Linking parental self-efficacy and homework involvement to child Chinese word reading: The unique roles of fathers and mothers

A multidimensional perspective of parental educational involvement highlights the multifaceted ways through which parents contribute to their children’s academic development (Castro et al., 2015). A theory of fathering further highlights the complementary roles of fathers versus mothers in child development (Sevigny, Loutzenhiser, & McAuslan, 2016). Guided by these theoretical views, the present study examined the associations of paternal and maternal self-efficacy and homework involvement with child Chinese word reading in the preschool years. Cross-sectional data were collected from 238 preschool children (41% of them were girls; mean age = 58.42 months), and their fathers and mothers, residing in Hong Kong, China. Children completed tasks on Chinese word reading that involved reading both single-character and two-character words. Fathers and mothers independently reported their beliefs about parenting, and their own parenting practices with their children. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that, controlling for child and parent demographic factors, including child gender and age and parental education levels, paternal self-efficacy (β = .21, p < .05) and maternal homework involvement (β = .15, p < .05) were positively and uniquely linked to child Chinese word reading. Discussion focused on understanding parental educational involvement as a multidimensional construct, as well as the utility of targeting both fathers and mothers in helping children to learn Chinese words in the early years. Copyright © 2018 Society for the Scientific Study of Reading (SSSR).