Family’s Role in Cultivating Students’ Reading Habits: Systematic Literature Review
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Abstract
This systematic literature review explores the role of families in fostering students’ reading habits, based on 38 empirical studies analysed using ROSES framework and thematic synthesis. Four themes and eight subthemes were identified: The influence of the parents as reading models, the availability of reading materials, family interaction in reading activities, the role of the parents in digital literacy and interactive reading. The findings show the importance of family engagement, both traditional and digital, shapes children’s reading motivation, frequency and long-term literacy outcomes. However, the evidence base is uneven, with regional imbalances and heterogeneous study designs, and findings are largely derived from self-reported data. This review contributes by highlighting how different forms of family involvement intersect to influence literacy, while also outlining the need for more contextually diverse and methodologically robust research.
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