People who regularly read with their toddlers are less likely to engage in harsh parenting and the children are less likely to be hyperactive or disruptive, a Rutgers-led study finds.
Previous studies have shown that frequent shared reading prepares children for school by building language, literacy and emotional skills, but the study by Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School researchers may be the first to focus on how shared reading affects parenting.
The study, published along with a video abstract in the Journal of Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics, suggests additional benefits from shared reading -- a stronger parent-child bond and less hyperactivity and attention problems in children.
“For parents, the simple routine of reading with your child on a daily basis provides not just academic but emotional benefits that can help bolster the child’s success in school and beyond,” said lead researcher Manuel Jimenez, an assistant professor at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School’s Department of Pediatrics, and an attending developmental behavioral pediatrician at Children’s Specialized Hospital. “Our findings can be applied to programs that help parents and caregivers in underserved areas to develop positive parenting skills.”
The study reviewed data on 2,165 mother-child pairs from 20 large U.S. cities in which the women were asked how often they read to their children at ages 1 and 3. The mothers were re-interviewed two years later, about how often they engaged in physically and/or psychologically aggressive discipline and about their children’s behavior. The study controlled for factors such as parental depression and financial hardship that can contribute to harsh parenting and children’s disruptive behavior.
The results showed that frequent shared reading at age 1 was associated with less harsh parenting at age 3, and frequent shared reading at age 3 was associated with less harsh parenting at age 5. Mothers who read frequently with their children also reported fewer disruptive behaviors from their children, which may partially explain the reduction in harsh parenting behaviors.
The findings can strengthen programs that promote the academic, emotional and socioeconomic well-being of children, the authors said.
Coauthors included Yong Lin, a professor at Rutgers School of Public Health; Patricia Shelton, a clinical research assistant at the Boggs Center on Developmental Disabilities at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School; and researchers at New York University School of Medicine/Bellevue Hospital Center, the University of Toronto’s Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation and Princeton University.
dr_set on May 23rd, 2019 at 20:52 UTC »
This is a chicken or an egg thing. Maybe is not the reading that changes the relation, maybe they read because they are more mellow to begin with?
obDumbassHandle on May 23rd, 2019 at 20:06 UTC »
On the other hand, it's probably a lot easier to read to your child if it's not hyperactive, so cause and effect doesn't seem entirely clear from the linked article's description.
giltwist on May 23rd, 2019 at 19:32 UTC »
While an interesting correlation, this is an observational study rather than an intervention study. The next step would be to find harsh parents who don't read with toddlers then encourage half of them to start reading with their toddlers. Until then, you might just as well say "Harsh parents are less likely to read with their toddlers" as you are to say "People who read with their toddlers are less likely to be harsh parents."