Do Parents Shape or Respond? Evidence for a Child-Driven Model of Literary Venue Engagement across Cultures

Do Parents Shape or Respond? 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Evidence for a Child-Driven Model of Literary Venue Engagement across Cultures Thomas E. Dickins, Kimmo Eriksson This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-7392543/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Under Review Version 1 posted 7 You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Background Sex differences in literacy behaviors are consistently observed across cultures, but their developmental origins remain contested: Do they emerge through top-down parental socialization, or from child-driven preferences that shape parental engagement? This study examines these competing models of how the home literacy environment (HLE) develops. Methods Using data from the 2009 and 2018 waves of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), we conducted mediation analyses with over 82,000 parent-child dyads across 14 countries. We examined sex differences in children's enjoyment of bookstore/library visits and parental frequency of taking children to such venues, controlling for parental enjoyment and children's reading and mathematics achievement. Results Across all participating countries, parents reported taking daughters to bookstores or libraries more frequently than sons, and girls reported greater enjoyment of such visits. Mediation analysis revealed a stark asymmetry: children's enjoyment was statistically associated with mediating 62.3% of the sex difference in parental behavior, while parental behavior was associated with mediating only 6.0% of the sex difference in children's enjoyment. This more than ten-fold difference remained robust even after comprehensive controls. Cross-cultural analysis revealed that the magnitude of these sex differences is largest in the most gender-egalitarian societies, with greater child autonomy as the underlying mechanism for this "gender-equality paradox." Conclusions These findings support a child-driven model in which parental engagement responds to children's demonstrated interests rather than primarily shaping them. The results highlight the central role of child motivation and suggest that interventions, particularly for boys, should focus on cultivating intrinsic interest and supporting responsive parenting. sex differences parental investment reading engagement parent-offspring coadaptation cross-cultural analysis Figures Figure 1 Figure 2 Figure 3 Educational Impact and Implications Statement This study challenges the common assumption that parents primarily shape their children's reading habits through encouragement and activities. Instead, our findings indicate that children's own interests and enjoyment drive parents to provide more reading opportunities—suggesting that effective literacy interventions should focus first on sparking children's intrinsic motivation. Background The home literacy environment (HLE)—comprising the resources and parent-led activities that support children's reading—is widely considered a crucial factor in literacy development. However, the causal direction of this relationship is a subject of ongoing debate. It is often assumed that parents shape their children's literacy engagement through the HLE, yet it is equally plausible that parents are primarily responding to their children's pre-existing interests. This distinction has significant implications for both the theoretical understanding of literacy development and the design of effective interventions. The "parent-shaping" model has traditionally been dominant in educational research. This framework posits that parents are the primary drivers of their children's literacy skills, with the HLE serving as the main mechanism for this influence. A substantial body of evidence supports this view: large-scale studies consistently show that parent-led activities, such as joint reading and library visits, predict children's later reading habits and comprehension (Pfost & Heyne, 2023 ). Furthermore, parental attitudes toward reading and the number of books in the home are significant predictors of academic attainment, and the HLE appears to mediate the effects of parents' own educational backgrounds on their children's success (Niklas et al., 2020 ; Park, 2008 ). However, several lines of inquiry have challenged this unidirectional model. Some research suggests that the HLE may be a correlate, rather than a direct cause, of children's literacy, as its predictive power diminishes when controlling for factors like parents' own linguistic abilities (Puglisi et al., 2017 ). Moreover, a child's self-reported interest in literacy has been shown to be a powerful predictor of their skills, even after accounting for HLE and socioeconomic status (Carroll et al., 2019 ). These findings suggest a more complex, bidirectional relationship, in which children are active agents in their own learning environments. Children's interest in literacy has been shown to correlate with the quality of their HLE, and engaged parents appear to further encourage their children's existing interests, suggesting a dynamic feedback loop rather than a one-way influence (Yeo et al., 2014 ). The direction of this relationship has significant implications for intervention design: strategies targeting parents may be insufficient if they do not also account for child motivation. The consistent finding that girls outperform