An examination of the beliefs of parents of first-grade primary school students in reading

This study aims at examining the beliefs of parents of first-grade primary school students in reading. The investigation has a descriptive relational survey model. The population of the survey consists of the parents of first-grade students in public primary schools in Şanlıurfa's central regions (Eyyübiye, Karaköprü, Haliliye) in 2015-2016 school year. The sample is a set of parents of 588 first-grade primary school students. Parent Reading Belief Inventory, the Inventory of Maternal Literacy Practice, the Inventory of Child Literacy Behaviours and Personal Information Form were used as information-gathering devices. Descriptive statistics (frequency, percentage, arithmetical mean, and standard deviation), independent samples t-test, Pearson Correlation Analysis, and one-way variance analysis (ANOVA) were applied for the analysis of the gathered data. In cases where the samples were distributed non-normally the Kruskall-Wallis test was employed. A significance level of 0,05 was used for the analyses. According to the results that were obtained from the Parent Reading Belief Inventory, parents generally have a positive belief against reading. It was observed that there is no meaningful difference in the parents' belief in reading due to the gender of the child. When the mother's education was considered, it was seen that the general belief of parents in reading shows positive difference in accordance with the mother's level of education. When the father's education was considered it was observed that the general belief of parents in reading were affected positively in accordance with the education level of the father. When the parents' belief in reading was examined considering the number of children they had, it was seen that the general belief in reading of the parents show positive difference when the number of the children is smaller. When the monthly income was taken into consideration it was observed that the general belief of the parents in reading are affected positively if the parents have higher income. According to the total scores given by the Inventory of Maternal Literacy Practices, it was determined that parents are having reading activities once or twice a week. When reading activities at home were analyzed due to gender, the result was that there is no meaningful difference in the general reading activities at home due to the gender of the child. When reading activities at home were examined considering the education level of the mother, general reading activities at home is affected positively in accordance with the level of education of the mother. When such activities were examined considering the education level of the father, it was observed that general reading activities at home is affected positively in accordance with the level of education of the father. When reading activities at home were compared due to the number of offspring, it was determined that the general reading activities at home is affected positively if the parents have one or two children. When reading activities at home were considered due to monthly income, the results were that there is no meaning difference in the general reading activities at home due to the the monthly income. According to the total scores of the Inventory of Child Literacy Behaviours it was determined that the children are generally involved in reading activities once or twice a week. When the child's reading activities were examined according to gender, it was found out that the general reading activities of the child is affected positively in cases when the child is a girl. The general child's reading activities didn't changed by the education level of mother or father. When the reading activities of the child were evaluated due to the number of offspring it was seen that there is no meaningful difference in the general child reading activities due to the number of offspring. The general child reading activities didn't changed by monthly income. It was determined that there is a moderate positive correlation between the total scores of the parents belief in reading, reading activities at home and the child's reading activities. And it was found out that there is a moderate positive correlation between the total scores of the reading activities at home and the child's reading activities. In the direction of the results obtained it is suggested that, teachers should give information to parents about the role of activities that parents perform at home in the reading process. It is also suggested that, teachers should provide information that will enable parents to change their negative reading beliefs. Keywords: Belief in reading, parents' belief in reading, reading activities at home, child reading activities