Abstract
The home learning environment (HLE) consists of myriad formal and informal values, beliefs and attitudes realized in the provisions, resources and socialization experiences parents provide their children. Often through everyday interactions, parents promote cultural values related to children’s socioemotional and literacy learning. Although well understood among European populations, research on the HLE of Latino and Asian Americans is not well understood. Latinos are now the largest of the ethnic minority groups with Asian Americans the fastest growing. Sharing many common immigrant experiences, in this chapter, the HLEs of Latino and Asian Americans are explored, highlighting traditional cultural values and their influence on socioemotional and literacy learning. Among Latinos, the values of respeto (respect), familismo (familism), and bien educado (well educated) are defined. The Asian values of Confucianism, familism, filial piety, and face-saving are elaborated on. In addition, among Latino immigrants and later generations, the immigrant paradox phenomenon is explored in terms of children’s academic performance. Among Asian American children and youth, the pressures associated with the model minority stereotype are discussed. Theoretical frameworks applied to understanding the HLEs of Latino and Asian American include Bronfenbrenner’s (2005) ecological systems theory, Weisner’s (2002) ecocultural theory, and social capital theory. The chapter ends with studies on parent involvement in children’s literacy and socioemotional development.
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Introduction
The home literacy environment (HLE) generally consists of the multifaceted formal and informal shared literacy, language and socioemotional related resources, experiences, interactions, and activities in a home learning environment (Gonzalez et al., 2017, 2019). The home literacy environment as a construct is often characterized by specific dimensions within the home shown to contribute to literacy and language acquisition, such as the number of books in the home, enriching materials and activities (e.g., shared reading, story telling, and vocabulary usage), and of particular interest to this chapter, the parent or family’s values, attitudes and beliefs driving the process of literacy development (Booth & Dunn, 2013; Roberts et al., 2005; Sénéchal, 2006). These literacy values, experiences, and activities facilitated in the home environment are essential to young children’s attainment of literacy skills and often go on to shape their early education experiences, both academically and socially (Brandt & Deborah, 2001; Sénéchal et al., 2002).
The importance of the HLE rests on its concurrent and longitudinal predictive associations with children’s linguistic and socioemotional competencies. For children from culturally and/or ethnically diverse backgrounds the composition of the family literacy environment (i.e., practices, roles, and interactions) and socialization of children’s literacy acquisition is often guided by their cultural values and goals. Because early childhood is a sensitive period for development of linguistic and socioemotional milestones and that children’s early linguistic abilities are predictive of children’s socioemotional competencies, understanding the HLEs of Latino and Chinese American families—both understudied groups—warrants attention from both research and policy perspectives (Yeomans-Maldonado & Mesa, 2021). Although the relationship between the HLE and linguistic and socioemotional competencies is well understood, research on the HLEs of Latino and Chinese American families specifically is absent. This chapter explores the family literacy practices and the home learning environments of both Latino and Chinese American families as precursors of children’s social-emotional learning and lays the groundwork for subsequent chapters in this book.
Home Literacy Environment Theoretical Frameworks
Parents socialize children through everyday interactions and routines in ways that promote cultural expectations, beliefs, attitudes, and perceptions related to a child’s socioemotional and language development. A family’s socialization practices are deeply rooted in cultural values, norms, and beliefs to form ecological niches realized in HLEs through routines, dynamics, and resources. Bronfenbrenner’s (2005) ecological systems theory and ecocultural theory (Weisner, 2002) both posit that the proximal processes in a child’s microsystem are most impactful for development. Key to development, the HLE specifically functions to direct parent-child interactions via a caregiver’s dispositional characteristics and culturally normative relational processes to shape development across several biological, cognitive, and social aspects (Goodrich et al., 2021).
