Home literacy environment, literacy interest and emergent literacy in China: a person-oriented approach

Despite emerging studies adopting latent classes analysis (LCA) to identify home literacy environment (HLE) classes and their association with emergent literacy skills in the Western context, a significant gap remains in understanding HLE classes within the East Asian context. In addition, the mechanism underlying the variation of emergent literacy across different HLE classes remains elusive. To address these issues, we engaged 2,422 caregivers of preschoolers aged 3–6 years in China, who completed self-report online questionnaires assessing home literacy environment, children’s literacy interest and emergent literacy ability. Our latent class analysis uncovered unique and complex patterns of HLE that diverge from those observed in Western research. Specifically, five distinct HLE classes were identified: high-all, high-active, high-passive, high-books and low-all. Moreover, our Bolck-Croon-Hagenaars (BCH) analysis showed that HLE classes differed in emergent literacy. Furthermore, the multi-categorical mediation model indicated that literacy interest mediated the links between HLE and emergent literacy in a class-specific way. This study provides insights for parents to optimize the HLE and nurture preschoolers’ literacy interest in the East Asian context.