The home literacy environment plays a crucial role in the language and literacy development of children during early childhood (Gutiérrez-Fresneda, 2019; Inoue et al., 2020; Torppa et al., 2022). Through interaction and meaningful experiences at home and in the community (Zuilkowsli et al. 2019), children acquire the foundational skills necessary for literacy (Neuman, 2014). Therefore, a literate family environment fosters pre-literacy skills in children, which are correlated with later reading success and attitudes developed in childhood, where family environment seems to be essential (Mora-Figueroa et al., 2016).

The emergent literacy skills acquired by children in the home environment differ according to the typology of activities undertaken, with formal practices associated with written skills and informal practices with oral skills (Sénéchal and LeFevre, 2014). In this sense, age seems to be an aspect that influences in the skills promoted by parents at home (Jáñez et al., 2023). Inoue et al. (2018) found that parental teaching and shared book reading contribute to the reading fluency and accuracy in early childhood, with a literate home environment positively affecting reading comprehension in later ages.

Moreover, there is evidence that Family Literacy is influenced by family and socio-economic factors (Friedlander, 2020; Zhang et al. 2023). Moreno et al. (2018) demonstrated that literacy practices among children from high socio-economic households align more closely with institutional practices, while those from low socio-economic households lean towards traditional practices. McGinnity et al. (2022) investigated differences in reading ability based on gender and social background, noting that both factors influenced reading scores between ages from three to nine. Despite social class, girls tended to have higher reading scores than boys, but boys benefited more from parental involvement at home (Jeong and Hofferth, 2016).

According to these ideas, the present study explores current inequalities in emergent literacy and home literacy within a sample of Spanish families with 4–6-year-old children. The objective is to identify differences in parents’ literacy involvement, parents’ literacy habits, and children’s literacy. The research questions are: What are the family practices of emergent literacy? And are there differences in family literate environments according to the gender and school grade of the children?

Exploratory research was carried out with a sample of 306 families, comprising 167 mothers (54.6%) and 139 fathers (45.4%) with children between 4 to 6 years old, primarily from the same family units, residing in Asturias (North coast of the Spanish peninsula). Parents’ literacy standards were categorized into compulsory, high school and higher education levels. The distribution of these categories among parents are: 60.6% with higher education, 32.1% with high school and 7.7% with compulsory education. Regarding employment status, the majority were employed (82.2%) with only 2% receiving social benefits. Among the children sampled, 155 were males (50.7%) and 151 females (49.3%). 51.3% of the children were enrolled in 2nd grade and 48.7% in 3rd grade in preschool. All children were typically developing and spoke Spanish as their primary language at home, as indicated by a parent questionnaire. Children with developmental problems (vision, speech, or hearing) were excluded. To collect data, the Home Literacy Environment Questionnaire (HLE) (Farver et al., 2006) with an ad hoc Spanish version developed through a double translation procedure). The questionnaire including 13 items presented on a 12-point Likert Scale (1-2-3, Never; 4-5-6, Sometimes; 7-8-9, Quite often; 10-11-12, Always) aimed to assess from the perspective of families the literacy environment in the family home based on the conceptualizations validated by Burgess et al. (2002). The HLE provides three subscales: Parents’ literacy involvement, Parents’ literacy habits and Childrens’ literacy. Skewness and kurtosis [−1; +1] were calculated to check for normality (DeCarlo, 1997), while descriptive statistics (mean and standard deviation) were used for continuous variables. Socio-demographic variables, including children's gender and educational level were considered to identify potential statistical differences in the three factors of the scale. Significant differences were assessed using Students' t (p<.05). All the analyses were performed using SPSS 27.0.

The present study explored emergent literacy and home literacy differences according to gender and education level in Spanish preschoolers. Results indicated a medium-high level of parents’ literacy involvement and children´s literacy while parents’ perceptions about literacy habits were low. No significant differences were observed in factor scores based on children’s educational level. However, significant differences were noted in parents’ literacy involvement and children´s literacy based on gender, with boys exhibiting higher levels in both cases. Considering these results, it is imperative to foster family literacy and identify effective strategies for promoting family-school partnerships. Such efforts can help parents feel more assertive in their role and more engaged in their children’s education, particularly in promoting Home Literacy Environment to enhance emergent literacy skills in children.

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