Bronfenbrenner’s (2005) ecological systems theory, the microsystem specifically, posits that it is the interactions between the child and their environment including caregivers that is most salient in influencing early development. Thus, the home literacy environment plays a key role in development of early language and literacy skills. The more enriched the HLE is (e.g., greater exposure to adult speech, parental reading, books in the home), the more positive the influence on language and other literacy skills. While much is known about the HLE and which aspects relate to dominant cultural populations (i.e., white), much less is known about the impact of the HLE on Latino or Chinese American children (Goodrich et al., 2021). Weisner’s (2002) ecocultural theory elaborates on Bronfenbrenner’s theory by positing that families, caregivers specifically, organize their children’s environments as a balance between culturally transmitted beliefs, values, and ways of knowing within the ecological context in which families live (e.g., host country). Accordingly, parents create learning routines for children that reflect not only culturally specific values (e.g., respeto/respect) but also incorporate the local expectations and economic demands of the context (Aldoni & Cabrera, 2016).
Social capital theory also provides a useful framework from which to examine the HLE in terms of understanding the resources (e.g., material possessions, information, supports, norms, relationships) available to families as they raise young children (Barrett et al., 2014). Social capital is a complex, yet naturally occurring process that accrues to an individual’s or a group’s ability to secure resources by virtue of membership or access to networks of institutionalized relationships. These relationships emerge as levels of trust, mutual expectations, and shared values facilitate social belongingness and social exchanges through mechanisms including connectivity between individuals and institutions (e.g., schools) available to individuals (Shoji et al., 2014).
Sociodemographics
Among ethnic minority groups in the United States, Latinos are by far the largest groups, yet, Asian Americans, including Chinese, are the fastest growing. In 2020 the Latino population reached 62.1 million, an increase of 19% or 52.5 million in 2010 with people of Mexican origin making up nearly 62% of the country’s overall Latino population as of 2019 (Krogstad & Noe-Bustamante, 2021). Among Asian origins, Chinese now make up the largest group in the US, making up 24% of the Asian population. By the middle of the century, Asian Americans are projected to be the largest immigrant group in the country with over a quarter of Asians—like Latino-Americans—living in multigenerational family households (Budiman & Ruiz, 2021; Cohn & Passel, 2018).
Chinese and Latino’s share many common immigrant experiences including cultural values with both groups being cultural minorities in the United States. Among the shared cultural values is a family orientation with evidence suggesting that Asian and Latino Americans are more like one another especially when compared to European-Americans on dimensions such as interdependence. Despite the similarities, each ethnic group broadly has different immigration histories and experiences that could be reflected in different parenting approaches (Kiang et al., 2017; Rodriguez et al., 2006). These parenting differences likely reflect differences in cultural values, expectations, attitudes, and dispositions and most likely are reflected in how they interact with children and the provision of home literacy environments and activities provided to children (Sonnenschein & Sun, 2016). Understanding similarities and differences of the HLE of both Chinese and Latino Americans and the values that predict construction of the HLE invariably relies on understanding Asian and Latino cultural values.
Asian Americans
Parenting in traditional Asian cultures has often been characterized as authoritarian or extremely strict and controlling. Authoritarian parenting refers to the combination of parents holding high expectations with strict limits or boundaries for their children but without expressing much warmth or affection toward their children. Authoritarian style of parenting has been observed and documented within multiple Asian countries, such as China, Japan, and India (Chao & Tseng, 2002). One reason that Asian parenting has often been characterized as authoritarian may be rooted in Confucianism and its influence on child rearing or parenting practices. Confucianism is a philosophy that originated, and was the dominant philosophy for many dynasties, in China. Beyond China, Confucianism has influenced the thinking and practices of people in many Asian, particularly East Asian, countries. For example, Confucianism was adopted as the official philosophy in Korea during the Yi dynasty for approximately 500 years and in Japan during the Tokugawa or the Edo period for approximately 250 years.
