this extrinsic motivator than to any other factor.
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Strommen and Mates (2004) additionally offered insight into the comparative role of parents and others in older childrens motivation for reading. For example, while readers reported that they enjoyed discussing their reading with their friends, the practice of book discussion had always been initiated in their families. Also, the readers noted some ways in which their early teachers had influenced their involvement in reading and some expressed appreciation for their current teachers who showed passion for reading but did not cite them as major influences on their own love of reading. Studies focused on adolescent samples with diverse reading habits In eight studies, researchers aimed to capture the reading, and sometimes writing, practices and motivations of a broad array of adolescents, rather than just especially avid and nonavid readers. In one study, Millard (1997), much like Cherland (1994), contended that girls are more positive about reading and read more than boys, especially fiction, because they have learned to view reading as a feminine activity from their parents and others. In the ethnically diverse group of low-SES students in England Millard (1997) studied, she found, for example, that a number of girls were reading books recommended to them by their mothers, especially Catherine Cookson novels and classics like Charlotte Brontes Jane Eyre. Many more girls, however, shared books with their friends (35%) than with their mothers (5%). Still, mothers appeared to have relatively more involvement in, if not impact on, both girls and boys reading than did fathers. An explicit or underlying assumption common to the remaining five studies considered is that most adolescents do engage willingly in some literacy practices (although often not those well esteemed by schools, such as reading magazines and song lyrics) and that understanding how and why adolescents engage in these practices can offer insight for strengthening their engagement in reading both inside and outside of school. For example, Finders (1997) conducted a year-long ethnographic study of seventh-grade girls literacy practices that compared students who varied in SES and popularity. For the three social queens (very popular, middle-class students) she studied, reading was largely a social activity with their peers; their three primary nonassigned literacy-related activities all in one way or another were social in nature: pouring over teen zines together, passing a plethora of notes to each other in school, writing graffiti for others to see on notebooks and bathroom walls. These girls parents influenced their reading mainly by setting rules (e.g., not allowing a subscription to Sassy) that the girls wanted to or did indeed defy. In stark contrast, Finders showed that for two tough cookies (working-class students who were well-regarded by their teachers but neglected by many of their peers) reading was disconnected from their friendships, in part because the girls were unable to have much interaction with their friends either inside or outside of school. Parental influence was also limited, at least from the girls perspective; both said they did not appreciate book suggestions or input on their writing from others. Observations, interviews with others, and writing samples revealed, however, that the girls did share reading practices of their mothers and other female relatives and that they sometimes sought and used input on their writing from their mothers (but not their peers or teachers). One broad conclusion of Finders (1997) was that there is a myth of the adolescent as a somewhat generic entity (p. 121). Similarly, Ivey (1999) and Smith and Wilhelm (2002) studied adolescents from the perspective that large-scale studies have led to an overgeneralized characterization of middle-school students as basically competent but unmotivated readers. In Iveys (1999) case studies of three sixth graders who varied in reading skill but all demonstrated engagement in some form of reading, two students identified their parents as influences on their reading engagement. For example, one moderately skilled and
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motivated reader described how a book that his dad had chosen for his brother, Call It Courage by William Sperry, became a favorite that he read multiple times. A key theme of Smith and Wilhelms (2002) study of 49 boys in the seventh to 12th grades, diverse in ethnicity, achievement, and type of school attended, was not only that these adolescents read outside of school but that for them reading was very much a social activity. In part what enabled Smith and Wilhelm (2002) to challenge the standard view of adolescents as overall unengaged in reading and uninvolved with others through any reading that they actually do was that they viewed reading in perhaps the broadest terms of any researchers whose work is included in this review. The reading activities they considered ranged from reading novels and information books to reading text in video games and reading movies by critiquing the director s style. Although Smith and Wilhelm (2002) provided a few examples of how boys read to share their parents interests, particularly their fathers, the boys desire to interact with their peers appeared to support their reading engagement to a stronger degree. For instance, one student became hooked on Orson Scott Cards science fiction novels through a friend, another reported reading hockey scores so he could discuss the sport with his friends, and many boys cited such activities as reading plays aloud and literature circles as their favorite in-school reading activities because they involved interaction with their classmates. In addition, in line with Chandler s (1999) findings, the boys generally appreciated reading recommendations from