Early Shared Reading Is Associated with Less Harsh Parenting.
Manuel E Jimenez, Alan L Mendelsohn, Yong Lin and 2 others
PMID 31107765WHAT IT FOUND
More frequent shared reading was associated with less harsh parenting later.
Daily reading at ages 1 and 3 was associated with lower harsh parenting scores, partly through fewer reported child disruptive behaviors.
Key findings
01Compared with infrequent reading, frequent and daily shared reading at age 1 were associated with lower harsh parenting scores at age 3 (B=-7.4 and B=-8.5).
02Compared with infrequent reading, frequent and daily shared reading at age 3 were associated with lower harsh parenting scores at age 5 (B=-5.6 and B=-9.1).
03Adding disruptive behavior at age 3 reduced the association between shared reading at age 1 and harsh parenting at age 5 from B=-5.0 to B=-3.3, and the indirect pathway was B=-1.6.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The study is observational. It cannot show that shared reading causes less harsh parenting. Shared reading, harsh parenting, and child disruptive behavior were all reported by mothers, so one mother's reporting style could affect all three measures. The harsh parenting measure did not include severe physical maltreatment items. Shared reading frequency was based on a single question, so parents may have over-reported how often they read. The analysis used complete harsh parenting data from 2,310 of 4,898 original mothers, then excluded 145 cases, so many original participants were not included. The sample was urban, so results may not apply to non-urban families. The study did not assess reading quality or fathers' parenting.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that reading aloud causes less harsh parenting. This was an observational cohort analysis, all key variables were reported by mothers, and the study could not rule out other family factors.