Parent-child shared reading meets information technology: Revealing links between parenting and children's character development

Abstract

The influence of integrated information technology on various facets of modern day life is immense. Over the past decade, it has also influenced early childhood education-be it from an academic perspective or be it from the perspective of character education. The study aims to investigate how integrated information technology with parent-child shared reading would have a major impact on family education, especially from parenting and character education perspectives. The study first collects the data from some relative questionnaires with randomly sampling to distribute for 500 preschool children's parents in Southern Taiwan. The data are then analyzed by using SPSS statistical tool with factor analysis, regression analysis and also Hierarchical regression. The results of analysis are concluded as follows: (1) Parenting style reveals partially notably positive correlations with young children's character development, (2) Parent-child shared reading within information technology application presents partially significantly positive correlations with parenting style, (3) Parent-child shared reading within information technology application appears partially remarkably positive correlations with young children's character development, (4) Parent-child shared reading within information technology application shows partially significantly moderating effects between parenting style and children's character development. Based on the research outcomes, it is expected that some suggestions and references would be very useful for preschool children's parents to appropriately integrate information technology within their shared reading and parenting with children. © 2013 Asian Network for Scientific Information.