family and friends, whereas they resisted reading assigned or recommended by their teachers Similarly, Moje et al. (2008), who are conducting an ongoing mixed-method study of adolescent reading practices, motivations, and achievement in an urban, Midwestern, primarily Latino/a community, underscored the social aspects of adolescents reading, identifying reading as situated in social networks as one of two major categories for why and how students read and wrote, along with reading as generative of social capital, meaning reading to obtain information, develop identities, and identify models for self-improvement. Among the students they interviewed, the vast majority cited peers as a source of reading material, whereas only eight students described how their parents encouraged their reading by either sharing books with them or suggesting they read certain kinds of materials. In a unique way, though, one mother offered reading support and enabled her daughter to experience support from friends by organizing a monthly book club in which girls discussed a book and engaged in a related activity, like seeing a movie based on a book. In accord with the prominence of interaction with friends in the studies of Smith and Wilhelm (2002) and Moje et al. (2008), Edmunds and Bauserman (2006) found in a younger age group (fourth graders) varied in reading motivation and ability that family and friends, but especially friends, played an important role in the books students chose. When students were asked, however, who gets them interested in and excited about reading, they most frequently cited their mothers, some mentioned their teachers or other family members, and a few said no one; they did not cite peers. Somewhat in contrast, Huang (2007) found that seventh graders in Taiwan were very receptive to book recommendations from both teachers and parents. Moreover, most participants described their parents and teachers expectations as shaping their valuing of reading and school more broadly, though high achievers were more apt than low achievers to cite their teachers as a major influence on their love of reading. These findings mesh well with the quantitative findings of Chen (2008) who also studied Taiwanese adolescents. Finally, a notable feature of many qualitative studies reviewed herein is that they were conducted either with ethnically diverse samples (e.g., Millard 1997; Smith and Wilhelm 2002) or within understudied, American minority or non-American samples (e.g., Lee 2007; Moje et al. 2008). Only one study, however, investigated whether there is ethnic
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variation in social influences on reading (Pavonetti 1997). In this study, AsianAmerican students differed from African, European, and HispanicAmericans in that they most frequently cited their parents in general as influencing their interest in recreational reading, whereas the other groups most often cited their mothers specifically. AsianAmerican students also cited their fathers, siblings, and self-interest in reading more than other groups but less often cited the experience of being read to at home or the availability of books at home as motivational factors. Pavonetti (1997) noted that all but one of the Asian American students parents were immigrants to the USA, suggesting that lack of familiarity with the American school system may have impacted how they did, or did not, support reading at home. She also speculated about how variation in family structure may have affected students references to parents versus mothers or fathers as influences. Summary These qualitative and mixed-method studies which inquired broadly about social influences on adolescents reading underscored that many adolescents are socially interactive if not socially influenced in the reading that they do, though there is much variation in who plays prominent roles in individuals experiences. Oftentimes, avid adolescent readers describe their parents as a positive influence, but both when they do and when they do not, other individuals are also often portrayed as key contributors to their general attitudes and specific reading choices.
General discussion of qualitative and mixed-method studies Altogether, qualitative and mixed-method studies offer numerous vivid examples of how parents and other socialization agents have remained important figures in the reading lives of many (but certainly not all) avid readers during later childhood and adolescence. In addition, they suggest that many adolescents who are not especially avid or high-achieving readers experience and appreciate some social interaction in reading activities both inside and outside of school. In these regards, these studies harmonize with the general prominence given to social factors in the both the reading attitude acquisition and engagement models. Several studies seem particularly to concur with these models portrayal of social factors as just one of a small handful of broad elements that contribute to individuals reading attitudes and engagement (e.g., Huang 2007; Moje et al. 2008; Smith and Wilhelm 2002). Additionally, several studies illustrate how parents and other family members differentially support reading for boys and girls (e.g., Cherland 1994; Finders 1997; Millard 1997), supporting McKennas (1994) contention that gender differences in reading practices reflect variation in socialization. The qualitative and mixed-method studies offer few if any explicit conclusions about the comparative influence of different socialization agents, in terms of either what aspects of reading motivation or habits each affected or their relative degree of impact in general. Notably, several studies suggested that friends have greater impact on adolescents decisions to read particular materials than do parents (e.g., Edmunds and Bauserman 2006; Millard 1997; Moje et al. 2008; Smith and Wilhelm 2002). Still, other studies suggested that parents are frequently an important influence on adolescents reading choices as well as a key source of general encouragement and support (e.g., Chandler 1999; Cherland 1994; Love and Hamston 2001; Huang 2007; Strommen and Mates 2004). As in the quantitative realm, further qualitative and mixed-method research is needed to ascertain ways in which support from different figures may have unique, overlapping, and interactive functions, and such research may hold implications for refinement of the social factors with the reading engagement and attitude acquisition models.