Traditional Asian Cultural Values and Parenting Practices
Confucian Familism and Filial Piety
Familism is central to Confucian philosophy, and those influenced by Confucianism are taught in childhood about the importance of family bonds. The family is conceptualized as analogous to the human body, with each family member representing a distinct part of the human body but all family members are essential for constituting the whole being or whole body. Among family members, the Confucian concept of filial piety is a lifelong moral obligation and virtue calling for the children to show respect, deference, and care toward their parents and elders in the family.
Consistent with Confucian familism and filial piety, many Asian parents have internalized that it is their moral obligation and parental duty to guide or “train” their children to learn and practice the core values and ethics of respect, deference, and care for children’s parents and elders. In traditional Chinese culture, the indigenous concepts of guǎn (管) and jiào xun (教訓) represent the way that parents socialize their children. Guǎn means “to govern,” “to look after,” and “to care about” (Tobin et al., 1989), while jiào xun means “to train” or discipline and guide children in the appropriate or expected or correct behaviors (Chao, 1994). Traditional Chinese philosophy also emphasizes human malleability and the importance of training in self-improvement. Thus, it is parents’ responsibility to be their children’s first teachers in the home before the children ever enter formal schooling to actively shape their children’s moral and social competence that will contribute to their children’s school readiness and future academic success.
For Asian American families, the home literacy environment (i.e., practices, materials, attitudes) not only reflects their desire for their children to attain the necessary literary skill needed to succeed academically but also incorporates the social-emotional competencies valued within their culture. The concept of familism and its associated attitudes is a driving influence for the processes parents utilize to socialize their children and support their academic abilities. The parental desire to guide their children’s academics may motivate more parent-child reading experiences, parent-directed teachings, and parent-guided literacy activities as they feel the obligation to take on an active role in their children’s early literacy development within the home. Through these parent-child interactions, there is opportunity for children to gain literacy skills while social-emotional learning is taking place.
Parental Duties: Guǎn and Jiào Xun
Using parenting practices that are aligned with the philosophy of guǎn and jiào xun, parents prepare their children to enter formal schooling so their children will show respect to the elders at school, such as the teachers and school administrators. Many parents see this as important, because children’s manners and social behaviors in public are viewed as a reflection of how well the parents are meeting their parental duty and moral obligation to guide and “train” their children. These Asian values calling for respect toward the parents and elders and for good manners and social behaviors in public that reflect positively on the parents and family are very similar to the indigenous Hispanic and Latino cultural values of respeto (i.e., respect and deference to adults) and bien educado (i.e., moral and social competence).
Face-saving is an important aspect of Asian cultural values, which is closely tied to familism and the view that children are viewed as a reflection of their family and how well the parents are fulfilling their parental duty and moral obligation to “train” their children. “Face” or mianzi (面子) refers to reputation or prestige achieved in one’s social group (Wang et al., 2022). In traditional Asian culture, academics is a top priority of parents for their children. For example, this was evident from interviews with Chinese American adolescents with first-generation immigrant parents who revealed that their parents view doing well in school and demonstrating academic excellence as a top priority for them (Qin, 2009). Face or mianzi (面子) is important for Asian parents, because they are held responsible for their children’s academic success. Children learn early about face or mianzi (面子) and “the importance of not bringing shame to the family by avoiding occupational or educational failures and by achieving academically” (Kim et al., 2001, p. 346). Thus, many children often feel intense academic pressures knowing that their parents’ reputation and the family’s prestige or honor are at stake.
The pressure and importance placed upon these children is often given a negative connotation. However, parents who use strict parenting practices and place high value on education and academic achievement may facilitate their children’s literacy development. For example, Saracho (2002) found that value placed on education, push toward achievement, and opportunities for verbal interaction were key influences within the family that contributed to children’s literacy acquisition. In addition, a study using a mixed methods approach with Chinese American parents with preschool-age children found that language and literacy development is one of the top priorities that parents have for their children (Gonzalez et al., 2021). While the push from parents for language and literacy learning and academic achievement is evident, research on Chinese American immigrant families indicates that a combination of parental strictness-supervision and parental autonomy support, or yin-yang (阴阳) parenting promotes not only academic achievement, but also social-emotional development and adaptive skills that are important for whole-child success (Liew et al., 2014).
