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The Effects of Rurality on Parents’ Engagement in Children’s Early Literacy

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Rural Education Research in the United States

Abstract

Investigations of urban-rural context on children’s educational experiences have produced somewhat inconsistent findings, but one thing is clear, parent engagement in children’s early learning positively impacts academic outcomes. Research identifying conditions that uniquely influence parents’ early engagement in learning and literacy in rural settings are needed. An illustrative example of a study investigating the effects of rurality on parent engagement and children’s literacy using a nationally representative dataset (Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Birth Cohort, ECLS-B; n = 6550) is discussed. Contextual differences in parents’ use of technology and community resources and children’s reading scores were revealed. The important role of technology and structural characteristics of rural communities in young children’s early literacy development was demonstrated; however, further research is needed to better understand the impact of these and other contextual influences. A proposed agenda for future research in this area is discussed.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    To protect confidentiality of the data, all sample sizes have been rounded to the nearest 50 per Institute of Education Sciences reporting requirements.

  2. 2.

    A value of one was added to all observations prior to the transformation in order to avoid taking the log of zero, which equals infinity.

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Acknowledgments

The research reported here was supported by the Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education, through Grant R305C090022 to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. The opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not represent views of the Institute of Education Sciences or the U.S. Department of Education.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Munroe-Meyer Institute, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, USA

    Brandy L. Clarke

  2. Nebraska Center for Research on Children, Youth, Families and Schools, National Center for Research on Rural Education, University of Nebraska–Lincoln, Lincoln, USA

    Natalie A. Koziol & Susan M. Sheridan

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  1. Brandy L. Clarke
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  2. Natalie A. Koziol
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  3. Susan M. Sheridan
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Correspondence to Brandy L. Clarke .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Nebraska - Lincoln Nat. Center for Research on Rural Edu, Lincoln, Nebraska, USA

    Gwen C. Nugent

  2. University of Nebraska - Lincoln Nat. Center for Research on Rural Edu, Lincoln, Nebraska, USA

    Gina M. Kunz

  3. University of Nebraska - Lincoln Nat. Center for Research on Rural Edu., Lincoln, Nebraska, USA

    Susan M. Sheridan

  4. Rutgers University, Piscataway, New Jersey, USA

    Todd A. Glover

  5. University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, Nebraska, USA

    Lisa L. Knoche

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Clarke, B.L., Koziol, N.A., Sheridan, S.M. (2017). The Effects of Rurality on Parents’ Engagement in Children’s Early Literacy. In: Nugent, G., Kunz, G., Sheridan, S., Glover, T., Knoche, L. (eds) Rural Education Research in the United States. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-42940-3_12

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-42940-3_12

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