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More so than the quantitative studies, the qualitative and mixed-method studies raise questions about the role of cultural and socioeconomic factors in how parents influence their older childrens reading. As mentioned above, several recent studies have been conducted far away from middle-class, suburban, EuropeanAmerican communities, and these studies compellingly illustrated how cultural and socioeconomic factors influenced how parents desired to or were able to support their childrens reading both in and out of school (e.g., De Leon 2005; Huang 2007; Lee 2007; Love and Hamston 2004; Moje et al. 2008; Trevino-Diaz 2009). These portraits add support for the reading attitude acquisition models inclusion of the broader environment and social structure as elements that indirectly affect individuals reading attitude formation (McKenna 1994). They may do so in part by shaping the messages that others aim to convey about reading as well as the availability of literacy materials. In some ways, however, these studies (especially Lee 2007) counter the idea of the reading engagement model that social interaction in reading is a defining characteristic of engaged readers. Although studies supporting the reading engagement model as a whole have included samples with significant minority populations (Guthrie et al. 2007b), additional research is needed particularly to assess the importance of social factors for adolescents across diverse settings. Broadly with regard to methodology, the studies reviewed in this section demonstrate that the qualitative approach to the study of reading support complements quantitative methods by offering specific instances of many of the supportive practices assessed in quantitative studies (e.g., parent provision of reading materials). Furthermore, qualitative methods allowed the documentation of additional ways others may influence individuals reading motivation and activity (e.g., a mother organizing a book club for her daughter s friends), although, of course, these additional ways may be quite unique to the particular individuals studied and therefore of limited importance for achieving a generalizable understanding of how parents and others may most effectively support adolescents reading.
Conclusions and Future Research Directions The studies reviewed in this paper provide important information about parental support of their childrens reading during adolescence, but there is clearly still much to be learned in this area, and previous research has certain limitations that need to be addressed. I therefore conclude by outlining suggestions for future research, elaborating on a few key points already introduced, and making other recommendations based on further consideration of the trends and gaps in the body of work reviewed. Firmer theoretical grounding One major recommendation, especially for future quantitative studies of the relations between parent reading support and adolescents reading behaviors and motivations, is stronger grounding in theoretical models, whether reading specific or domain general. Most of the quantitative studies in this review that focused on parents supportive behaviors addressed general research questions, guided by relatively broad ideas about how parents influence childrens interests, rather than theory-based hypotheses. In contrast, theoretical models explicitly guided most of the quantitative studies that focused on parent beliefs about reading (rather than their behaviors), as well as many of the qualitative/mixed-method studies reviewed. Earlier in this paper, I outlined the reading attitude acquisition (e.g., McKenna 1994) and reading engagement models (e.g., Guthrie and Wigfield 2000), which both place social
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factors among the key influences on individuals reading attitudes and activity. In the sections on quantitative and qualitative/mixed-method studies, I discussed how extant findings cohere with these models in several regards and made some model-related suggestions for future research. It seems particularly important that future studies evaluate the extent to which each of the social factors specified in these models are important contributors to adolescents reading in comparison to the other cognitive and affective factors in the models. Notably, however, these models do not specify whether different socialization agents play different roles or whether they hold across a wide range of ages. Thus, future research might also lead to elaboration of these models based on reader and socialization agent characteristics. Briefly, regarding domain-general theories of motivation, SDT (Deci and Ryan 1985; Ryan and Deci 2000) and expectancy-value theory (EVT) (e.g., Eccles (Parsons) et al. 1983; Wigfield and Eccles 2000) may be particularly useful for guiding future research. In SDT, which, as mentioned earlier, served as part of the basis for the reading engagement model, involvement of socialization agents in a given activity plays a key role in facilitating the internalization of motivation for that activity. Grolnick et al. (1997) defined involvement as comprised of three components: (1) devoting time and resources to the child with respect to the target agendas; (2) taking interest in the childs