The Model Minority Stereotype
In addition to pressures associated with maintaining face or mianzi (面子) for themselves and for their parents and the family, many children of Asian parents experience societal pressures and expectations to uphold the model minority stereotype. The model minority stereotype is predicated on filial piety and on parents’ emphasis on educational or occupational achievements for their children. However, the model minority stereotype (sometimes referred to as the model minority myth) is highly problematic because studies have shown that such racial/ethnic stereotypes are not only inaccurate but also harmful to Asian Americans (e.g., Kiang et al., 2016). In fact, Hill et al. (2021) advanced the argument that internalization model minority stereotype is a form of internalized racism that harms Asian Americans by constraining and limiting the expectations and goals for an entire racial or ethnic group. Furthermore, scholars have noted that the model minority stereotype was designed to perpetuate sociopolitical racism to maintain the status quo in power relations among ethnic groups (e.g., Chou & Feagin, 2015). Specifically, the model minority stereotype is used to justify discrimination and racism within the Asian communities as well as against other ethnic minorities, particularly Black Americans, by selling the narrative that Asian Americans can achieve educational and occupational or financial success in the United States (Poon et al., 2016). Studies have shown that students who internalize the model minority stereotype suffer from intense pressures to succeed that can lead to psychological distress (Gupta et al., 2011; Kiang et al., 2016).
In our view, the model minority stereotype does not represent the true essence or intentions of familism, filial piety, guǎn (管), and jiào xun (教訓). Instead, the model minority stereotype is a misappropriation of Asian cultural values. Importantly, it is not parents’ duty and moral obligation to train and support their children to achieve excellence only to serve as pawns and in service of sociopolitical agendas. Unfortunately, racial/ethnic stereotypes remain pervasive in the popular press and media. In a study that used a dyadic and prospective research design, data showed an intergenerational correlation in internalized racial/ethnic or model minority stereotypes in Chinese American immigrant families (Hill et al., 2021). Furthermore, study results suggest that “internalized racism may restrict parents’ expectations and goals for their children and, in tandem, serve as a barrier for youths’ self-determination or sense of autonomy in their selection of college majors and career development” (Hill et al., p. 9). Academically the model minority stereotype perpetuates the assumption that all Asian American children have the same academic trajectories despite significant within group variations in ability, possibly inhibiting individual identification as at-risk or in need of additional academic support (Han & Huang, 2010).
Traditional Latino Cultural Values and Parenting Practices
Like many parents, Latino-Americans place a high value in the education of their children, emphasize academic success, and highly value participating in the children’s day-to-day schooling in meeting school expectations. When deemed important, Latino parents will adapt their beliefs to accommodate the schooling of their children (Gonzalez et al., 2019) and daily ethnic socialization practices in which they transmit traditions, beliefs, behavioral norms, and values (Calzada et al., 2010). The research is clear, Latino families possess rich home literacy traditions often overlooked by more one-size-fits-all models of the home literacy environment (Gonzalez et al., 2017) and misunderstood by teachers (Bridges et al., 2012). These literacy traditions are often driven by cultural values actualized in the daily cultural socialization routines around teachable moments in the home environment. Three prevailing Latino values that relate to parenting and the home literacy environment are “respeto/respect,” “familismo/familism,” and “bien educado/well educated.” These values function as cultural scripts that families adhere to and influence the behaviors and interactions of members in the Latino family (Gamble & Modry-Mandell, 2008).
