Causal Inference in Education Research Seminar (CIERS): Home Literacy Environment of Spanish-Speaking Latino Families

The purpose of this study was to contextualize the measurement of the home literacy environment (HLE) for Spanish-speaking Latino families. This was accomplished by using a series of HLE items to characterize the potential heterogeneity in the HLE of Spanish-speaking families as well as by examining differences in the HLE based on caregiver’s language proficiency, income, and education level. The specific aims were: (1) to characterize distinct classes of the home literacy environment of Spanish-speaking Latino households for a sample of children from Kindergarten to Grade 2; (2) to assess the predictive ability of caregiver’s English proficiency, caregiver’s income, and caregiver’s education on class membership; (3) to examine the predictive ability of the resulting HLE classes on a child-level reading outcome in Grade 2; and (4) to describe evidence of stability or change in the HLE profiles across the first three years of formal schooling (i.e., Kindergarten to Grade 2). Methodologically, this study focused on the application of Latent Class Analysis (LCA) using data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study – 2011 cohort (ECLS-K: 2011). Findings revealed different levels of HLE supports (low, moderate, and high). Three latent classes characterized Kindergarten and four latent classes characterized Grade 2. Covariates predicted class membership in different and interesting ways that helped further characterize the HLE classes. For the most part, there were no significant differences in the various class means of the Grade 2 reading outcome. Across time, there appears to be some mobility of families going from a low to a higher HLE support. Implications of findings and future directions will be discussed.