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Emergent literacy skills and home literacy environment of Latino children who live in poverty

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Emergent literacy skills and home literacy environment of Latino children who live in poverty

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EMERGENT LITERACY SKILLS AND HOME LITERACY ENVIRONMENT
OF LATINO CHILDREN WHO LIVE IN POVERTY

by

Yusuke Kuroki
________________________________________________________________________

A Thesis Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE USC GRADUATE SCHOOL
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
MASTER OF ARTS
(PSYCHOLOGY)

December 2010

Copyright 2010 Yusuke Kuroki

ii
TABLE OF CONTENTS
List of Tables iii
List of Figures iv
Abstract v
Introduction 1
Methods 21
Results 27
Discussion 36
References 39

iii
LIST OF TABLES
Table 1: Sample demographics 21
Table 2: Means, standard deviations and ranges for the variables of interest 27
Table 3: Measurement Models 29
Table 4: Correlations among the variables of interest 31
Table 5: Model fit 33
Table 6: Parameter estimates for Model 5 34

iv
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1: Model 1, hypothesized model 20
Figure 2: Standardized parameter estimates from Model 5 35

v
ABSTRACT
Many studies have documented the relations between children’s reading skills and
their home literacy environments. However, few studies have investigated the home
literacy environment of Latino families in poverty. I examined the emergent literacy
skills and the home literacy environments in Latino children who live in inner-city
neighborhoods of Los Angeles. My goals were twofold. First, the study described the
level of emergent literacy skills at the onset of preschool. Second, the study analyzed the
patterns of associations between the home environmental factors and the emergent
literacy skills. Participants were recruited at Head Start. Children’s emergent literacy
skills were assessed at the beginning of their preschool year. Their home environments
were assessed by their primary caretakers’ reports as well as by trained interviewers
during home visits. Data were analyzed using a path analysis approach. The result
showed that children in this sample performed considerably poorer in all emergent
literacy skills and non-verbal IQ at the onset of preschool entry compared to the means
for the measurements. Thus these children are already behind at the beginning of
preschool. A series of path analyses showed that shared book reading with mothers was
positively associated with Latino children’s English oral language skills. However, it
was not associated with their Spanish language skills. Contrary to my hypotheses,
parental teaching and child’s literacy interest were not associated with any of the
emergent literacy skills. In addition, I hypothesized that mother’s education and cultural
orientation would indirectly influence child’s emergent literacy skills. The result did not
support my hypotheses.

1
INTRODUCTION

The purpose of this study was to examine the relation among emergent literacy
skills and home literacy environments of Latino preschool children at the entry to
preschool. Two research questions were addressed: What emergent literacy skills do
these children possess at preschool entry? What are the patterns of association between
children’s emergent literacy skills and their home literacy environments?
Emergent literacy skills are the developmental precursors for reading. In
particular, phonological awareness, print knowledge, and oral language have been
identified as key preliteracy skills, as they are powerful predictors of later reading ability
(Storch & Whitehurst, 2002; Whitehurst & Lonigan, 1998). How developed are the
emergent literacy skills in children who live in poverty? Much of our current knowledge
of this question is based on data, where children were assessed long after preschool
enrollment (e.g. Storch & Whitehurst, 2002). The results from these data could be
confounded by the effect of preschool. A more accurate description requires an
examination of emergent literacy skills before or right after children’s preschool
enrollment.
It is important to study the effect of home literacy environment on the emergent
literacy skills because children spend much of their time at home before the formal
education begins (Burgess, Hecht, & Lonigan, 2002). Numerous studies have found
associations between the children’s home literacy environment and young children’s pre-
reading skills and older children’ reading fluency (Burgess et al., 2002; Foy & Mann,
2003; Frijters, Barron, & Brunello, 2000; Hood, Conlon, & Andrews, 2008). However,
most studies have utilized samples from middle-class, Caucasian families. Few studies

2
have examined home literacy environments of racial minorities and often have taken a
deficit approach. In this thesis I focused on the Latino families with children enrolled in
a Head Start preschool classroom in inner-city neighborhoods of Los Angeles.
Emergent Literacy Skills
The concept of emergent literacy assumes that there is a developmental
continuum between prereading and reading, and what occurs to children before and
during the preschool period are essential aspects of early literacy development. This
diverges from the “reading readiness” approach that conceptualizes the entry to formal
school education as the starting point of children’s reading acquisition. The emergent
literacy approach posits that a range of skills and knowledge related to reading begin to
develop from infancy and become enhanced by exposure to literature and literacy-related
activities. The set of such skills are called emergent literacy skills, critical developmental
precursors to conventional literacy activities (Whitehurst & Lonigan, 1998).
Whitehurst and Lonigan (1998) argue that the emergent literacy skills can be
categorized into two domains: inside-out and outside-in. The inside-out skills allow
translation of print into sound and sound into print. For example, phonological
processing skills and print knowledge are considered the inside-out skills. The outside-in
domain, on the other hand, represents children’s knowledge, such as oral language skills
and broader conceptual understanding, which supports their comprehension of the print.
Both inside-out and outside-in skills are essential, as they are intricately related to each
other and differentially related to reading skills. Therefore, a full understanding of
children’s emergent literacy skills necessitates an examination of these two domains. I
investigated phonological processing skills, print knowledge, and oral language skills

3
Phonological Processing
Phonological processing refers to the proficiency in perceiving and manipulating
the sounds in words. In particular, phonological access is one aspect of phonological
processing skills and refers to the ability to retrieve phonological information from one’s
memory (Castles & Coltheart, 2004; Wagner & Torgesen, 1987). The past research,
correlational as well as intervention studies, has shown that the more adept children were
in manipulating sounds, the well they read (Adams, 1990; Bryant, MacLean, Bradley, &
Crossland, 1990; Wagner & Torgesen, 1987). Phonological processing skill is
considered a critical precursor to reading achievement.
Print Knowledge
Learning alphabet letters is a foundation in the course of alphabetic literacy
acquisition. Children must be able to recognize and name them, remember their sounds
and shapes – both lowercase and uppercase – in order to decode texts. The components
of print knowledge – letter recognition, letter-name knowledge, and letter-sound
knowledge – have been shown to be an indicator of how well child learns to read (Byrne,
1998; Foulin, 2005; Lomax & McGee, 1987). A meta-analysis conducted by the
researchers in National Reading Panel showed that an intervention that combined
phonological sensitivity and letter training is more effective than phonological sensitivity
training alone (National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, 2000). Print
knowledge, therefore, may contribute to child’s reading acquisition.

