Mother–Child Bookreading in Low-Income Families: Correlates and Outcomes During the First Three Years of Life

  1. Helen Raikes1,
  2. Barbara Alexander Pan2,
  3. Gayle Luze3,
  4. Catherine S. Tamis-LeMonda4,
  5. Jeanne Brooks-Gunn5,
  6. Jill Constantine6,
  7. Louisa Banks Tarullo6,
  8. H. Abigail Raikes1,
  9. Eileen T. Rodriguez4

Article first published online: 25 JUL 2006

DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-8624.2006.00911.x

Issue

Child Development

Child Development

Volume 77, Issue 4, pages 924–953, July/August 2006

Additional Information

How to Cite

Raikes, H., Alexander Pan, B., Luze, G., Tamis-LeMonda, C. S., Brooks-Gunn, J., Constantine, J., Banks Tarullo, L., Abigail Raikes, H. and Rodriguez, E. T. (2006), Mother–Child Bookreading in Low-Income Families: Correlates and Outcomes During the First Three Years of Life. Child Development, 77: 924–953. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-8624.2006.00911.x

Author Information

  1. 1

    University of Nebraska-Lincoln

  2. 2

    Harvard Graduate School of Education

  3. 3

    Iowa State University

  4. 4

    New York University

  5. 5

    Columbia University

  6. 6

    Mathematica Policy Research Inc.

* concerning this article should be addressed to Helen Raikes, 3221 South 76th Street, Lincoln, NE 68506. Electronic mail may be sent to hraikes@neb.rr.com or hraikes2@unl.edu.

Publication History

  1. Issue published online: 25 JUL 2006
  2. Article first published online: 25 JUL 2006

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About half of 2,581 low-income mothers reported reading daily to their children. At 14 months, the odds of reading daily increased by the child being firstborn or female. At 24 and 36 months, these odds increased by maternal verbal ability or education and by the child being firstborn or of Early Head Start status. White mothers read more than did Hispanic or African American mothers. For English-speaking children, concurrent reading was associated with vocabulary and comprehension at 14 months, and with vocabulary and cognitive development at 24 months. A pattern of daily reading over the 3 data points for English-speaking children and daily reading at any 1 data point for Spanish-speaking children predicted children's language and cognition at 36 months. Path analyses suggest reciprocal and snowballing relations between maternal bookreading and children's vocabulary.

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