Influence of Family Factors on Children Reading Habits: A Review of Literature

There issubstantial decline observed in reading habits among children and parents perceived to be a major role player in developing it. So, there is dire need to look into associated influencing factors related to family. This study aims to identify family factors contributing to the reading habit among children. The parental socio-economic status, educational level, parental support to children’s reading and home-literacy practices adopted by parents were analyzed. To meet the objectives of the study, relevant studies were searched in scholarly databases including Scopus, ERIC, EmeraldInsight, ScienceDirect, Springer Link, JSTOR, EbscoHost and Google Scholar through formulated keywords. The studies reported family factors influencing reading habits selected and analyzed. Literature established that parents’ socio-economic status (SES) was strong predictor of reading development among their children. However, educational level of parents was considered dividedly important as maternal education and literacy practices were considered more significant than fathers of the children. Other influencing factors were parental support, home-literacy practices and parents’ beliefs and value to reading. It is evidenced that parents have upper hand in influencing reading development process among their children than society and school. The family socio-economic status, educational background and home literacy practices were great predictors of reading habits among children. The study will be helpful for policy makers, school administrators, librarians, reading program initiators and government should consider these factors to constitute a collaborative framework of parents, children and school to effectively promote reading development among children.