4
Oral Language Skills
Oral language skills, such as expressive and receptive vocabulary, play a key role
in early reading and continue to play vital roles in later reading ability (Cooper, Roth,
Speece, & Schatschneider, 2002; Dickinson, McCabe, Anastasopoulos, Peisner-Feinberg,
& Poe, 2003). Older children who exhibit language difficulties also showed reading
difficulties while more fluent peers did not (Bishop & Adams, 1990; Pikulski & Tobin,
1989). In addition, oral language appears to be intricately associated with other emergent
literacy ski lls and later reading achievement. In one study, Dickinson and Tabors
followed 74 Head Start children for 11 years and found a positive association between
oral language skills and 4
th
and 7
th
grade decoding and reading comprehension. In
addition, at kindergarten-age level, phonological processing, print knowledge, and oral
language skills were significantly intercorrelated. Oral language fluency, therefore, is
considered a key player in early literacy acquisition.
Taken together, the emergent literacy approach has consistently shown that
children acquire a set of important skills before the onset of official schooling.
Researchers have demonstrated that the three components of emergent literacy skills –
phonological processing skills, print knowledge, and oral language skills – contributed to
later reading ability. Thus emergent literacy presents an important paradigm shift from
the readiness approach.
However, what influences the development of these emergent literacy skills?
There is a consensus among researchers, teachers, and parents that children who are
frequently exposed to literacy at home become good readers. The home literacy
environment (HLE) has been a focus of many studies in literacy development research.

5
Investigating the relations between emergent literacy skills and the HLE informs the
emergent literacy approach, since it focuses on what occurs before children enter official
schooling.
Definitions of Home Literacy Environment
The home literacy environment (HLE) can be generally defined as a range of
behaviors, attitudes, and resources that afford opportunities to develop literacy skills
(Leseman & de Jong, 1998). Abundant HLE research mainly has focused on parent-child
literacy activities, such as shared book reading and parental teaching, and shown that
what parents do with their children could make a difference in older children’s reading
skills (Bus, van Ijzendoorn, & Pellegrini, 1995; Scarborough & Dobrich, 1994; Sénéchal
& Young, 2008). However, parent-child literacy activities are not the only component of
the HLE that are important.
Some researchers examined children’s literacy-related attitudes and beliefs. A
study found children who had positive experiences with literacy were more likely to view
reading as enjoyable and began to read more frequently (Baker, Scher, & Mackler, 1997).
Other researchers examined parents’ literacy activities, where children were not involved
directly (i.e. reading for leisure, writing in front of children). For example, parents’ own
reading activities were found to be associated with kindergarteners’ reading skills
(Symons, Szuskiewicz, & Bonnell, 1996). It is possible that children acquired an interest
in books from observing parents’ behaviors. Other studies have assessed the variations in
literacy resources available to three- and four-year-old children, such as the number of
books at home, print materials and educational games, and found that the availability of
prints was associated with children’s early literacy skills (Neuman, 1999).

6
Burgess, Hecht, and Lonigan (2002) argued that the HLE is better conceptualized
as multifaceted. In their study, surveys were collected from parents to assess literacy
activities and literacy resources. Also, they measured emergent literacy skills of four-
and five-year olds twice, with the second assessment one year later. Burgess et al. (2002)
conceptualized the HLE six different ways: Limiting Environment (e.g. literacy resource),
Literacy Interface (e.g. parental literacy activities with or without children), Shared book
reading, Passive HLE (e.g. parents as literacy activity model), Active HLE (e.g. parent-
child literacy activities), and Overall HLE (i.e. Passive and Active HLE and Limiting
Environment). When tested the predictive power of the six HLE conceptualizations,
Burgess et al. found that Active HLE was most often associated with the emergent
literacy skills. On the other hand, the Limiting Environment – a composite of parental
occupation, education, and educational expectation for their children – was not very
powerful in predicting the emergent literacy skills when analyzed simultaneously with
other HLE constructs. Burgess et al. suggested that the HLE may have an effect on
reading skills and illustrated the importance of expanding the HLE conceptualization.
Numerous recent studies further supported the idea that the HLE is a multifaceted
construct (Burgess, 2002; Foster, Lambert, Abbott-Shim, McCarty, & Franze, 2005;
Sénéchal, 2006; Sénéchal & LeFevre, 2002; Stephenson, Parrila, Georgiou, & Kirby,
2008; Storch & Whitehurst, 2001). However, unfortunately, there has been very little
empirical research of this kind for Latino children. For instance, the study by Burgess et
al. (2002) examined a sample of predominantly middle-income, Caucasian families.
Many HLE studies are limited in the same way (M. A. Evans, Shaw, & Bell, 2000; Foy &
Mann, 2003; Frijters et al., 2000; Hood et al., 2008; Melhuish et al., 2008; Weigel,

7
Martin, & Bennett, 2006). Thus, it is presently unknown how all these aspects of HLE
are associated with each other and with the emergent literacy skills in children from the
disadvantaged backgrounds.
In summary, the HLE is a complex construct. To describe a more complete
picture of the link between children’s emergent literacy skills and the HLE, it may be
important to assess as many aspect of HLE as possible. I took a holistic perspective and
focused on 1) parent-child literacy activities (i.e. shared book reading, parental teaching),
2) child’s literacy interest, 3) parents’ literacy activities (i.e. parents’ reading activities for
leisure), 4) parents’ mental health, 5) literacy resources (e.g. a number of various reading
materials), 6) parents’ cultural orientations (i.e. acculturation), and 7) socioeconomic
status (e.g. parents’ education). I provide in the following section the descriptions of
each component of the HLE and discuss hypothesized relation to the emergent literacy
skills.
Shared book reading
Shared book reading may provide children with more diverse syntax and richer
vocabulary. Biemiller and Boote (2006) examined the effect of shared book reading on
word meanings among children in kindergarten, 1
st
grade, and 2
nd
grade. Beimiller and
Boote found that children who were repeatedly read to learned more word meanings than
those who were not. Also children who received meaning explanations during book
reading learned more word meaning than those who did not receive such explanations.
Consistent with such findings, two meta-analyses also showed that shared book reading
was moderately associated with later reading achievements (Bus et al., 1995;
Scarborough & Dobrich, 1994).

8
Parent Teaching
The teaching of letters and words at home is another important variable. Sénéchal
and Young (2008) reviewed seven intervention studies, in which parents were trained to
teach their children skills that could facilitate reading acquisition (e.g. using word cards
to help children remember new words), and found that the average effect size of these
studies to be 1.15, much stronger than the effect of shared book reading. Sénéchal and
Young (2008) excluded correlational studies from their review; therefore, this is a salient
piece of evidence that parental teaching has an influence on how well a child reads, even
more so than shared book reading.
However, Sénéchal and LeFevre (2002) argued that shared-booking and parent
teaching have differential effects on emergent literacy skills. They found that, among
English-speaking Canadian children, storybook reading at home in 1
st
grade was
associated with their concurrent language skills, which in turn, predicted later reading
skills in 3
rd
grade. In addition, parent teaching at home in 1
st
grade was related to
children’s concurrent print knowledge, which predicted reading skills in 3
rd
grade.
Sénéchal (2006) was able replicate the results with French-speaking children in Canada.
Sénéchal’s Home Literacy Model is compelling because it showed that the
specific aspects of home literacy environment were associated with the specific aspects of
emergent literacy skills. Her studies have demonstrated that early literacy and oral
language followed the different developmental pathways and were also influenced by
different factors.

