Effects of Literacy Environment and Quantity and Quality of Reading Interaction on Preschoolers’ Early Literacy Skills: Latent Profile Analysis
AUTHOR : 최나야, 최지수, 정수지, 김효은, 박상아
INFORMATION : page. 121~138 / 2023 Vol.30 No.1
ABSTRACT
This study aims to identify the profile of early literacy skills based on phonological awareness, vocabulary knowledge, and story comprehension and verifies the effects of home literacy environment and reading interaction on early literacy skills. Participants of this study were 125 pairs of four-years-old preschoolers and their mothers. Latent profiles analysis was conducted to classify children into different groups according to levels of early literacy skills. One-way ANOVA and multinomial logistic regression was conducted to verify the differences between groups. First, we identified three different groups of early literacy skills: average, delayed, and excellent groups. Second, children in the excellent group showed higher levels of phonological awareness and vocabulary knowledge when compared to children in the average and delayed groups. Home literacy environment was richer in the average and excellent groups than the delayed group, whereas quality of reading interaction was higher in the average group than the delayed group. Third, lower quality of reading interaction predicted the higher possibility of classification into the delayed group rather than the average group and richer home literacy environment predicted the higher possibility of classification into the partially excellent group rather than the delayed and average groups. This indicates that home literacy environment and quality of reading interaction are important to enhance preschoolers’ early literacy skills. The results of this study can be used to develop parent education or a child intervention program for preschoolers and their parents.