activities; and (3) providing warmth and caring (p. 147). These components could be measured specifically with regard to parent involvement in their childrens reading activity and examined in relation to the key motivational constructs of SDT. EVT and research based in it guided much of the research on parent beliefs considered in this review but was rarely applied in the studies that focused on parent behaviors. A key tenet of EVT is that childrens expectancies for success and valuing of tasks directly impact their task participation, persistence, and performance choices (Eccles (Parsons) et al. 1983; Wigfield and Eccles 2000). EVT, however, also specifies linkages among an array of cultural, personal, and socialization factors and childrens self-perceptions and task perceptions. As a considerable amount of EVT-guided research has been conducted on parent influences in the math/science domain, its further application to parents role in the reading/English domain could offer insights into the generalizability of findings across subject domains. Finer examination of parent support Compare support sources A second issue emphasized throughout this review is the need for further study of how reading support from parents works in comparison to or in conjunction with support from other sources, like teachers or peers. Similarly, future research should more closely examine the possible distinct or additive functions of support from mothers and fathers. In addition to possibly helping to elaborate models of attitude and motivation development in the reading domain, studies designed to investigate the role of support from multiple sources would contribute broadly to research on the socialization of motivation in general, for, as observed by Bouchey and Harter (2005), studies in other domains have likewise mostly examined one type of socialization agent at a time. Bouchey and Harter (2005) also noted that studies focused on students perceptions of support from multiple socialization agents are particularly needed. Outside the reading domain, studies that have simultaneously examined support from parents and other socialization agents (as perceived by students or the support providers) in relation to achievement motivation offer varied insights into the additive, compensatory, and differential effects of support from different sources (e.g., Bouchey and Harter 2005; Furrer and Skinner 2003; Murdock and
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Miller 2003; Simpkins et al. 2005; Wentzel 1998). For example, Furrer and Skinner (2003) demonstrated that, generally, the more figures to which third to sixth graders indicated high relatedness, the better they scored on a variety of academic engagement variables. Investigate support for school versus recreational reading As mentioned in the overview of the review, more studies focused on parent support for adolescents reading outside of school than for school reading. Also, in a number of studies, researchers examined students reading experiences both in and out of school but did not explicitly address the issues of whether parents tend to support adolescents recreational and school reading in quantitatively or qualitatively different ways, a vivid exception being Lees (2007) study of engaged readers in Korea. It is also conceivable that certain practices or beliefs could differentially impact adolescents reading motivations for school and recreational reading. For example, an adolescent may enjoy discussing nonschool reading with his or her mother, and this experience may increase the adolescents sense that reading has entertainment value as a recreational activity. On the other hand, the same adolescent might interpret his or her mother s interest in school reading assignments as a sign that the mother does not believe the adolescent can handle schoolwork independently, with negative impact on the adolescents sense of efficacy in reading. Examine the importance of particular practices Studies are needed that directly address the issue of what aspects of parent reading support and beliefs matter most for adolescents. With extant research, it is difficult to discern what parent factors are most strongly connected to adolescents reading motivations for several reasons, including (a) quantitative studies often employed composite measures of the home literacy environment, (b) qualitative/mixed-method studies often specified supportive behaviors and beliefs that clearly impacted some students general amount of reading activity or some of their specific reading choices but these studies did not document how regularly these events occurred, and (c) the few studies that compared avid and nonavid readers experience of specific supportive behaviors (quantitatively or qualitatively) do not offer entirely consistent conclusions about which experiences most distinguish these groups. At the same time that the value of particular practices are considered, however, the possibility should also be taken into account that perhaps it is not a few specific parent actions that are characteristic of avid adolescent readers but exposure to an overall relatively strong level of parent support enacted in multiple ways that matters. The construction of internally valid composite measures of parent support for reading and qualitative findings which illustrated how many parents of avid readers engaged in an assortment of behaviors representative of a strong value for reading bolster this possibility. One way that researchers might make differentiations within the construct of reading support is by drawing on the broader literature concerning typologies of social support (Malecki and Demaray 2003; Robinson 1995; Tardy 1985). For example, Malecki and Demaray (2003) espoused a four-dimension typology of support. In many of the studies in this review, the researchers measured ways that parents are actively involved in and provide resources to their children for reading or what Malecki and Demaray identified as instrumental support. Other studies focused on parent beliefs about their childrens reading competence, which, if positive, could be construed as appraisal support. Studies might also investigate parents provision of emotional support in the context of readinge.g., encouragement when the adolescent is having difficultiesor informational supporte.g., information about a book an adolescent is considering reading. Researchers might also find it meaningful to inquire about parent support with respect to different kinds of reading materials (e.g., books, magazines, web sites). Recent qualitative
