The relationship between the home literacy environment and parental reading beliefs and children's reading motivations

The development of the preschool child is directly influenced by family characteristics, home setting, and the environment in which they grow up. The opportunities offered to the child during this period play an important role in the development and learning process of the child. The main purpose of this study is to determine the sequential mediating role of family reading belief and home literacy environment in the relationship between the perceived motivation of children aged 36-72 months to read picture books and the determined independent variables. The variables are the child's gender, mother's education level, the number of adult books at home, the time that the parents read to the child, the time the child spent alone with the book, the number of picture books at home, and the child's television viewing time. The research was planned in a relational research design. The data were collected from 556 parents in Turkey who had 36–72-month-old children whose children were enrolled in pre-school in the 2020-2021 academic year and who lived in 12 different cities. Parent Reading Belief Scale, Home Literacy Environment Scale, Perceived Motivation for Reading Picture Story Books for Children Scale were used as data collection tools in the study. Path analysis and sequential mediation were used to test the direct and indirect relationships between the variables in the model established in the research. The study found that the amount of time parents spend reading to their children and the number of picture books they have at home were the full mediators between the variables of reading belief and the child's perceived motivation to read picture books. The gender of the child, the mother's educational level, the amount of adult book in the house, and the child's television watching time are all thought to be partially mediated. The findings were compared to previous studies with each independent variable, and recommendations for field experts and practitioners were made.