Predictors of Literacy and Attitudes Toward Reading Among Syrian Refugee Children in Jordan

TY - JOUR

T1 - Predictors of Literacy and Attitudes Toward Reading Among Syrian Refugee Children in Jordan

AU - Hadfield, Kristin

AU - Al-Hamad, Mays

AU - Bakhti, Rinad

AU - Dajani, Rana

AU - El Kharouf, Amal

AU - Michalek, Julia

AU - Mukunzi, Joana

AU - Qtaishat, Lina

AU - Sethi, Tanvi

AU - von Stumm, Sophie

AU - Mareschal, Isabelle

N1 - Funding Information: Open Access funding provided by the IReL Consortium. This research was funded by an Education and Learning in Crises award from the British Academy (ERICC\190091). Publisher Copyright: © 2022, The Author(s).

PY - 2022/9/9

Y1 - 2022/9/9

N2 - Refugee children often face disruptions to their education before and during displacement. However, little is known about either levels or predictors of refugee children’s literacy or about their attitudes toward reading in low- or middle-income countries. To address this, we conducted in-home literacy assessments using the Holistic Assessment of Learning and Development Outcomes with 322 Syrian refugee mother–child dyads who lived in Jordan (child age range 4–8 years, M = 6.32 years, 50% female). Overall, the children had quite low levels of literacy, although they indicated a strong enthusiasm for reading. Child age, maternal education, and maternal ability to read all predicted child literacy, although maternal literacy predicted it only among children enrolled in school. Among those enrolled in school (64.9% of the total sample, 88.7% of those aged ≥ 6), students attending hybrid classes had better literacy than those attending either solely in-person or solely online, although the frequency of school attendance did not predict literacy. A less consistent pattern emerged for predicting children’s attitudes toward reading. Our results suggest an urgent need to improve literacy skills among refugee children in Jordan, as well as a need for validated measures of attitudes toward reading for use with Arabic-speaking youth.

AB - Refugee children often face disruptions to their education before and during displacement. However, little is known about either levels or predictors of refugee children’s literacy or about their attitudes toward reading in low- or middle-income countries. To address this, we conducted in-home literacy assessments using the Holistic Assessment of Learning and Development Outcomes with 322 Syrian refugee mother–child dyads who lived in Jordan (child age range 4–8 years, M = 6.32 years, 50% female). Overall, the children had quite low levels of literacy, although they indicated a strong enthusiasm for reading. Child age, maternal education, and maternal ability to read all predicted child literacy, although maternal literacy predicted it only among children enrolled in school. Among those enrolled in school (64.9% of the total sample, 88.7% of those aged ≥ 6), students attending hybrid classes had better literacy than those attending either solely in-person or solely online, although the frequency of school attendance did not predict literacy. A less consistent pattern emerged for predicting children’s attitudes toward reading. Our results suggest an urgent need to improve literacy skills among refugee children in Jordan, as well as a need for validated measures of attitudes toward reading for use with Arabic-speaking youth.

KW - Jordan

KW - Literacy

KW - Reading attitudes

KW - Schooling

KW - Syrian refugee

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85137815322&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1007/s13158-022-00334-x

DO - 10.1007/s13158-022-00334-x

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85137815322

SN - 0020-7187

JO - International Journal of Early Childhood

JF - International Journal of Early Childhood

ER -