Girls, boys and early reading: parents’ gendered views about literacy and children's attitudes towards reading

Abstract

This study investigated the relationship between children's attitudes towards reading and their parents’ gendered views about literacy (GVL). It was assumed that parents may have GVL by favouring girls in reading activities, which could limit boys’ enjoyment in reading activities. This study was conducted with 31 five-year-old children in first term at a school in South Australia. To measure children's enjoyment in reading-related activities, each child completed an individually administered Literacy Attitude Scale (LAS). Parents completed a questionnaire about their views on girls’ and boys’ early literacy and their book preferences. It was found that the parents’ GVL were significantly and negatively related to children's attitudes towards reading. Importantly, both male and female children of parents, with highly GVL, exhibited lower attitudes towards reading. Overall, girls reported significantly more positive attitudes towards reading than boys. A weak but notable correlation was found between parents’ perceptions about their children's attitudes towards reading and their children's self-reported reading attitudes.

Keywords:

• gender
• parents
• early literacy
• early childhood

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank the children and families who participated in this project.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Gulsah Ozturk is a Ph.D. student in the School of Education at the University of South Australia. Her research interests are early literacy and children's learning to read.

Susan Hill is an Adjunct Associate Professor at the University of South Australia. Her research interests are oral language and literacy in the years prior to school, and reading development

Gregory C.R. Yates is an Adjunct Senior Lecturer in Educational Psychology at the University of South Australia. His research interests are the application of the theories of cognitive social learning to educational issues. He specialises in statistical analysis.