Parents provided information during a computer-assisted telephone interview. The parent interview was conducted primarily in English, but provisions were made to interview parents who spoke other languages. Parents were asked to provide information on how often in a week a family member reads to their child (ranging from never to every day). Parents were also asked to provide information on their children's health. Specifically, parents were asked to rate their child's general health from poor to excellent.⁸ The following information presented in this report also comes from the parent interview: poverty status of the household, confirmation of the children's race/ethnicity, how frequently children are read to and children's general health. More information on how each of these was asked in the parent interview can be found in the Methodology and Technical Notes section.

8 This measure of general health has been used extensively in national surveys (e.g., the National Health Interview Survey). Research suggests that children who are rated in fair to poor health are more likely to have restricted activity due to health problems as compared with children in very good to excellent health (Ries and Brown 1991). This indicator of child health is one of the key indicators reported by the Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics (2001).

<< back    >> next