Date of Award

Summer 8-15-2018

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education (EdD)

Department

Education

First Advisor/Committee Member

William Nagy

Second Advisor/Committee Member

Jorge Preciado

Third Advisor/Committee Member

Scott Beers

Keywords

literacy interventions, family literacy interventions, early literacy, literacy, shared book reading

Abstract

This study sought to determine whether a book provision intervention delivered to low-income mothers participating in the Nurse-Family Partnership had an effect on family shared book reading patterns and family attitudes toward shared book reading. The 25 participants in this study were low-income, first-time mothers, aged 18-25 with infants, newborn to 12 months of age at recruitment (13 male, 12 female, M = 6.7 months of age) currently participating in one of three Nurse-Family Partnership agencies in Washington State.

A pretest-posttest experimental design with random assignment was conducted. A mixed factorial analysis of variance found that the book provision intervention had no significant effect on shared book reading patterns as measured by StimQ2 Infant READ pretest/posttest composite scores. A binary logistic regression, however, found that the presence of the book provision did make a unique statistically significant contribution to the model, recording an odds ratio of 7.4, suggesting the odds of a person reporting a positive Child Centered Literacy Orientation was 7.4 times higher for someone who received the book provision intervention than for someone who did not receive the intervention, with all other factors being equal.

The finding that the presence of a book provision intervention did have an effect on family attitudes toward shared book reading with this population is hopeful. Interventions that involve book provision have increased family literacy and shared book reading behavior in high-risk populations and have led to increases in children’s oral language development. The provision of literacy interventions to low-income groups is a positive step toward closing the literacy achievement gap.

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