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studies offer some examples of how parents support or discourage their adolescent childrens reading of materials other than books (e.g., Lee 2007; Love and Hamston 2004; Smith and Wilhelm 2002), but quantitative research making these distinctions is currently quite limited. Consider negative as well as positive parent factors Several studies in this review identified reading-related practices and beliefs that were negatively associated with adolescents reading motivation and activity or that promote avoidance and devaluing of reading (e.g., Duchein and Mealey 1993; Wells 1978). Currently, reasons that children have for avoiding reading are receiving increased attention (Guthrie and Coddington 2009), so research more closely and systematically examining how parents contribute in both negative and positive ways to adolescents reading motivation would complement this growing area of theory and research. Relatedly, some future studies should employ statistical analyses that can offer insight into whether there are nonlinear relations between parent reading support and adolescents reading motivation. For example, if parents encourage their children to read every day, the childrenperhaps particularly adolescent childrenmay perceive this encouragement as nagging or coercive, not motivating. Ideal outcomesa variety of positive motivations for reading and frequent engagement in reading a variety of materials by choicemight be associated with moderate amounts of reading support from parents and others. Stronger relations of reading support with reading motivation and frequency might be observed if statistical methods that could identify curvilinear relations between these variables were employed, as suggested by Eccles (1993) in a broadly applicable consideration of how others influence childrens development of values and beliefs about particular activities.
A stronger developmental perspective With one exception (Herbet and Stipek 2005), the parent-focused quantitative studies included in this review involved collection of data from participants at a single time point. A few of the qualitative/mixed-method studies involved extended data collection over a period of several months or more (Cherland 1994; Finders 1997; Moje et al. 2008; Smith and Wilhelm 2002) but did not emphasize change or stability in interactions with parents around reading. Also, a number of studies, both quantitative and qualitative, involved participants varied in age, but the researchers rarely described age-related analyses. Therefore, studies that track parent involvement in childrens reading over an extended age range, especially with longitudinal designs, would fill a clear gap in research on adolescent reading motivation. Such designs would particularly help shed light on such questions as whether experiences of support for and interaction with others in reading in the later elementary years and beyond have additional benefits over only having such experiences in early childhood and whether such experiences in middle childhood or adolescence can compensate for lack of such support at younger ages. Duchein and Mealeys (1993) retrospective study in which college students reflected on their experiences of social support for reading throughout their lives suggested that sustained reading support across many years is important, but prospective longitudinal research would provide stronger evidence for or against this contention. Longitudinal studies in particular would also provide a stronger basis for addressing issues of how and to what extent parental reading support is a cause versus a product or simply a correlate of adolescents reading motivation, engagement, and achievement.
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Although many of the studies included in this review were based in the perspective that parents play a key role in socializing their childrens values and interests, relations between many of the parent and child variables considered in these studies are probably bidirectional. For instance, many avid adolescent readers likely initiate conversations with their parents and others about their current reading, which could spur those socialization agents to further encourage those adolescents reading, such as by giving them bookstore gift cards as holiday presents. Conversely, some parents may not offer their children much reading support because their children do not demonstrate much interest in reading. Particularly, as the adolescent years are widely seen as a time when children seek independence from their parents if not actively resist their influence, parents may believe that encouraging particularly activities that their children are not already interested in may not be worthwhile or may even be detrimental. Thus, they may offer little support to children who are not already avid readers. Another important developmental question, related to the prior recommendation for further research comparing support from parents and other socialization agents, is whether the importance of different sources of support changes over time. It would be particularly interesting to compare the contributions of parent and friend support to reading motivation