Respeto (Respect)
Latino cultural values are at the center of child-rearing practices to ensure social relationships and connectedness among members of a Latino family. Parent values influence corresponding parenting practices to shape children’s behaviors. A child’s socialization is advanced through intentional and deliberate parenting practices in day-to-day routines to promote normative behaviors (Bridges et al., 2012). Among the most “pan-Latino” cultural values is “respeto” or respect (Calzada et al., 2010). Respeto in Latino families is actualized most saliently through the developmental and cultural niches in family microsystems around child-rearing practices (Tami-LeMonda et al. 2020). These cultural niches reflect connections across beliefs, values, practices, and settings around proximal day-to-day socialization processes and interactions between caregivers and children to transmit culture (Chen et al., 2020; Super & Harkness, 2002).
Respeto is a key cultural value of Latinos. It emphasizes deference, decorum, obedience, and outward manifestations of behavior (i.e., public) across situations and settings. It functions to establish expectations of behavior both with familiar people as well as strangers. As such, respeto-parenting is core to Latino parenting ultimately through its impact on highly prescribed interactions and other proximal influences to determine the behavior Latino children and youth (Calzada et al., 2010; Tamis-LeMonda et al., 2019). As a core cultural value among Latino populations, respeto is a cornerstone that underlies and supports familismo—a strong sense of familial obligation (Esparza & Sánchez, 2008).
Familismo (Familism)
Also considered a core value similar to but distinct from Confusion familism is the Latino of Familismo or familism. Functioning as a source of strength in Latino families and central to understanding Latino families, familism has both tangible and intangible dimensions and is captured in the inclination to hold the needs and wants of the family at higher importance than one’s own (Gamble & Modry-Mandell, 2008; Toyokawa & Toyokawa, 2019). Familism is demonstrated in reciprocity, empathy, trust, sacrifice, solidarity, and loyalty to create a mutual sense of obligation or interdependence among family members (Gamble & Modry-Mandell, 2008). While the evidence is somewhat mixed, both male and female family members appear to be equally influenced by familism although the gendered expectations may be different (e.g., male versus female caregiving (Martinez, 2013).
Familism, by promoting interdependence especially in extended families, provides a stable availability of emotional support for children in the home and is associated with positive academic outcomes (Toyokawa & Toyokawa, 2019). A strong sense of familismo has been shown to relate to greater academic motivation and effort in children and youth especially as related to beliefs about family obligations and likely functions as a source of social capital for families (Esparza & Sánchez, 2008). Familism has been associated with positive advantages in terms of social-emotional outcomes for young children (Bridges et al., 2015) as well as shown to be related to prosocial reasoning and behaviors among Latino youth especially altruistic perspective taking in meeting the needs of others and appears to work through moral reasoning (Knight et al., 2014).
Bien Educado (Well-educated)
The bien educado value is a broad-ranging construct transmitted by caregivers to promote desired social behaviors and strong moral character in Latino children. Bien educado generally consists of comportment (e.g., proper demeanor), obedience (e.g., complying), respect (e.g., respect elders), and cooperation (e.g., reciprocity) (Bridges et al., 2012).
The Immigrant Paradox
Known as a population-level phenomenon, the immigrant paradox has been studied for decades. The immigrant paradox in childhood and adolescents posits that most first-generation immigrants (youth who were born outside of the United States) will fare better academically than second-generation youth (youth born in the United States with one or both parents born outside of the United States) or third-generation youth (youth born in the United States and whose parents were also born in the United States) (May & Witherspoon, 2019).
Studies have shown that over time, and generations, as immigrant children and adolescents acculturate themselves to life in America, outcomes (e.g., academic, socioemotional) are less optimal (Marks et al., 2014). In other words, children who were born to immigrant parents and living in the United States longer than newcomer immigrant children will have less positive developmental outcomes (Marks et al., 2014). Buriel (2012) states that immigrant paradoxes related to education among Mexican Americans can be explained in large part through the lens of the cultural integration hypothesis. According to the cultural integration hypothesis, educational success and occupational success are the driving forces motivating first-generation Mexican Americans to immigrate to the United States; they choose to immigrate to America. These first-generation Mexican Americans often leave most everything behind in their homeland when making the journey to the United States, but with them, comes a psychological strength that fuels the determination and the perseverance to succeed in the new country. “However, these positive attributes and motivational forces are lost in subsequent generations” (Marks et al., 2014, p. 61).
