Data Sheet 1_Shared reading and independent book engagement in early childhood: associations with the home literacy environment in a Turkish pediatric outpatient population.pdf

Objective<p>To explore parental reading practices and factors associated with parental reading to children and children's independent engagement with books within the Home Literacy Environment (HLE).</p>Methods<p>This cross-sectional study included 362 parents of children aged 1–6 years who attended the Pediatric Outpatient Clinic of Ankara Bilkent City Hospital between October and December 2025. Parents completed a 28-item questionnaire assessing their demographic characteristics, home literacy practices, parental reading habits, access to books, and children's independent book engagement.

Firth's bias-reduced penalized likelihood logistic regression was used for multivariable analyses.</p>Results<p>Shared reading was common, occurring daily in 47.3% and 2–3 times per week in 29.3% of families, most often during the evening or bedtime routines (64.2%). Maternal education was strongly associated with parental reading to the child; mothers with a university degree or higher had higher odds of reading to their children than those with a high school education or below [odds ratio (OR) = 14.31; 95% confidence interval (CI): 4.73–50.21; p < 0.001].