before and after students transition to middle school. This suggestion is based in findings that childrens perceptions of parent involvement in their lives in general tend to decrease at the entry to middle school with negative consequences for motivation, while peer involvement and its consequences increase (Wigfield et al. 2006), as well as the limited evidence from the amalgamation of studies in the present review that parents are less influential on the reading of older adolescents than younger ones. An additional key developmental question is the extent to which the same aspects of parent support benefit younger and older children. As noted earlier, it is currently challenging to ascertain the importance of particular parent practices and beliefs for adolescents, which makes it even more challenging to compare their value for older and younger children. There is evidence from multiple studies, at least, that when parents of adolescents give, discuss, or explicitly recommend books, provide general encouragement to read, and read regularly themselves, their adolescent children are more likely to engage willingly in readingand similar practices are linked to younger childrens reading activity and interest (Baker et al. 1997; Baker 2003). Additionally, there is some evidence that reading aloud together, such a typical interaction of parents and young children, appears motivating for older children and adolescents on the rare occasions they experience it (e.g., Duchein and Mealey 1993; Shapiro and Whitney 1997). Research employing crosssectional and longitudinal designs to study children at several points from early childhood to adolescence would certainly, however, enable more precise insights. Research is also needed to determine whether two general points that Baker and colleagues (Baker et al. 1997; Baker 2003) made about parent support, based primarily on studies involving preschool and primary-grade children, hold in studies involving older children. First, Baker et al. (1997) contended that although frequent engagement in literacy activities with parents, such as storybook reading and visits to the library, is linked to childrens interest and motivation for independent reading, the affective quality of those interactions is critical. According to Baker et al. (1997), parents play a key role in modeling how to engage with text as well as in creating a warm emotional climate during reading that influences childrens response to the immediate reading situation and, likely, their longerterm feelings about reading. Clearly, based on the current review, researchers have rarely examined the emotional quality of adolescents reading-related interactions with their parents and others. Rather than studying affect in the context of joint book reading, the
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typical setting for examining affect in parents interactions with young children, affect in parentadolescent reading interactions might focus, for example, on the emotions experienced when discussing reading materials or visiting bookstores together. Second, Baker and colleagues (Baker et al. 1997; Baker 2003; Serpell et al. 2002) emphasized that parents who espouse and act upon the belief that reading should be a source of entertainment and pleasure have children with more positive orientations toward reading (and better reading skills) than those who consider reading a basic skill to master; furthermore, there is some evidence that the skill perspective is negatively related to young childrens reading motivation (Baker and Scher 2002). The qualitative/mixed-method studies included in this review, particularly those conducted by Chandler (1999) and Strommen and Mates (2004), suggest that this generalization may extend to parents of adolescents, as they showcased avid readers whose parents focused on the entertainment value of reading. At adolescence, when children generally have increased choices about their activities, recognition that their parents experience reading as a pleasurable activity may especially increase their likelihood to choose to read as well. Quantitative studies, however, that bear directly on this issue for adolescents are lacking and would be interesting particularly as this review offered some evidence that other aspects of parent beliefs about reading (e.g., beliefs about their childrens reading ability) are correlated with adolescents reading motivation and achievement. Greater methodological variation Increase diversity of participants In a few regards, the findings of the studies included in this review are limited in generalizability because of sample characteristics. For instance, two thirds of the quantitative studies focused on parent support concerned students in the sixth grade or lower. In contrast, the qualitative/mixed-method studies involved a more varied range of ages; however, as noted previously, studies that did include a wide range of ages gave little attention to potential developmental differences in experience. The samples of the qualitative/mixed-method studies also appeared more socioeconomically and ethnically diverse, with some studies including heterogeneous samples in these regards (e.g., Smith and Wilhelm 2002) and others focusing on homogeneous, understudied groups (e.g., Moje et al. 2008). Although there are some exceptions among the quantitative studies focused on parents (e.g., Chen 2008; Halle et al. 1997), on the whole, it is a concern that the findings of these studies are most applicable to middle-class, EuropeanAmerican students. Future research should include focused investigations of lower-SES groups and ethnic minorities previously given little attention, as well as further studies of nationally representative samples. Future studies might also more closely investigate if and how what parents believe and do to encourage adolescents reading is linked similarly to the reading