As with much research, operationally defining the paradox is challenging. Many variables can impact developmental outcomes of immigrant youth, what researchers call mediators. The mediators typically operate in the microsystems—child and youth contexts—that facilitate or serve as barriers to optimal and healthy development (Marks et al., 2014). Consequently, the decline in achievement by immigrant youth who have lived in the United States longer when compared to more recent immigrants remains perplexing (Hill & Torres, 2010).
Similarities and Differences Between Asian and Latino Families’ Values: Implications for Home Literacy Practices and Social-Emotional Learning
Though Asian and Latino family practices reflect many similar values such as respect, family bonds, and community connections, each group is unique and within groups are inter heterogeneous with unique identities and sociopolitical histories (e.g., Chinese American vs. Indian American or Mexican American vs. Brazilian American). As such the present chapter has intentionally focused on the unique cultural constructs that have been consistently recorded within the research literature for each of these broader populations. However, there are various cultural similarities between Asian and Latino parenting styles as they share many child-rearing practices that emphasize respect and obligation to one’s self, family, and community. Asian and Latino parents both provide their children with an enriching home environment that supports the acquisition of skills through modeling literacy and language-related behaviors that reflect their expectation for their children’s academic and cultural scripts. According to Hughes et al. (2006), parents transmit cultural values, beliefs, and traditions to their children through ethnic socialization. For example, Latino parents emphasize the importance of the family or familismo, and they value solidarity amongst family members. Asian parents raise their children with similar values through Confucian familism and filial piety which emphasize the importance of teaching children the value of family bonds, being respectful, and showing deference at a young age.
SEL and literary skills are instilled within the home literacy environment parents create for their children and regulated through parental expectations, the parents’ salient roles in all aspects of their children’s learning process, and the bi-directional parent-child interactions that occur within the home. Both Asian and Latino-based cultures have been characterized as having authoritarian parenting styles (Chao & Tseng, 2002; Pong et al., 2005). This parenting style has been shown to negatively affect school performance in white students (Pong et al., 2005; Tiller et al., 2003). However, studies with Asian and Latino students yielded different outcomes (Dornbusch et al., 1987; Hillstrom, 2009; Moon et al., 2009; Steinberg et al., 1992). The authoritarian parenting style seemed to have no negative impact on academic performance, especially among Asian students. Though such parenting practices are often regarded as highly restrictive within the North Americans dominant socio-cultural norms (i.e., white), however, for Asian and Latino American families we frame such parenting choices as a conscious effort to protect their children and support their development based on the goals reflected in their culture, not inhibit them.
Parent Involvement in Children’s Literacy and Socioemotional Development
This chapter illustrates that cultural values drive Asian and Latino parenting beliefs and parenting practices. They are an asset these families rely on to raise well-adapted children. Indeed, longitudinal research on ethnically diverse low-income families that followed children from preschool to 5th grade, results showed that parenting beliefs predicted parenting practices during the toddlerhood years, which then predicted children’s social-emotional development during the preschool years, and eventually predicting academic (including literacy or reading) achievement in middle and late childhood (Liew et al., 2018). Thus, cultural values play an integral role in shaping parents’ beliefs and parental involvement in the language, literacy, and socioemotional development of Asian and Latino children. Asian American parents believe in preparing their children for formal schooling. For example, Asian parenting styles align with philosophies such as guǎn and jiào xun; parents teach their children to live in harmony with others by prioritizing collectivistic values over personal desire or comfort. The ability for children to reflect these values is a measure of social competence within the culture and is often seen as an indication that the parents have raised a well-socialized child. These children are expected to carry on these learned social-emotional skills by respecting their school administrators, showing manners, and having and maintaining quality interpersonal relationships.