9
Child’s Literacy Interest
Children’s interest in books and alphabets is an essential aspect of the home
literacy environment. How a child behaves toward and thinks of literacy at home could
be associated with the development of their emergent literacy skills. In a 9-year
longitudinal study of Danish children, Olofsson and Niedersoe (1999) found that three-
year-olds who showed a very low interest in books and story reading activities before age
five performed poorly in reading comprehension at 4
th
grade. In another study, Farver,
Xu, Eppe, and Lonigan (2006) explored the relation between the home literacy
environment and oral language skills in children from the low-income Latino families.
Controlling for parents’ education, children’s age, family size, and parents’ literac y habits,
they found that child’s literacy interest mediated the relation between parents’ literacy
involvement and children’s oral vocabulary.
Parent Reading Habits
The relation between parental reading habits and children’s reading ability have
been examined relatively poorly compared to other home environment factors, such as
shared book reading and parental teaching. This is unfortunate because it is possible that
parents who read for leisure may be more prone to engage in literacy activities with their
children. It is also possible that children, whose parents read for leisure, may become
more interested in books and mimic their parents’ behaviors. There is evidence which
supports such ideas.
Weigel, Martin, and Bennett (2005) examined the relation between parental
reading habits (e.g. parents’ reading enjoyment, time spent reading for leisure) and

10
emergent literacy skills in preschool children. Children’s print knowledge and oral
language were assessed when they were recruited at child-care centers and were assessed
again one year later. Their parents’ literacy habits were assessed at Time 1 through the
interview. Wiegel et al. found that parental literacy habits were positively associated with
print knowledge and oral language at Time 1. Furthermore, parental literacy habits were
positively associated with print knowledge but not oral language at Time 2. In their
secondary analysis, Weigel et al. (2006) found that parents who reportedly engaged in
literacy activities in front of children tended to believe that they must play an active role
in teaching and providing children with opportunities to learn about literacy.
Parent Mental Health
Children learn at the most optimal level when the learning is emotionally positive
experience. Therefore, researchers such as Leseman and de Jong (1998) argued that
social-emotional quality of parent-child dyads is important facet of the HLE. With regard
to early literacy acquisition, children may find home literacy activities less rewarding if
their parents exhibit symptoms of psychological illness. Observational studies have
reported a significant relation between maternal depression and great hostility, negative
interactions with children, and ineffective communication (for review, see Lovejoy,
Graczyk, O'Hare, & Neuman, 2000). These findings suggest that parents who are under
great stress may fail to create positive learning experience at home. In addition, adults
who suffer from psychological maladjustment may be reluctant to engage in literacy
activities with children at home. Indeed, past research found that depressed mother read
to their children less frequently, read shorter periods of time, and interacted with their

11
children less often during book-reading compared to non-depressed mother (Bigatti,
Cronan, & Anaya, 2001; Reissland, Shepherd, & Herrera, 2003).
Consequently, parental mental health may be indirectly related to children’s
emergent literacy skills. Pan, Rowe, Singer, and Snow (2005) examined the relation
between growth in toddlers’ vocabulary, maternal depression, and mother-child
communication in 108 low-income families. They found that maternal verbal language
and literacy skills significantly predicted growth in child vocabulary production. Also
they found an effect of maternal depression on growth in child vocabulary, with the
negative effect of maternal depression getting stronger as children aged. Possibly,
mothers with greater depression symptom failed to respond to children with warmth and
consistently over time.
Literacy Resource
Literacy resources may include not only books but also other reading materials,
such as newspapers and magazines, as well as writing materials, such as pencils, crayons,
and papers. Obviously, a parent cannot engage in literacy activities with children, if none
of these resources are available at home. Neuman and her colleague (1999; Neuman &
Celano, 2001) argued that access to print is crucial for early literacy acquisitions because
it encourage children to engage in literacy activities. However, they also pointed out that
resource alone do not necessarily lead to reading skills.
For instance, in a longitudinal, cross-national study, Montie, Xiang, and
Schweinhart (2006) investigated the characteristics of preschool setting and children’s
cognitive development. They found that the variety of materials was associated with
cognitive performance at age seven, however was not associated with language

12
performance at age seven. The findings were consistent across ten different countries.
This suggests that, while access to resources may be essential, what adults and children
do together with the available resources contribute to early literacy development.
Cultural Orientation
Acculturation is a phenomenon in which two independent processes occur: (a)
adaption to or rejection of the mainstream culture and (b) maintenance or rejection of the
heritage culture (Cabassa, 2003). It is possible that some Latino parents are highly
oriented to both U.S. culture and Latino culture, while others may value one culture more
than the other. By assessing parents’ cultural orientation, researchers are able to study
heterogeneity within a given ethnic population. In a study of children from kindergarten
to Grade 4 and their parents, Ryan, Casas, Kelly-Vance, and Ryalls (2010) found stronger
Latino orientations of parents were associated with better Spanish fluency in children and
also stronger U.S cultural orientations of parents were associated with better English
fluency in children. In addition, parents with a stronger U.S. cultural orientation relative
to Latino cultural orientation reported that they were more involved in their children’s
education than were others. Cultural orientations may be an essential factor in
understanding learning environment of immigrants’ children.
Socioeconomic Status
The striking relation between SES and children’s literacy skills has been well
documented (G. W. Evans, 2004). Children from low-SES families are more likely to be
raised in a single-parent household and have parents that are less involved in school than
are their more affluent peers (Arnold, Zeljo, Doctoroff, & Ortiz, 2008). They also own

13
fewer books (Larson & Verma, 1999) and engage in parent-child book reading less
frequently than do families with more financial resources (Adams, 1990). In addition, a
salient difference has been found between low-income and middle income neighborhoods
in access to print, with children in the middle-income communities have greater access to
prints than children in the low-income communities (Neuman & Celano, 2001). Poverty
may prevent parents from creating enriching home literacy environments for their
children, which, in turn, may lead to later reading difficulties (Eamon, 2002).
Consequently children from low-income families may be already behind their peers when
they enter school.
Another important aspect of SES is parental education attainment. A positive
correlation between the parental education and a wide range of child outcomes is well
documented. Using the data from NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth
Development, Raviv, Kessenich, and Morrison (2004) examined the relations among SES,
parenting factors, and language abilities of three-year olds. They found that maternal
education was associated with maternal sensitivity as well as the simulating quality of
home environment, which was measured by Home Observation for Measurement of the
Environment. Furthermore, there were significant relations between maternal education
and verbal abilities, with the quality of home environment and maternal sensitivity
mediating these relations. It is possible that well-educated parents have knowledge of
child development and expect their children to be as well educated as possible.
In summary, I utilized the following HLE constructs: Shared book reading,
parental teaching, children’s literacy interest, parental literacy habits, literacy resources,
parental mental health, cultural orientation, and mother’s education. No studies have

14
examined how all of these HLE constructs are associated with each other and with
children’s emergent literacy skills. At present time, we know nothing about these
relations in the Latino population. It is of importance to examine the possibility of cross-
ethnic difference in the HLE, since evidence shows that minority cultures foster different
types of literacy practices (Hammer, Nimmo, Cohen, & Draheim, 2005). In the following
section, I will briefly review the HLE research of Latino families.
Parent-Child Literacy Activities of Latino Families
Like their European American counterparts, the Latino American children appear
to benefit from shared book reading and parental teaching (Farver et al., 2006; Strasser &
Lissi, 2009). Strasser and Lissi (2009) examined the effect of shared book reading,
parental teaching, and teacher’s instructions on emergent literacy skills among
preschoolers in Chile. They assessed these children at the beginning and at the end of a
preschool year. Bivariate correlations revealed that shared book reading was positively
associated with vocabulary and emergent writing at Time1 but not with letter knowledge
or phonological awareness; parental teaching was correlated with letter knowledge and
emergent writing but not with vocabulary and phonological awareness at Time 1. When
controlling for maternal education, emergent literacy skills at Time1, and teacher’s
instructions, the researchers found that shared book reading was associated with letter
identification at Time 2, while parental teaching was associated with emergent writing at
Time 2. The study showed the differential effect of book reading and parental teaching
on emergent literacy skills but not in a way predicted by Sénéchal’s Home Literacy
Model.

15
However, this study is limited in two ways. First, they only examined two aspects
of the HLE, ignoring other potential influences. Second, as the authors pointed out, the
parental report of the frequency in which book reading and teaching are lower than those
reported by minorities in the United States; thus the restriction of range might have been
a problem. Currently it is unknown how shared-book reading and parent reading are
related differently to children’s emergent literacy skills in the Latino families.
Socioeconomic Status of Latino Families
Reese, Garnier, Gallimore, and Goldenberg (2000) proposed ecological-cultural
(ecocultural) approach to understand the relation between SES, home literacy practices,
and English and Spanish literacy development in the Latino American population. The
ecocultural approach postulates that children’s development is affected strongly by daily
routine activities, which are referred to as proximal factors (Super & Harkness, 1986). In
the context of literacy development, proximal factors may include shared book reading
and parent teaching. The daily activities are constructed by distal factors, such as the
families’ cultural beliefs, access to resource, and SES. Therefore, variables, such as
parents’ education and occupations and the neighborhood quality, influence families’
literacy practices, which in turn affect children’s literacy development.
Reese at al. tested a path model that described the relations between distal
environmental factors (e.g. grandparent’s education, SES, parents’ years in the U.S.),
proximal environmental factors (e.g. family literacy practice, preschool attendance),
Spanish and English proficiency at kindergarten and their reading at Grade 7. Recruited
at the kindergarten entry, 121 children from low-income Latino families participated in
the longitudinal study but only 66 children were retained for the analysis. The results

16
showed that grandparents’ education was associated with SES, which in turn, predicted
emergent Spanish literacy skills (i.e. print knowledge, oral languages skills) and oral
English proficiency, both of which predicted English reading ability at Grade 7. Both
grandparents’ education and parents SES had indirect influence on English reading
achievement through family literacy practices measured at kindergarten. Furthermore, the
number of years that parents lived in the States was positively associated with oral
English proficiency, which in turn predicted English reading ability in Grade 7. Their
study demonstrated paying attention to larger ecocultural contexts (e.g. famlies’
education, job status, and immigration status) can provide a holistic picture of direct and
indirect influences on early literacy development.
Their study, however, could be improved. First, they had very small sample size
of 66 children, where the original sample size was 121 children; this may lead to bias.
Second, parent-child literacy activities and parents’ literacy habits were represented by a
single factor named family literacy practice. It was based on father’s literacy practice,
mother’s literacy practice, and child-centered literacy practice. Also they used a single
variable to represents literacy achievement. They have developed a measurement that
assessed letter identification, letter sounds, reading words, writing letters/words, print
knowledge, and story comprehension in Spanish, and created a single factor score based
on them. As mentioned above, Senechal’s Home Literacy Model informed us that the
different aspects of HLE are related to the different aspects of emergent literacy skills;
using one single factor to represent the HLE certainly undermines the complexity of
relations between the HLE and the emergent literacy skills. Thirdly, their data collection
began in kindergarten; therefore, observed variations in children’s performance and

17
parent-child literacy practices may be influenced by the quality of preschool they have, if
ever, attended. Nonetheless, the ecocultural approach provided a useful heuristic of how
the variables of interest (e.g. parents’ behavior) could be organized. The present study
took the ecocultural approach to examine the relations between the HLE and the
emergent literacy skills.
Research Questions and Hypotheses
In this study I focused on literacy skills of Latino children who live in poverty.
My goals were to 1) describe the levels of emergent literacy skills that the children at the
onset of preschool entry and 2) examine the relation between the HLE and the emergent
literacy skills. I analyzed the data obtained from an intervention study designed to
enhance the emergent literacy skills of children at risk for reading difficulties. To
achieve the first goal, I provided a general description of the data.
For the second goal, I evaluated a series of measurement models for each
construct. Then I tested a theoretical model of the home literacy environments based on
previous research discussed above (see Figure 1). The model was inspired by an
ecocultural approach and Sénéchal’s Home Literacy Model. This model generates a
number of hypotheses. First, this model suggests that children’s literacy development
occurs within multilayered cultural contexts. This is akin to Reese et al.’s(2000)
ecological-cultural approach. The model in Figure 1 can be divided into four blocks.
The first block – one most distal from the outcomes – contains parents’ education and
cultural orientations. The second block consists of parents’ characteristics such as
mothers’ mental health and parents’ literacy habits, as well as what parents possessed –
literacy resources. The next block consists of children’s literacy interest, shared book

18
reading and parent teaching. The fourth block contains three constructs of emergent
literacy skills. Secondly, this model postulates that the effect of parental education and
cultural orientations on emergent literacy skills would be perfectly mediated by mother’s
mental health, parents’ literacy habits, literacy resources, child’s literacy interest, shared
book reading and parental teaching. Thirdly, it proposes that shared book reading affects
oral language skills but not phonological awareness or print knowledge, while parental
teaching affects letter knowledge but not phonological awareness or oral language skills.
This comes directly from Sénéchal’s Home Literacy Model. Finally, the model adds to
Sénéchal’s model by including child’s literacy interest as a HLE construct that uniquely
affect the three emergent literacy outcomes, over and beyond shared book reading and
parental teaching. These claims were tested by examining the following models.
Model 1: The model is shown in Figure 1 and is a base model for this study. I
compared goodness of fit of this model with a series of alternative models.
Model 2: The model proposes that parents’ SES and acculturation directly affects
children’s emergent literacy skills, in addition to the indirect effect through home
literacy environments. In other words, this is a partial mediating hypothesis and is
against the perfect mediation hypothesis of Model 1. Paths from SES and
acculturation to emergent literacy skills were added to Model 1 (paths are not
depicted in Figure 1 to avoid complexity).
Model 3: This model adds a path from shared book reading to print knowledge.
This is against Sénéchal’s Home Literacy Model’ hypothesis that shared book
reading does not increase print knowledge (add path a in Figure 1).
Model 4: This model adds a path from parental teaching to oral language skills.

19
This is against Sénéchal’s hypothesis that parental teaching of letters and
alphabets does not increase children’s vocabularies (add path b in Figure 1).
Model 5: The effects of child’s literacy interest on emergent literacy skills are
removed in this model. This model is a better representation of Sénéchal’s model
and against Model 1’s hypothesis that child’s literacy interest affects emergent
literacy skills over and beyond parental teaching and shared book reading
(remove path c in Figure 1).
I evaluated goodness of fit for each model using RMSEA. In addition, in order to
test the ecocultural proposition that children’s literacy skills are influenced indirectly by
cultural factors, I also estimated the indirect effect and total effects of mother’s education
and cultural orientations on children’s emergent literacy skills.

20
Figure 1: Model 1, hypothesized model

Anglo Cultural
Orientation

Latino Cultural
Orientation

Mother’s
Education
Parenting
literacy habits

Literacy
Resource

Parenting
Stress

Parental
teaching

Children’s
literacy interest

Shared book
reading

Phonological
Sensitivity

Print
Knowledge

Oral Language

c b
c
c
a

21
METHODS
Participants
Data were from a multi-year intervention designed to enhance the emergent
literacy skills of low-income, inner-city Head Start preschoolers. Of 1050 at-risk
preschool children and their families who participated in the program, those from Latino
ethnic background were included in the current analysis, which resulted in a sample size
of 409. Children ranged in age from 40 to 60 months (M = 51.44 months; SD = 4.57
months) at the time of initial testing. Table 1 shows the demographic characteristics of
children’s parents. Most of their parents speak only Spanish at home (86% of mothers,
51% of fathers) and received education less than high school graduation (90% of mothers,
89% of fathers).
Table 1: Sample demographics

Frequency

Language mother speaks at home

Bilingual
Spanish only
English only

108
269
32
Mother’s education 1=Below 7
th
grade
2=Middle school
3=Some High school
4=High school graduate
5=Some College
156
149
65
26
13
Mother’s country of birth USA
Mexico
Middle America
54
271
84
Language father speaks at home Bilingual
Spanish only
English only
115
143
24

22

Table 1: Continued

Father’s education

1=Below 7
th
grade
2=Middle school
3=Some High school
4=High school graduate
5=Some College
136
131
62
30
8
Father’s country of birth USA
Mexico
Middle America
43
271
93
Marital status Married
Single
Seperated
316
72
21

Procedure
Informed consent was obtained from mothers at the beginning of the preschool
year. Parents were informed that their participation was voluntary. The trained examiners
participated in school activities for several days before the assessments in order to allow
children to become comfortable with them.
Children’s emergent literacy skills were measured at the beginning of preschool
year. Bilingual research assistants assessed children’s Spanish and English emergent
literacy skills. Each session lasted between 20-40 minutes. Children received colorful
stickers at the end of each session. Parents were interviewed at home. They were also
asked to complete a questionnaire packet. They were also allowed to complete it at home
and turn it in later. Each parent received two children books for their participation.

23
Measures
Oral Language Skills
Preschool Language Scale 4 (PLS4; Zimmerman, Steiner, & Pond, 1992) and
Preschool Language Scale Spanish 3 (Zimmerman, Steiner, & Pond, 2002) were used to
assess children’s expressive vocabulary. This test asked children to label one of four
pictures with the correct response. Published internal consistency reported for this
measure is .92 to .95.
Phonological and Print Processing Skills
Preschool Comprehensive Test of Phonological and Print Processing (Pre-
CTOPPP; Lonigan, Wagner, Torgesen, & Rashotte, 2002) and its Spanish version
(Lonigan, Farver et al., 2002) were used to assess three components of phonological
processing skills (phonological sensitivity, phonological access, phonological memory)
and print knowledge. However, only phonological sensitivity was included in the current
analysis. The Blending and Elision subtests of Pre-CTOPPP were used to assess
phonological sensitivity. Blending test asked children to indicate what new word is made
when two sounds are combined, while Elision test asked children to indicate what new
word is made when a part of the word is omitted. Each task consisted of nine multiple
choice question and eleven free-response items. Internal consistency reported for this
measure was .84. A composite score of two tests were used in the present analysis.
Print Knowledge
The Print Awareness subtest of Pre-CTOPPP (Cronbach α = .88) was used to
measure their print knowledge such as print concepts, letter discrimination, word
discrimination, letter-sound identification, and letter-name identification.

24
Control Variables
Age
All the exogenous and endogenous variables were regressed on children’s age in
months to adjust for variation in children’s age.
Non-verbal Cognitive Abilities
Copying, Pattern Analysis, and Bead Memory subtests of Stanford-Binet
Intelligence Scale, 4
th
Edition (Thorndike, Hagen, & Sattler, 1986) was used to assess
children’s non-verbal ability. The average of three subtests was used to adjust children’s
emergent literacy skills for non-verbal ability. Internal consistency reported for the
measure is .81. All the exogenous and endogenous variables regressed on children’s non-
verbal IQ to statistically control for IQ.
Mother’s Language at Home
Maternal self-report of language used at home (i.e. Spanish, English or both) were
dummy coded. All the exogenous and endogenous variables were regressed on these
dummy coded variables to adjust for mother’s language use at home.
Ecocultural Interview
Parents were administered the Ecocultural Family Interview (ECI) at home.
During the interview, parents were asked about their family background, education,
occupation, and family structure.
Parental Mental Health
The Parenting Stress Index - Short Form (PSI; Abidin, 1995) was used to assess
the extent of which mothers feel stress from parenting The test consists of 33 items which
include three subscales: parent distress; parent-child dysfunctional relationship; and

25
difficult child. The questions were rated on a 5-point scale (1=strongly disagree, 2=
disagree, 3= not sure, 4= agree, 5= strongly agree). The sum of these items was used as
an indication of parenting stress.
Literacy Resource
While the parents were being interviewed by an interviewer, another staff checked
for available resources at home, which include blocks, child desk, reading books,
coloring books, computer, flash cards, and more. Each item was coded as 0 (= the family
did not have the item) or 1 (= the family had the item). For the present analysis, I have
chosen seven items to represents literacy resource (i.e. child desk, child’s books, ABC
books, educational software, ABC toy, educational game, and flash card). The sum of
these variables was used as an indicator of literacy resource for children. Therefore the
possible range for this variable was 0 to 7.
Cultural Orientation
The Acculturation Rating Scale for Mexican Americans –II (ARSMA-II; Cuellar,
Bill, & Maldonado, 1995) was used to examine mothers’ cultural orientation to the
American and the heritage culture. The measurement contains 30 items on a 5-point
Likert scale (1=not at all, 4=almost always) and assesses two constructs; acculturation to
the U.S. culture and enculturation to the heritage culture. It was modified so that it could
be used for Latinas who were not of Mexican origin. The composite score of 23 items
will be used for this study, which has reliability α=. 87.
Home Literacy Activities
The Home Literacy Environment Questionnaire (HLEQ; Lonigan & Farver, 2002)
was designed to assess parent literacy involvement (Cronbach α = .84), parent literacy

26
habits (e.g. Cronbach α = .88), and children’s literacy interest (Cronbach α = .83). There
were thirteen items in total and were rated on a 7-point scale (1 = never; 7 = daily).
Unlike Longican and Farver, I divided the construct – parent literacy involvement – into
two constructs: shared book reading and parent teaching. Two items (i.e. “About how
many times per week do you read to your child at home?” and “About how many times
per month do you go to the library with your child?”) were used to measure for shared
book reading and three items (i.e. “About how often do you try to teach your child the
letters of the alphabet?”, “About how often do you play rhyming games with your child?”
and “About how often do you point out words to your child and tell him/her what they
say?”) were used to measure parent teaching. Items used to measure parent literacy
habits and children’s literacy interest were identical in this study to Lonigan and Farver.

27
RESULTS

Emergent literacy skills at the entry to preschool
Table 2 shows means, standard deviation, and range of emergent literacy skills of
children in this sample. PLS and Pre-CTOPPP. PLS-4 Ensligh and PLS-3 Spanish
(instruments for oral language skills) have a standardized mean of 100 and standard
deviation of 15. However, Latino children in the current data had a standardized mean of
75.97 for receptive vocabularies in English, 71.03 for expressive vocabularies in English,
83.08 for expressive vocabularies in Spanish, and 84.60 for receptive vocabularies in
Spanish. According to the Pre-CTOPPP manual, unstandardized means for blending,
elision, and print knowledge English are 15.10, 9.50, and 18.90, respectively. Latino
children in the current data, however, had a mean of 9.66 for blending in English, 5.40
for elision in English, and 7.62 for print knowledge in English. Therefore, children in this
sample appeared to have performed substantially lower than what would be expected for
children of their age in all of emergent literacy skills both in English and Spanish.
Table 2: Means, standard deviations and ranges for the variables of interest. Numbers in
parentheses are raw scores

Variable

M

SD

Range

N

Eng. Recep. Oral 75.97 (36.86) 15.86
(13.14)
50 – 136 (0 –
61)
409
Eng. Express. Oral 71.03 (34.93) 15.55
(18.77)
41 – 139 (0 –
65)
409
Eng. Total Oral 71.99 (71.79) 16.95
(25.75)
50 – 137 (0 -
122)
409
Eng. Blending 9.66 4.57 0 – 21 409
Eng. Elision 5.40 2.33 0 – 18 409
Eng. Print 7.62 5.08 0 – 31 409

28
Table 2: Continued
Span Recep. Oral 83.08 (37.73) 14.68 (7.71) 50 – 131 (0 –
56)
379
Span. Express. Oral 84.60 (37.51) 17.54
(10.59)
50 – 133 (0 –
62)
379
Span. Total Oral 82.22 (75.26) 16.81
(18.69)
50 – 150 (0 -
159)
379
Span. Blending 9.66 4.37 0 – 18 379
Span. Elision 5.34 2.53 0 – 14 379
Span. Print 7.04 3.98 0 – 29 379
Non-verbal IQ 42.04 4.61 30.33 – 62.00 409
Latino orientation 60.55 9.74 20 – 70 294
Anglo orientation 30.38 11.72 12 – 58 294
Parent literacy habit 10.66 5.01 0 – 18 321
Literacy resource 4.19 1.80 0 – 7 403
Parenting stress 62.39 21.66 30 – 137 306
Literacy interest 21.46 6.13 1 – 29 292
Parent teaching 12.13 4.07 0 – 18 299
Shared reading 4.40 2.64 0 – 12 310

Measurement models
Before testing the hypothesized model (Figure 1), I evaluated measurement
models for each construct separately by instrument and dropped items with low factor
loadings (< .35). All measurement models were tested in Mplus version 4.0 (Muthén &
Muthén, 2006). Also, to deal with missing scores Mplus option TYPE = MISSING was
used. This uses maximum likelihood ratio to estimate the missing scores. Table 3 shows
goodness of fit for all the measurement models. First, two-factor model was fit for all
items of ARSMA-II. This measurement was designed to measure two constructs, Latino
and Anglo cultural orientations. However, two factor model showed a poor fit (χ
2
= 1763,
df = 351, RMSEA = 0.12), even though Cronbach α for each construct was good (Latino
= .87, Anglo = .91) after dropping items from each construct due to low loading. From

29
Latino cultural orientation, two items (“I like to identify myself as a Latino/a American”
and “My contact with my country of birth has been…” ) were dropped. From Anglo
cultural orientation, two items (“I associate with Latinos and/or Latino/Americans” and “I
like to identify myself as an Anglo American”) were dropped. Next, one factor model
was fit for Parenting Stress Index, which resulted in a poor fit (χ
2
= 2260, df = 405,
RMSEA = 0.12), with a good reliability, Cronbach α = .94. One common factor for
literacy resource, on the other hand, showed a relatively better fit (χ
2
= 31, df = 10,
RMSEA = 0.07) but a mediocre reliability = .66. Finally, four factor model was fit for
Home Literacy Environment Questionnaire, which resulted in a poor fit (χ
2
= 248, df = 59,
RMSEA = 0.10). Parenting literacy habits and child literacy interest showed good
reliabilities (.70 and .68, respectively), while reliabilities of shared book reading and
parenting teaching showed were relatively poor (.48 and .61, respectively). These
established measurements did not show good fit in the data, composite scores for each
construct was created as planned before analysis.
Table 3: Measurement models

HLE constructs

χ
2

df

RMSEA

Reliability
Anglo cultural orientation 1763 351 .11 .91
Latino cultural orientation -- -- -- .87
Parenting stress 2260 405 .12 .94
Literacy resource 31 10 .07 .66
Parent literacy habits 248 59 .10 .70
Shared book reading -- -- -- .48
Parent teaching -- -- -- .61
Child’s interest -- -- -- .68

30
Table 2 shows means, standard deviations, and range for each measurement after
items with poor loading were dropped. Table 4 shows the correlation matrix of the
variables of interest. Correlations among children’s emergent literacy skills in English
and Spanish were significantly positive. Literacy resource was most consistently
associated with child outcomes, showing r = .25 with English oral language skills, r = .26
with phonological sensitivity, r = .21 with English print knowledge, and r = .12 with
Spanish print knowledge. Shared book reading was significantly associated with English
oral language skills (r = .18, p < .05), phonological sensitivity (r = .12, p < .05), and
English print knowledge (r = .14, p < .05). Overall Spanish emergent literacy skills were
not significantly associated with none of the HLEs.

31
Table 4: Correlations among the variables of interest
14

--
.45
*
13

--
.63
*
.43
*
12

--
-.09
-.02
-.07
11

--
-
.25
*
.12
*
.13
*
.14
*
10

--
.04
-.04
.33
*
.44
*
.34
*
9

--
.17
*
.27
*
-
.13
*
.13
*
.23
*
.22
*
8

--
-
.28
*
-.02
-
.21
*
-.01
.10
.04
.03
7

--
-
.15
*
.42
*
.01
.17
*
-
.21
*
.07
.11
.08
6

--
.02
.11
-.08
.02
.12
*
-.05
.09
.10
.09
5

--
.45
*
-.08
.08
-.06
-.01
.04
.09
.16
*
-.02
.07
4

--
.27
*
.26
*
-.02
.14
*
-.08
-.05
-.02
-.01
.03
.01
.02
3

--
.25
*
.23
*
.52
*
.06
-.08
.12
*
-.06
.21
*
-
.15
*
.09
.11
.14
*
2

--
.39
*
.15
*
.39
*
.19
*
.04
-
.18
*
.25
*
.00
.26
*
-
.12
*
.11
.08
.12
*
1
--
.44
*
.33
*
.29
*
.21
*
.19
*
.16
*
-
.19
*
.23
*
.00
.25
*
-.10
.10
.07
.18
*
Variables
1. Eng. Oral language skills
Total
2. Eng. Phonological
sensitivity
3. Eng. Print knowledge
4. Spa. Oral language skills
Total
5. Spa. . Phonological
sensitivity
6. Spa. Print knowledge
7. Mother’s education
8. Latino cultural
orientation
9. Anglo cultural orientation
10. Parental literacy habits
11. Literacy resource
12. Parenting stress
13. child’s literacy interest
14. Parent teaching
15. Shared book reading

32
Path Analysis
First the relation between the HLE and English emergent literacy skills were
examined in a series of path analyses in Mplus version 4.0 (Muthén & Muthén, 2006).
Mplus option TYPE = MISSING was used for all the models. Model 1 is the
hypothesized model. This model results in a good fit (χ
2
= 117, df = 39, RMSEA = 0.07).
Model 2 adds direct paths from SES and cultural orientations to emergent literacy skills
in the structure of Mode 1. Model 2 resulted in a fit comparable to Model 1 (χ
2
= 97, df =
28, RMSEA = 0.08, Δχ
2
/Δdf = 20/11). Model 3 (Figure 2) adds a path from shared book
reading to Model 1, while Model 4 adds a path from parental teaching to oral language
skills, neither of which improved fit. Model 5 added constrains to Model 1 by removing
the effects of child literacy interest on all three emergent literacy skills. It turned out that
it did not result in misfit (χ
2
= 119, df = 40, RMSEA = 0.08, Δχ
2
/Δdf = 2/3). Since all the
models show approximately equivalent in terms of the goodness-of-fit indices, I argue
that Model 5 is the best one – since it’s more parsimonious than others.
Next, all the direct relations, as hypothesized in Model 5, and a number of indirect
effects of mother’s education and cultural orientation on child’s emergent literacy skills
were estimated, using MODEL INDIRECT in Mplus. Table 6 shows parameter estimates
and t-values for the direct and indirect relations. Notice that no effects on phonological
sensitivity were estimated because there is no path to phonological sensitivity in Model 5.
Figure 2 shows the estimated coefficients next to each arrow, with arrow with non-
significant coefficient removed. I found that indirect effects of mother’s education and
cultural orientation on emergent literacy skills were not significant.
* p < .05.

33
I repeated the same sequence of hypothesis testing for Spanish emergent literacy
skills. As evident from the goodness of model indices the adequacy of the model seems
similar for Spanish (see Table 5), with Model 5 (χ
2
= 112, df = 40, RMSEA = 0.08,
Δχ
2
/Δdf = 4/3) being more parsimonious than the hypothesized model. Table 6 shows
parameter estimates and t-values for the direct and indirect relations between home
literacy environments and Spanish emergent literacy skills.
Table 5: Model Fit

Model

χ
2
df RMSEA Δχ
2
/Δdf
English
Model 1 (hypothesized)

117 37 .07 --
Model 2 (direct effect of SES,
acculturation)
97 28 .08 20/11
Model 3 (shared book reading on print
added)
117 36 .07 0/1
Model 4 (parental teaching on oral
language skills)
117 36 .08 0/1
Model 5 (Child interest removed) 119 40 .08 2/3

Spanish

Model 1 (hypothesized) 108 37 .07 --
Model 2 (direct effect of SES,
acculturation)
92 28 .08 18/11
Model 3 (shared book reading on print
added)
108 36 .07 0/1
Model 4 (parental teaching on oral
language skills)
108 36 .07 0/1
Model 5 (child interest removed) 112 40 .07 4/3

34
Table 6: Parameter estimates for Model 5
Direct relations β t-value
Education  Mental health -3.84 -3.22
Education  Literacy habits .35 1.24
Education  Literacy resource .16 1.80
Anglo  Mental health -.01 -.05
Anglo  Literacy habits .08 2.74
Anglo  Literacy resource .02 2.20
Latino  Mental health -.21 -1.47
Latino  Literacy habits -.01 -.16
Latino  Literacy resource -.02 -2.06
Mental health  Shared book .00 .26
Mental health  Literacy interest -.01 -.46
Mental health  Parental teaching ~0 .39
Literacy habits  Shared book .18 6.61
Literacy habits  Literacy interest .39 6.00
Literacy habits  Parental teaching .35 8.49
Literacy resource  Shared book .14 1.78
Literacy resource  Literacy interest .35 1.76
Literacy resource  Parental teaching .25 2.05
Shared book  Oral language skills (English) .96 2.01
Parental teaching  Print knowledge (English) .10 1.58
Shared book  Oral language skills (Spanish) -.37 -.98
Parental teaching  Print knowledge (Spanish) .09 1.67
Indirect relations Total
Education  Oral language skills (English) .08 1.10
Education  Print knowledge (English) .01 1.01
Latino  Oral language skills (English) ~0 -.65
Latino  Print knowledge (English) ~0 -0.16
Anglo  Oral language skills (English) .02 1.64
Anglo  Print knowledge (English) ~0 1.39
Education  Oral language skills (Spanish) -.03 -.78
Education  Print knowledge (Spanish) .01 1.03
Latino  Oral language skills (Spanish) ~0 -.56
Latino  Print knowledge (Spanish) ~0 -0.61
Anglo  Oral language skills (Spanish) -.01 -.93
Anglo  Print knowledge (Spanish) ~0 1.45

35
Figure 2: Standardized parameter estimates from Model 5, with non-sig effects removed.

Note. Numbers in parentheses are estimates for Spanish.

Anglo Cultural
Orientation

Latino Cultural
Orientation

Mother’s
Education
Parenting
literacy habits

Literacy
Resource

Parenting
Stress
PSI
Parental
teaching

Children’s
literacy interest

Shared book
reading

Phonological
Sensitivity
Print
Knowledge

Oral
Language

.96 (Not sig. for Spanish)
.18
.39
.25
.25
.08
.02 -3.84
-.02
.16 (.16)
.21 (.38)
.14 (.16)

36
DISCUSSION
First, I examined the levels of emergent literacy skills that the children came at
the beginning of the preschool year. Children in this sample performed considerably
poorer than their counterparts who are not at risk. Thus, Latino children living in poverty
are already behind at the onset of preschool entry. This finding resonates with Hart and
Risley (1995) who found that African American parents from low-SES talked their
children with substantially fewer words per day than those from low-SES background,
and children from low-SES not only had smaller vocabularies than did children in high-
SES, but showed slower growth in vocabularies. The current study revealed that Latino
children in poverty were behind in vocabularies, phonological sensitivity and print
knowledge.
The ecocultural approach to describe the relation between home literacy
environments and emergent literacy skills did not do very well. First, I attempted to
show that the direct paths from mother’s education and cultural orientations to child’
emergent literacy skills were not necessary (Model 2). And, in fact, adding such paths
did not improve the fit, thus partially supporting the ecocultural hypothesis. However,
when indirect effects from mother’s education and cultural orientations to children’
emergent literacy skills were estimated, none of them were significant. This suggests that
I probably did not need to have so many variables between mother’s education/cultural
orientation and child’s emergent literacy skills. Since so little research has been done on
home literacy environment and literacy development of Latino children in poverty, it may
be wiser to construct a model with a smaller number of variables in future.

37
As hypothesized adding a path from shared book reading to print knowledge
(Model 3) or from parent teaching to oral language skills (Model 4) did not significantly
improve the fit. A model with the best fit (most parsimonious) was Model 5, which most
resembled Sénéchal’s idea. However, the current finding departed from Sénéchal’s
Home Literacy Model too. As Sénéchal and her colleagues (Sénéchal, 2006; Sénéchal &
LeFevre, 2002) have found, shared book reading was positively associated with English
oral language skills and was not associated with print knowledge. However, the relation
between shared book reading and Spanish oral language skills was not significant. In
addition, parental teaching was not associated print knowledge in Spanish or English.
This suggests Sénéchal’s model does not adequately represent the relation between
parent’s literacy behaviors and children’s literacy skills in Latino children who live in
poverty. Mothers in the present study were not as well educated as those in Sénéchal’s
studies. Constructs such as parental teaching and shared book reading could interact with
mother’s language skills and literacy resources. The hypothesized model in the present
study didn’t examine higher order interactions.
Some limitations to the findings of this study are in order. First, the relations
between home literacy environments and emergent literacy skills are only examined
cross-sectionally. It is possible that the home literacy environments have influence on the
growth of emergent literacy skills, rather than their levels at preschool entry. Since the
data used in the analysis contains longitudinal information on children’s emergent
literacy skills, future analysis should examine how, say literacy resource, could influence
children’s oral language growth. Secondly assessment of shared book reading, parental
teaching, parent’s literacy habits, and children’s literacy interest was all done by a single,

38
self-report questionnaire, namely, Home Literacy Environment Questionnaire (Lonigan
& Farver, 2002). I found that a four factor measurement model does not fit very well to
the data on this questionnaire. Even though their reliabilities were low, I proceeded to
create a composite score for each construct so that I could construct a model as I
theorized apriori. I should make a similar point about the acculturation measurement,
which was designed to assess two factors. But a two-factor measurement model showed
a poor fit. Thirdly, Home Literacy Environment Questionnaire appears to measure how
often a particular literacy-related parent-child behavior occurs at home. However, what is
important in fostering emergent literacy skills may be the quality of the parent-child
interaction, rather than its frequency. It is possible that the way in which the parents in
this study taught letters or read books to children was not effective, unfortunately, in
terms of literacy development.

39
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Abstract (if available)

Abstract Many studies have documented the relations between children’s reading skills and their home literacy environments. However, few studies have investigated the home literacy environment of Latino families in poverty. I examined the emergent literacy skills and the home literacy environments in Latino children who live in inner-city neighborhoods of Los Angeles. My goals were twofold. First, the study described the level of emergent literacy skills at the onset of preschool. Second, the study analyzed the patterns of associations between the home environmental factors and the emergent literacy skills. Participants were recruited at Head Start. Children’s emergent literacy skills were assessed at the beginning of their preschool year. Their home environments were assessed by their primary caretakers’ reports as well as by trained interviewers during home visits. Data were analyzed using a path analysis approach. The result showed that children in this sample performed considerably poorer in all emergent literacy skills and non-verbal IQ at the onset of preschool entry compared to the means for the measurements. Thus these children are already behind at the beginning of preschool. A series of path analyses showed that shared book reading with mothers was positively associated with Latino children’s English oral language skills. However, it was not associated with their Spanish language skills. Contrary to my hypotheses, parental teaching and child’s literacy interest were not associated with any of the emergent literacy skills. In addition, I hypothesized that mother’s education and cultural orientation would indirectly influence child’s emergent literacy skills. The result did not support my hypotheses.

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Asset Metadata

Creator Kuroki, Yusuke (author)

Core Title Emergent literacy skills and home literacy environment of Latino children who live in poverty

School College of Letters, Arts and Sciences

Degree Master of Arts

Degree Program Psychology

Publication Date 11/22/2010

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag Latino,literacy development,OAI-PMH Harvest,Poverty

Language English

Contributor Electronically uploaded by the author (provenance)

Advisor Farver, Jo Ann M. (committee chair), Manis, Franklin R. (committee member), McArdle, John J. (committee member)

Creator Email ykuroki@usc.edu,yusukekuroki@hotmail.com

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-m3544

Unique identifier UC1271486

Identifier etd-Kuroki-4063 (filename),usctheses-m40 (legacy collection record id),usctheses-c127-409517 (legacy record id),usctheses-m3544 (legacy record id)

Legacy Identifier etd-Kuroki-4063.pdf

Dmrecord 409517

Document Type Thesis

Rights Kuroki, Yusuke

Type texts

Source University of Southern California (contributing entity), University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses (collection)

Repository Name Libraries, University of Southern California

Repository Location Los Angeles, California

Repository Email cisadmin@lib.usc.edu