motivations of adolescents who vary in reading achievement. There is some evidence from qualitative studies in this review that both lower and higher achievers who are avid recreational readers enjoy the involvement of parents and others in their reading (Chandler 1999; Smith and Wilhelm 2002). But do good and poor readers benefit from the same supportive practices and beliefs, and do they benefit to the same extent? Pomerantz et al. (2007) suggested that although all children benefit emotionally simply from others taking regular interest in their activities, children with negative [competence] experiences may be particularly sensitive to the quality of parents involvement because such children have a heightened need for the resources important to skill and motivational development (p. 390). In the general academic domain, involvement characterized by high-autonomy support, a process rather than person focus,
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positive affect, and positive beliefs about childrens potential appears particularly beneficial for lower-achieving children (Pomerantz et al. 2007). It would be interesting to investigate whether these findings hold in the school and recreational reading domains. Employ alternative data collection methods In the quantitative studies of parent support, there was a strong reliance on parent report of practices they engage in to encourage their children to read; to a lesser extent, children reported on their parents behaviors. Parent and child reports of parent practices were never obtained in the same study. It is therefore recommended that future studies simultaneously gather parent and child reports, a method that might offer insight into the extent to which social desirability and response habits are affecting analyses. Furthermore, employment of both parent and child report of parent practices and beliefs would enable examination of the extent to which child perceptions are indeed a link between what parents do and child outcomes (Bouchey and Harter 2005; McKenna 1994; Wigfield and Eccles 2000). Comparison of parents and childrens reports could help researchers, particularly those interested in planning interventions to improve reading motivation and engagement, discern whether children low in positive motivations for reading are not perceiving the support that others say they are giving, recognize the proffered support but are resistant to it, or are truly not receiving much support for their reading. Although several qualitative studies reviewed included data obtained from both parents and children, these issues were rarely explicitly addressed, and even when they were, they were not highly emphasized (e.g., Fielding et al. 1986; Finders 1997), so future qualitative research might address this issue more purposively as well. Future studies should also more often employ measures that do not rely as heavily on accuracy of recollection as questionnaires and interviews. For example, researchers might ask parents or children to record experiences of reading-related social interactions in diaries as they occur. Also, as suggested in the discussion of the need for research on the affective aspects of adolescents reading-related interactions, researchers might also consider employing observational methods. The emotional valence of these interactions could be coded, as well as social contextual features that promote the internalization of motivation, such as the autonomy-, competence-, and relatedness-supportive features specified in SDT (Grolnick et al. 1997; Ryan and Deci 2000). The latter methods, furthermore, may help better elucidate why reading support and reading motivation are linked, rather than simply demonstrate that there is an association.
Final conclusion This review aimed to illustrate and synthesize the varied research conducted to date concerning the nature and extent of relations between parent support for reading and adolescents reading motivation and activity. At the broadest level, the present review suggests that parent support may be an important factor in helping address current, widely held concerns about adolescent reading engagement and achievement. That is, many studies reviewed here indicate that parents support for their childrens reading continues to relate positively to childrens motivation to read in adolescence, despite the common view that parents play a less important role in their childrens lives in many ways during this developmental period. As evidenced particularly by the qualitative studies reviewed, parents may, however, support older childrens reading motivation in some different ways than they support younger childrens, such as by sharing their own books with them and discussing books or articles about mutual interests.
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The body of research reviewed herein, though, comprises a small fraction of the research on parent influence and involvement in their childrens reading, which has mostly focused on young children, as well as of the research on factors associated with adolescents reading engagement. Thus, in some respects, it stimulates more questions for future research than answers about how parents can most effectively help adolescents develop or sustain a commitment to reading. It is clear from the review, however, that many but certainly not all avid adolescent readers do share a reading connection with their parents, as well as with other family members and friends. Hopefully, through further rigorous study of these connections, researchers will be able to offer stronger and more specific recommendations for parent involvement in and encouragement of adolescent literacy.
Acknowledgment The author is grateful to Allan Wigfield for his helpful comments throughout the preparation of this paper.
References
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Educ Psychol Rev (2009) 21:325363 DOI 10.