Similar to Asian American parents, Latino American parents socialize their children to be bicultural. Latino American parents aim to teach their children American and Latino values to benefit from both cultures (Gonzalez et al., 2017, 2019). Latino American children are often taught to be respectful of those around them and expected to become well-educated individuals (Gamble et al. 2008). A study by Aldoni and Cabrera (2016) aimed to investigate how Latin American parents identify cultural values to pass onto their children. Investigators found that participants valued unity amongst the family, but they still expected their children to be independent and self-sufficient. Participants also discussed incorporating literacy activities into their daily routines by designating reading times and participating in family literacy courses. Parents reported that being good role models and leading by example was necessary for teaching children moral values. Ultimately, maintaining structure and providing routine for their families is how Latin American parents attribute to their children’s literacy and socioemotional development.
Asian and Latino American parents introduce language and literacy concepts to their children as early as toddlerhood (Aldoni & Cabrera, 2016; Gonzalez et al., 2021). For Asian American families, the cultural values that drive socialization may also drive children’s literacy development. Familial expectations such as face-saving can be seen as an asset because they implicitly and explicitly motivate parents to create opportunities that improve their child’s academic progress. For example, parents may bring their children to local libraries or community events that support social and emotional literacy and development (face and guanxi). These enrichment experiences allow children to build and strengthen their literacy and social-emotional skills through shared reading opportunities.
Findings from a study on Chinese immigrant parents emphasized that parents took their children’s education seriously and invested significant time and resources to facilitate their children’s language and literacy development (Gonzalez et al., 2021). Furthermore, in addition to English language learning, parents in the study expressed that they expect their children to maintain their heritage (Chinese) language. Thus, being bilingual would be the minimum expectation for many Chinese immigrant parents. Some parents prefer their children to be trilingual and learn a language such as Spanish to be more prepared for a diverse and competitive world. In the study, Chinese American parents also shared parenting practices and involvement in their children’s language and literacy learning in the home. Specifically, parents shared that they established home libraries and provided print materials to engage and stimulate their children’s interest in language learning and literacy. Parents also utilized learning tools and resources such as extracurricular programs, YouTube, subscription services, and digital devices to enhance the home literacy environment (see Gonzalez et al., 2021). Overall, Chinese American parents held high expectations for their children’s education and learning, including language and literacy development.
Latinx or Latin American parents invest in their children’s language and literacy development. However, these practices vary depending on socioeconomic status and parents’ ethnic identity (McWayne et al., 2016; Quiroz et al., 2010; Schick & Melzi, 2016; Schüller, 2015). Children of Latinx descent often enter grade school with lower levels of emergent literacy skills than white children (Gándara & Hopkins, 2010; Reardon & Galindo, 2009; Sullivan et al., 2016); but several factors may explain these outcomes. Firstly, children from low-income households are statistically shown to have lower emergent literacy skills than those from more financially stable families (Kuhl, 2011; Whitehurst & Lonigan, 1998). Second, languages spoken within Hispanic households vary, with some speaking only Spanish, only English, or both English and Spanish (Hammer et al., 2008; Lonigan et al., 2018; Quiroz et al., 2010). More specifically, children primarily exposed to Spanish at home tend to have higher Spanish emergent literacy skills but lower English emergent literacy skills (Hammer et al., 2008). Lastly, Parents’ ethnic identity has been shown to predict children’s academic achievement (McWayne et al., 2016; Nekby et al., 2009; Schüller, 2015). These findings indicate that the home literacy environment of Latino American families is specific to the culture and ethnicity that parents identify with.
