The effects of parental involvement in parent–child reading for migrant and urban families: A comparative mixed-methods study

Abstract

Reading is one of the most important educational activities for children, and a child’s relationship with reading is largely shaped by parental involvement and family environment. Families of lower socioeconomic status often have poor reading environments and less awareness of the importance of reading. This study explores the effects of Rainbow Flowers, a community service organization that promotes parent–child reading in Shenzhen, the city with the largest proportion of migrants in China. Using mixed-methods analyses of a city-wide online survey of 16,328 parent participants (13,523 migrants and 2805 locals) and six volunteer case studies, we compare migrant and local family reading outcomes, examine whether (through quantitative analysis) and how (through qualitative analysis) in-depth parental involvement in parent–child reading is associated with family reading outcomes, and identify which families benefit more from such involvement.

Our analyses show that migrant families overall have significantly poorer reading outcomes than locals. However, parents who volunteer in Rainbow Flowers reading programs experience substantially better family reading outcomes. The benefits of parents engaging as both service users and volunteers are especially strong for migrant and low-income families, and include improved reading environment, parental awareness of the value of reading, and child socioemotional development. The findings suggest that parental involvement plays an important role in enhancing family reading outcomes and may improve non-reading-related family well-being, particularly for low-resource families. Public institutions and social service organizations should collaboratively provide accessible reading resources and empower parents to effectively engage their children in joint reading activities.