**3.2 Parent characteristics**

*Parenting - Studies by an Ecocultural and Transactional Perspective*

acquisition of literacy between good and poor readers [45, 46]; but we do not know much about differential effects of programs depending on the child's reading level. One meta-analysis focusing on preschool level reported moderate, but substantially reduced effect sizes when children were at risk for language impairments [16]. In our own study comparing parent and volunteer tutors' effectiveness

*Supposed differential effects for child characteristics, parent characteristics, and implementation factors.*

**Domain Theoretical concept Literature** Child characteristics Initial reading level [45, 46]

Parent characteristics Socio-economic and occupational status [3, 41, 43]

Implementation Intensity of training [33]

Implementation fidelity (is the program implemented as intended—technical and motivational aspects; scaffolding)

Reading motivation [47, 48] Reading frequency [49] Utility value (e.g., importance of reading) [50, 51] Effort/volition [52, 53]

Cultural capital (e.g., number of books) [3, 54] Expectations regarding the child's reading ability [55–57] Expectations regarding the training success [4]

effects in the volunteer condition, saying that children with an initially higher reading level benefitted more from the training (at posttest: *d* = 0.47; at 5-month follow-up: *d* = 0.39). However, this effect could not be found within the parent

Besides the initial reading level, it is assumable that the child's general disposition toward reading, which can be reflected in reading motivation and reading frequency during spare time, is relevant for training success. Knowing that reading performance and motivation correlate in a moderate way, we can assume that poor readers are not very motivated readers and thus do not necessarily read for pleasure [47, 48]. Though, if there *are* differences among struggling readers, possibly children who are more motivated readers and read more frequently would benefit more from a training. This assumption is supported by a study that found reading behavior to be a critical variable in explaining differential pathways in reading competence development [49]. Furthermore, perceived utility values like the importance that a child attaches to reading might be beneficial for training outcome [50]. When specifically addressed within interventions (by reflecting personal relevance of a matter for future; in this particular case: math), utility values even turned out to be an important factor to foster self-concept and achievement [51]. Thus, it is assumable that children with higher utility values attributed to reading might benefit more from the training. Always in relation with motivational aspects mentioned previously, it is relevant which effort one puts into a task. The role of volition in learning has been studied in detail by many scholars (e.g., [52, 53]) but still seems to be much neglected in learning situations. However, in reading programs, and particularly

, we only found differential

[32, 44, 58, 59]

in a PR training for children with poor reading fluency1

<sup>1</sup> Children with dyslexia were not supposed to participate.

**36**

group [10].

**Table 1.**

The empirical evidence whether parent characteristics might be responsible for differential effects of reading programs conducted by parents is unclear. Several researchers (e.g., [6, 43, 54]) investigated the assumption that high-SES parents might be more skilled in implementing family literacy programs than low-SES parents, because they are more likely to dispose of the required strategies (e.g., sensitivity and responsiveness) [26]. However, findings are inconsistent [41]. Studies that examined differential effects of SES found that SES or family income did not moderate program effects [15, 38] (both at preschool level). Still, the empirical evidence is scanty, and further research, especially for primary school level, is clearly needed. Associated factors, related to the family background, might be the parents' occupational status and cultural capital [1, 55]. Besides these factors, proximal factors such as parental expectations play a prominent role in predicting child achievement (e.g., [56–58]). The extent to which parental expectations moderate training effects is a question that still needs to be investigated. At least one study showed that parental expectations regarding the training success was significantly higher for parents of children with lower reading performance [4]. Whether higher expectations moderate training success still need though to be empirically established.

## **3.3 Implementation factors**

The impact of implementation fidelity on program effectiveness has already been discussed previously. Thus, differential effects on training success can be expected from implementation factors like the total instructional time or number of training sessions held (intensity/duration of training), or other aspects of program content (is the program implemented as intended?). However, previous research showed that higher training intensity (in terms of quantity of training sessions) or duration of training (in terms of weeks or months) is not necessarily associated with training success [33, 59]. In our own study, the number of training sessions was not a significant predictor of reading outcomes nor did it moderate them [10]. This finding is in line with some meta-analyses [14, 17], but not solely (e.g., length of training moderated outcome [12]). Besides this, little is known about the aspects of implementation fidelity other than intensity that would explain program success, especially in reading programs involving parents. A peer and cross-age tutoring PR study that investigated this topic revealed no significant positive correlation between any core element of PR implementation and progress in attainment [60]. However, implementation that considers motivational aspects of learning (e.g., provide positive feedback) [32] actively involves the child into reading activities [14] and applies thoroughly scaffolded tutoring procedures (Cohen et al. in Topping et al. in [60, 61], p. 241) that are supposed to foster reading, presumably would bring higher training effects.

Altogether, the question about relevant factors for training success in programs that involve parents is still much of a mystery. To date, only few studies investigated differential effects within family literacy programs. Therefore, in the following, the previously presented assumptions about possible factors that explain training success will be explored on data of a PR study with third graders.
