title: Disparities in early exposure to book sharing within immigrant families.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This study examined the early developmental context of children in immigrant families (CIF), measured by the frequency with which parents share books with their children.
  
  
  METHODS
  Trends in the frequency with which parents report book sharing, defined in this analysis as reading or sharing picture books with their young children, were analyzed across immigrant and nonimmigrant households by using data from the 2005, 2007, and 2009 California Health Interview Survey. Stepwise multivariate logistic regression assessed the likelihood that CIF shared books with parents daily.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In this study, 57.5% of parents in immigrant families reported daily book sharing (DBS), compared with 75.8% of native-born parents. The lowest percentage of DBS was seen in Hispanic families with 2 foreign-born parents (47.1%). When controlling for independent variables, CIF with 2 foreign-born parents had the lowest odds of sharing books daily (odds ratio [OR]: 0.61; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.54-0.68). When stratified by race/ethnicity, separate multivariate logistic regressions revealed CIF status to be associated with lower odds of DBS for Asian (OR: 0.56; 95% CI: 0.38-0.81) and Hispanic CIF (OR: 0.49; 95% CI: 0.42-0.58).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  There is an association between the lower odds of DBS and parental immigrant status, especially for Hispanic and Asian children. This relationship holds after controlling for variables thought to explain differences in literacy-related practices, such as parental education and income. Because book sharing is central to children's development of early literacy and language skills, this disparity merits further exploration with the aim of informing future interventions.
authors.affiliation: School of Medicine, Stanford University, Stanford, California;
authors.forename: Natalia
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Festa
authors.affiliation: School of Medicine, Stanford University, Stanford, California;Division of General Medical Disciplines, Department of Medicine, and.
authors.forename: Pooja D
authors.initials: PD
authors.lastname: Loftus
authors.affiliation: School of Medicine, Stanford University, Stanford, California;Division of General Medical Disciplines, Department of Medicine, and.
authors.forename: Mark R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Cullen
authors.affiliation: School of Medicine, Stanford University, Stanford, California;Division of General Pediatrics, Department of Pediatrics, School of Medicine, Stanford University, Stanford, California fmendoza@stanford.edu.
authors.forename: Fernando S
authors.initials: FS
authors.lastname: Mendoza
mesh_terms: D001741:Black or African American; D000367:Age Factors; D001213:Asian; D001877:Books; D002675:Child, Preschool; D054242:Emigrants and Immigrants; D005260:Female; D006630:Hispanic or Latino; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D010290:Parents; D011932:Reading; D044465:White People
keywords: book sharing; children in immigrant families; early childhood; emergent literacy; immigrant