Revisiting the Home Literacy Environment in the Digital Age: Insights from a High-SES Context

Abstract

Decades of research have documented the critical role of parental practices, beliefs, and resources in shaping children’s literacy development. This study examined how home practices shape children’s literacy engagement across both digital and traditional formats. Parents of children aged 4–9 years (N = 357) filled out a Qualtrics survey about the home learning environment, including beliefs, confidence, attitudes, resources, and practices. Results showed that while parents’ beliefs and traditional literacy engagement were linked to encouragement for digital reading, children’s independent digital reading was best predicted by parents’ own digital reading, shared digital reading, and encouragement to read on devices. Device availability and general encouragement to use technology were not significant. Children’s audiobook use was predicted primarily by shared digital reading. These findings extend the home literacy environment literature by showing that while traditional practices remain central, their expression in the digital age depends on parental modeling and encouragement. The results highlight that in the digital era, parental engagement and shared reading experiences, and not access alone, are central to fostering children’s digital literacy development.