boys on literacy measures across diverse cultures provides a particularly revealing test case for examining these competing models (Chiu & McBride-Chang, 2006 ; Voyer & Voyer, 2014 ). Explanations often rely on the parent-shaping framework, attributing the gap to differential parental treatment (Gurgand et al., 2025 ; Højen et al., 2022 ; Nalipay et al., 2020 ). An alternative, child-driven explanation posits that the gap may originate from sex-differentiated preferences, as boys often show greater interest in activities that compete with the sedentary behaviors associated with reading (Below et al., 2010 ; Gambell & Hunter, 1999 ). If children are indeed active agents in their development, these different preferences should elicit different parental responses. Cross-cultural research offers a unique opportunity to test these models. If sex differences in literacy engagement reflect arbitrary cultural stereotypes, one would expect substantial variation across cultures. If they reflect more fundamental differences in children's interests, greater consistency would be expected. Furthermore, cross-cultural data allows for an investigation of the "gender-equality paradox"—the finding that some sex differences are larger, not smaller, in more egalitarian societies (Falk & Hermle, 2018; Schmitt, 2015). This phenomenon suggests that when social constraints are reduced, underlying individual differences may be more freely expressed, providing a natural experiment for testing whether observed differences reflect imposed social roles or intrinsic preferences. More specifically, this effect may not be driven by gender equality in the abstract, but by a deeper cultural emphasis on personal autonomy. In societies that encourage children to discover and pursue their own individual interests, rather than conform to prescribed roles, one would expect intrinsic, sex-differentiated preferences to become most pronounced. This provides an even more precise test: the largest differences should emerge not just in egalitarian societies, but in those that most value self-determination. The Present Study The present study leverages a vast, cross-cultural dataset from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) to directly test these competing parent-shaping versus child-driven models in the domain of bookstore and library use—a key proxy for reading engagement. Bookstore and library visits represent an ideal testing ground because they require active parental investment while simultaneously reflecting children's preferences for literary environments. We ask: Do parents take daughters to bookstores or libraries more often because they are actively shaping them according to gender role expectations, or do they do so in response to their daughters demonstrating greater intrinsic enjoyment? Critically, our design examines 15-year-old adolescents, an age when literacy preferences are well-established. This allows us to test whether the proposed child-driven dynamics are observable even in adolescence, though we cannot determine whether similar patterns would emerge during early childhood when preferences may be more malleable. Specifically, we test three core hypotheses. Universal sex differences hypothesis Sex differences in the enjoyment of visiting bookstores or libraries (with girls reporting higher enjoyment than boys) and parental behavior (with parents reporting more frequent visits with daughters than sons) will be consistent across cultures. Child-driven mediation hypothesis Children's enjoyment of bookstore or library visits will be statistically associated with greater mediation of the sex difference in parental behavior than the reverse pathway, consistent with (but not proving) a child-driven model. Cultural moderation hypothesis The magnitude of these sex differences will be systematically related to cultural values, particularly those promoting individual autonomy. By testing these hypotheses across dozens of countries using data from over 84,000 parent-child dyads, this study provides a large-scale test of child-driven versus parent-shaping models, advancing both theoretical understanding and practical approaches to fostering literacy engagement in all children. Methods This study was not preregistered. Large language models (Google’s Gemini and Anthropic’s Claude) were used to edit the text for readability and style and to generate the Supplementary Tables from SPSS output. Participants Data came from the 2009 and 2018 waves of PISA, focusing on countries where both parent and student questionnaires were available. The 2009 wave included 14 countries with complete data for mediation analyses (Chile, Germany, Denmark, Hong Kong, Croatia, Hungary, Italy, Korea, Lithuania, Macao-China, New Zealand, Panama, Portugal, and Qatar), comprising 82,470 parent-child dyads. The 2018 wave provided additional data for examining the consistency of parental behavior patterns across time. Countries varied considerably in their economic development, educational systems, and cultural values, providing substantial diversity for testing cross-cultural patterns. Main Measures Parental Bookstore/Library Visits. This measure was taken from the PISA parent questionnaire, which asked: "How often do you or someone else in your home do the following things with your child?". One of the listed activities was "Go to a bookstore or library with your child". Responses were given on a 4-point scale: Never or hardly ever (coded 1), Once or twice a month (2), