Abstract
The present study examined the role of parental education and the home literacy environment on the literacy development of rural Chinese school-aged children. Two hundred and ten third-to-sixth-graders and their parents in northwestern rural China participated in the study. All children completed a literacy skills scale, and parental education and the home literacy environment (parental reading beliefs, parent–child literacy practices and number of books at home) information was collected through a parent questionnaire. Multiple linear regression showed that parental education and the frequency of parent–child literacy practices were significant predictors of children’s literacy skills when all the parental and home literacy environment factors were entered. Mediation analyses revealed that parental education affects children’s literacy skills via the chain mediating effects of parents’ reading beliefs and the frequency of parent–child literacy practices. These results supported the intergenerational transfer of socioeconomic resources model and had some implications for bridging the gap caused by parental education in children’s literacy skill development for middle and upper-grade primary school students from rural China.
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