The Role of Parents’ Educational Involvement in Children’s Reading Achievement: the case of Hong Kong

Yijia Zhan

doi:10.54097/rc3b1y63

Authors

Yijia Zhan

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.54097/rc3b1y63

Keywords:

Reading achievement, parents’ involvement, early literacy activities, academic concerns and tutoring

Abstract

Based on the data from Hong Kong in PIRLS 2016, this study explores the influence of parents’ involvement during the preschool and primary school years on children’s reading performance and compares the influence of these two stages. Combined with descriptive analysis and inferential analysis of the data, we found that parents’ participation in reading education during the preschool stage (such as reading books, telling stories, reading signs loudly, and playing word games) can improve children’s reading performance, and the reading achievement will improve as involvement frequency increases. In primary school, parents’ active academic concern for their children (such as asking whether their homework has been completed) can help children improve their reading performance, while parents’ too frequent direct guidance for their children’s studies (such as helping the child with homework, reviewing the children’s homework to make sure it is correct) will hinder the development of their reading achievement. Moreover, in these two stages, parents’ involvement in preschool education has a greater impact on children’s reading achievement than during primary school.

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