Hadfield, Kristin, Al-Hamad, Mays, Bakhti, Rinad et al. (8 more authors) (2022) Predictors of Literacy and Attitudes Toward Reading Among Syrian Refugee Children in Jordan. International Journal of Early Childhood. ISSN 1878-4658
Abstract
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.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | 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). |
Keywords: | Jordan,Literacy,Reading attitudes,Schooling,Syrian refugee |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of York |
Academic Units: | The University of York > Faculty of Social Sciences (York) > Education (York) |
Depositing User: | Pure (York) |
Date Deposited: | 15 Mar 2023 14:20 |
Last Modified: | 16 Oct 2024 19:07 |
Published Version: | https://doi.org/10.1007/s13158-022-00334-x |
Status: | Published online |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1007/s13158-022-00334-x |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:197409 |