1007/s10648-009-9112-0 REVIEW ARTICLE

The Role of Parents in Adolescents Reading Motivation and Activity

Educ Psychol Rev (2009) 21:325363

Educ Psychol Rev (2009) 21:325363

Educ Psychol Rev (2009) 21:325363

Educ Psychol Rev (2009) 21:325363

Educ Psychol Rev (2009) 21:325363

Educ Psychol Rev (2009) 21:325363

Educ Psychol Rev (2009) 21:325363

Correlations of social dimension with

Other motivation dimensionsa

Wigfield and Guthrie 1997

105 4th5th gr.

Fall 0.26 to 0.62, except competition nonsig.

Educ Psychol Rev (2009) 21:325363

Spring 0.27 to 0.52, except competition, compliance nonsig.

Spring: no difference 5th > 6th No difference

Baker and Wigfield 1999

371 5th6th gr.

0.15 to 0.58, except work avoidance non.-sig.

151 7th9th gr.

Watkins and Coffey 2004 Not examined

Study 1 328 3rd5th gr.; Study 2 735 3rd5th gr.

Study 1 0.21 to 0.50; Study 2 0.26 to 0.55

Pecjak and Peklaj 2006b Not examined

1,000 7th gr.

Girls > boys

Mucherah and Yoder 2008

388 6th and 8th gr.

0.38 to 0.57, except work avoidance nonsig.

Girls > boys

Rowe 1991; Rowe and Rowe 1992

5,092 514 years

Self-report survey: home reading activity, reading attitudes

Teacher ratings: reading ach., attentiveness

Reading comprehension test

Palmer et al. 1994; Gambrell et al. 1996

330 3rd and 5th gr.

Self-report survey: reading motivations

Interview (n =16): book reading

Guthrie et al. 1995

2,795 9, 13, and 17 years

Sweet et al. 1998

374 3rd6th gr.

Teacher survey/interviews (n =6): students reading motivations

Report card grades in reading

Brten et al. 1999

117 3rd4th gr.

Self-report surveys: home literacy environment, leisure reading

Reading skill, nonverbal intelligence tests

Arzubiaga et al. 2002

Self-report survey: reading motivations

Guthrie et al. 2007a

Katzir et al. 2009

Self-report survey: competence, ease, attitude

Parent survey: family literacy

Reading comprehension, word reading, verbal ability tests

Educ Psychol Rev (2009) 21:325363

Educ Psychol Rev (2009) 21:325363

Hansen 1967, 1969

Self-report survey: self-commitment to reading