Results from a new survey released this week (Mar. 22) by the UK’s National Literacy Trust shows a stark contrast between mothers and fathers’ attitudes toward kids’ reading skills.
In a survey of 1,000 UK parents with kids aged 3 to 5, 37% of fathers said they were the most important figure when it came to their children’s literacy—and nearly as many said their spouse was the most important force.
Among mothers, on the other hand, 71.5% said they were the ones most responsible. Only 1.8% said their spouses were.
The nonprofit, which promotes literacy, surveyed 479 male parents and 521 female parents. Participants were overwhelmingly white, with an average age of 37.
Among both groups of parents, about a quarter said a third-party adult like a teacher was the most important influence.
Image by dani0010 on Flickr, licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.