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Puerto Rican Mothers' Beliefs and Home Literacy Practices

Barbara L. Rodriguez
University of New Mexico, Albuquerque

Frank R. Lawrence
Adele W. Miccio
The Pennsylvania State University, University Park

Contact author: Carol Scheffner Hammer, The Pennsylvania State University, Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, 110 Moore Building, University Park, PA 26802. E-mail: cjh22{at}psu.edu.

Purpose: The aims of this investigation were to examine the parenting beliefs and literacy practices of mothers of Puerto Rican descent and to determine if relationships existed between the mothers' beliefs and practices.

Method: Eighty-one mothers of bilingual children who attended Head Start programs participated in the project. As part of a larger project, the children were divided into 2 groups depending on the timing of when they were exposed to English. Children who were exposed to Spanish and English from birth were classified as having home English communication (HEC); children who were not expected to communicate in English until age 3 when they entered Head Start were classified as having school English communication (SEC). Trained home visitors used questionnaires to collect information from the mothers on their background, beliefs about parenting and education, and home literacy practices.

Results: The results revealed that Puerto Rican mothers held both traditional and progressive beliefs. Additionally, differences between the mothers of children in the HEC and SEC groups were observed on some of the measures of beliefs and practices. Relationships between beliefs and practices were not observed.

Implications: The findings demonstrated that Puerto Rican mothers integrated aspects of both the Puerto Rican culture and the mainstream culture of the U.S. mainland into their views concering child rearing and education. Implications for practice are discussed.

KEY WORDS: parental beliefs, literacy practices, bilingualism, Latino, multicultural issues

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