Investigators from New York University (Schick & Melzi, 2016) examined literacy practices in the homes of 127 low-income Latino preschoolers. The majority of these households were Spanish-speaking (60%), and the remaining were either bilingual (25%) or English-speaking (15%) households. A bilingual research assistant visited these homes to distribute a questionnaire and observe a parent-child book-sharing activity. There was an average of 20 books available per household, with lower-income families having fewer books available. Low-income families also reported not visiting the library due to limited availability or access. Participants from higher-income neighborhoods stated that they did visit the library with their children and actively provided books for their children in the home. However, parents did report reading to their children daily or weekly, either in English, in Spanish, or both. These outcomes were predictive of children’s language, literacy, and social-emotional school readiness skills at the end of the preschool year.
Quiroz et al. (2010) further investigated the relationships between family language use, parent-child interactions during book sharing, and children’s vocabulary skills in English and Spanish. Researchers conducted home visits with 49 Latino American families to facilitate interviews, observations, and vocabulary screenings on parents and their children. Parents read to their children and participated in book-sharing activities by asking questions and discussing in Spanish. The overall results of this study indicate that parental assimilation to American culture was a strong predictor of children’s English vocabulary skills. For example, factors such as parental English proficiency, maternal work, family income, and English literacy practice at home positively correlated with children’s vocabulary skills when completing the Woodcock-Johnson Language Proficiency Battery–Revised (WLPB–R) Picture Vocabulary Test in English (Woodcock, 1991). In sum, researchers concluded that frequently being read to, regardless of the language, positively affected vocabulary skills in both English and Spanish.
Conclusions
For Asian and Latino families, the cultural values instilled in their children through literacy practices and SEL allow their children to succeed in their home as well as community environments. However, challenges often arise when these home cultural values differ from that of the dominant socio-cultural norms which these culturally diverse children will likely encounter within the public education system. Not only do minoritized and first-generation American students face heavy societal expectations, but they also face strenuous academic expectations. For Asian American students, societal pressures such as the model minority stereotype impose narrow and confining expectations on students that can limit their self-determination and autonomy in their academic and personal pursuits and frequently suffer from internalized racism and psychological distress from either internalizing or going against model minority stereotypes (Gupta et al., 2011; Hill et al., 2021). First-generation Latino students face similar academic pressures to be successful, and evidence of this “Immigrant Paradox” was reported as recently as 2019 (May & Witherspoon, 2019).
Both Latino and Asian parents place high expectations on their children’s education, thus regard the education system, the school, and their child’s teachers as essential components to their children’s, and by extension their families’, success within American systems. The transition from home to school context may be made easier through the conscious continuance and incorporation of the values, attitude, beliefs, of the academic and social-emotional skills children have gained in the home to the early education setting. Focusing on family literacy as a multidimensional and culturally reflective concept gives attention to the translation process of literary practices, activities, and development from the home to the school environment. It is essential that educators who work with culturally diverse children are aware and sensitive to children’s literacy and social-emotional assets and vulnerabilities as to accurately gage needs and competence within each domain. Thus, not letting the whole child’s development and lived realities be lost when context shifts. However, the obstacle often observed is whether the mainstream teacher and school system hold the same or similar values as the parent or home environment. Particularly, will teachers question whether the children exhibiting actions reflecting their cultural values are socially competent, engaged, too shy and quiet, passive, and so on.
We recommend a focus on increasing culturally reflective practices within the classroom through culturally guided literacy practices, parental engagement and involvement within the school, and building authentic community-based relationships to bridge the context of the home and the school environment (see Hayashi et al., 2022). If fostered and adapted, teachers can apply children’s cultural commitments, values, and processes in their teaching practices so that children’s learned literacy and SEL skills will translate and thrive within the classroom environment.
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Gonzalez, J.E., Liew, J., Aguilar, S.D., Sainz, A.D., Sanchez, R., Bumgardner, R. (2023). Family Literacy Practices and the Home Learning Environment of Asian and Latino Americans: Path to Literacy and Social-Emotional Learning. In: Gonzalez, J.E., Liew, J., Curtis, G.A., Zou, Y. (eds) Family Literacy Practices in Asian and Latinx Families. Critical Cultural Studies of Childhood. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-14470-7_4
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