The literacy environment at home influences children’s motivation to read and the development of their language skills.

This exploratory study analyses the literacy environment in the family home from the perspective of families with children

Questionnaire (HLEQ) (Farver et al., 2006). This established three areas of study: family involvement in literacy, parents’

literacy habits, and perception of children’s interest in literacy. The obtained data were analysed using SPSS 27. After

verifying the normality of the data and confirming the factorial structure (AFE) of the original instrument, descriptive

analyses revealed high scores across all factors, indicating significant parental involvement in their children’s literacy

development. Additionally, contrast analyses revealed differences associated with gender, indicating moderately greater

involvement of mothers, employment status, showing better literacy habits among families not in employment, and family

mergent literacy (EL) skills develop continuously

from early life onwards, particularly through

linguistic interactions between parents and children

significantly influences language development and

literacy, particularly during the early years (Gutiérrez-

Fresneda, 2017; Puranik et al., 2018; Torppa et al., 2022).

The HLE comprises the resources and opportunities

available to children, as well as the skills, abilities, and

dispositions of parents that determine the provision of these

opportunities to children (Burgess et al., 2002, p. 413).

the family environment provide experiences that contribute

to the development of different language skills (Sénéchal

& LeFrevre, 2002). These informal practices differ from

practices involve direct teaching of the written code to

reading) (López-Escribano et al., 2021; Manolitisis et al.,

2013; Martini & Sénéchal, 2012).

home literacy environments (HLEs): active, passive,

literacy interface and limiting. An active HLE environment

activities with their children that contribute to language

development, such as rhyming games and shared reading.

observing routine activities in the home (e.g. parents

promote prerequisites for reading and writing acquisition

(e.g. shared reading and identifying printed letters in the

environment) and an interest in providing learning

opportunities based on observing behavioural models,

through which the intrinsic value of literacy is transmitted

parenting skills and social circumstances that may affect

the involvement of primary caregivers in literacy

processes, such as socioeconomic status, demographic

characteristics and language skills. It also considers the

resources available to caregivers, such as the number of

of gender, mothers tend to be more involved in their

Fernández-Freire et al., 2019) and interact more frequently

with their children during reading activities than fathers do

(Liu & Chung, 2022). Nevertheless, paternal involvement

also contributes to children's emerging literacy, particularly

when mothers have not received a higher education (Foster

households tend to be more traditional (e.g. texting and

status. A similar situation emerges when considering

employment status and educational level, where higher

levels are associated with greater family involvement

(Neumann, 2016; Strang & Piasta, 2016).

Forster and Rojas-Barahona (2014) argue that, except for

activities such as ‘playing word games’, ‘reading comics

and children’s magazines’ and ‘writing letters and words’,

which are more common in rural areas, practices at home

are similar between urban and rural families. Despite this,

(Jeong & Hofferth, 2016).

Regardless of sociodemographic, contextual or

motivational variables, it is clear that a literate family

environment is associated with the development of

language skills in children (Kim et al., 2015), enabling

them to excel in reading (Guevara & Rugerio, 2017).

Guzmán et al. (2020) analysed the relationship between the

characteristics of the literacy environment at home and the

reading comprehension level of primary school students.

availability of reading resources at home in relation to their

involvement in promoting spoken and written language is

independent of their mother tongue and phonological skills.

That is to say, mothers with high linguistic and

phonological skills are not necessarily more involved in

literacy activities with their children than those with lower

skills. Moreover, informal literacy activities at home may

be influenced not only by parents’ personal skills or

characteristics, but also by their values and beliefs

demographic factors (Siegenthaler et al., 2019). Reading

motivation tends to decline significantly at higher

educational levels (Vicente-Yagüe et al., 2019), which

al., 2022). The results highlight the importance of shared

reading in fostering emotional connections, reinforcing

Recognising the pivotal role of families in the emerging

diversity. A total of 612 families participated: 277 men

(45.3%) and 335 women (54.7%). The majority of these

families had children enrolled in the second (48.4%) or

by experts in the target language with extensive knowledge

a document through their children informing them about

and Guarantee of Digital Rights. This procedure was

University of Oviedo under the reference number

18_RRI_2022.

Random (MCAR) test (Little, 1988). The normality of the

homogeneity of variances (Leventhal test) considered. An

analysis of variance was also performed with three or more

groups, taking into account the hypothesis of equality of

variance when the conditions for Welch’s test were not

met, with the variable ‘education’ categorised as

group comparisons was estimated using Cohen’s d. Its

magnitude was interpreted as low when 0 < d < 0.20,

medium when 0.20 ≤ d ≤ 0.50, and high when d > 0.In

comparisons of three or more groups, the effect size was

interpreted as small if η² < 0.06, moderate if .06 ≤ η² ≤ .14

and large if η² ≥ .14 (Cohen, 1973).

subsequently performed using the ‘stepwise’ method to

detect a predictive model of parenting practices that could

forecast children’s interest in literacy from their parents’

perspective. The assumptions of linearity, normality and

homoscedasticity were initially explored to this end. The F

predictive model, the independence of errors assumption

was tested using the Durbin–Watson test (values between

both mothers and fathers have a positive view of the family

context as a setting that encourages literacy among their

children, and they take an active role in doing so. However,

certain nuances need to be considered, as well as aspects

The factor analysis yielded three factors that together

explain 69.65% of the variance, with a Cronbach’s α

reliability index of .81 for the total scale. F1: Family

involvement in literacy (α = .62), consisting of two items

(e.g. During a week, how often do you read to your child at

home? How often do you point out words to your child and

literacy (α = .74), consisting of four items (e.g. How many

times a week does your child look at books on their own?).

How often does your child ask you what the printed words

say? How often does your child try to write words? How

often does your child play alphabet games, rhymes, ‘I Spy’,

positive result is observed in terms of families’ willingness

Notably, a significant proportion of responses (21.9%) to

various items analysed fall into the ‘never’ category when

parents are asked about their reading habits as a leisure

activity. Similarly, only 20.1% say that reading is ‘always’

part of their leisure activities, a figure that aligns with the

Regarding children’s perceived interest in literacy (Factor

3), the majority of parents in this study consider their

children to be interested. When asked about their children's

independent writing and reading activities, more than

79.3% of parents perceive these as actions their children

children engage in at home with the help of their parents is

playing family games associated with letters,

pronunciation, rhymes, etc. (72.3%). Given all the above,

questions from their children about the meaning of printed

words (43.9% quite often and 26% always). The majority

of participants consider this demand for accompaniment,

support and help to be necessary in order to promote pre-

reading skills in their children.

Although the data obtained from families did not indicate

any statistically significant differences in terms of

educational level, differences were found in relation to

gender, employment status and family income.

Specifically, with regard to gender (see Table 1),

differences in favour of mothers over fathers were found in

all three factors, with a moderate effect size for each: F1:

= .38); F2: Literacy habits of fathers and mothers (t610 = -

5.077; p ≤ .001; d = .41); and F3: Parents’ perception of

their children’s interest in literacy (t610 = -7.734; p ≤ .001;

d = .38). In terms of employment status, families who are

not working exhibited better literacy habits than employed

families (F2) (t610 = -52.132; p ≤ .001; η² = .24), with a

moderate effect size.

Finally, families with higher incomes express greater

interest in their children’s literacy than other families (W(3,

interest in literacy as perceived by the father and mother