Family factors and critical reading skills: A systematic review

Critical reading skills – defined as the capacity to integrate, interpret, evaluate, or reflect on ideas presented in text or multiple texts – are increasingly vital in today’s society for distinguishing reliable information from widespread misinformation. This review focuses on the family’s role in nurturing these skills in children and adolescents. On the basis of a comprehensive review of 40 relevant studies, we explored a wide range of family factors and their associations with developing critical reading skills. These factors were categorized into eleven categories: 1) socio-economic status (SES), 2) availability and access to resources, 3) teaching literacy, 4) literacy activities composites, 5) shared reading, 6) parental habits, attitudes, and values–beliefs, 7) parental school involvement, 8) language or ethnicity, 9) parental deficits, 10) family composition, and 11) parenting/family atmosphere. The most frequently assessed factors were SES, availability and access to resources, and literacy activities composites. Significantly, the availability of and access to resources and shared reading practices categories demonstrated a systematic positive association with critical reading skills. In addition, children and adolescents whose home language matched the assessment language tended to perform better in critical reading, thus underscoring the significance of language background. High parental SES was also often associated with better critical reading skills. The results relating to the impact of parental reading difficulties were mixed. This review highlights the multifaceted potential of family environment to affect children’s critical reading skills. However, the variability almost from study to study in the assessment of family factors and critical reading point to the need for further research in this emerging field.