Reading and media usage habits of preschool children and their father's

Preschool period is a period in which children spend all their time with their family and its effects are seen throughout their life. The aim of the study is to examine the relationship between fathers' reading beliefs and father's and child's media habits and book reading status in the preschool period. 520 fathers with children aged 2-5 were included in the study. The data were obtained with a questionnaire given to fathers consisting of father and child general characteristics, father-child pair media usage characteristics, and the "Parent Reading Belief Inventory". 9.4% of fathers had the habit of reading books. 72.3% of them spent an average of 3 hours or more with their child on a day when they were not working. 74.4% of fathers knew the smart signs they saw on the screen. 41.1% of the fathers did not know the age of the child in which they started using the screen or the child started using it under 12 months. 47.7% of the children used screen for 2 hours or more per day. 32.9% of fathers used the screen as a reward and 35% as a punishment. 50.8% of fathers received information about bringing up a child from the internet, 32.9% from books, 21.5% from their family doctor, and 44.8% from their own parents. According to the Parent Reading Belief Scale scores, fathers with a z score above +1 were defined as the High Parental Reading Scale Score (HPRSS) group. The HPRSS rate did not differ according to the age of the father, screen time, getting information from the family doctor and his own parents, family type, gender of the child and their situation of going to kindergarten and frequency of screen usage with the father (p>0.05). When confounding factors were added to the analysis, for the fathers in the HPRSS group, spending more than 3 hours with their children 2.15 times, not using the screen as a reward 2.15 times, not using it as a punishment 1.90 times, knowing smart signs 2.59 times, getting information from a book 1,74 times, having a screen time less than 1 hour 3.04 times, not using screen alone 3.24 times, doing another activity when not allowed was 2.19 times higher. Our study showed that the father's reading belief was related to the child's media usage habits. Keywords: preschool children, parental reading belief, media usage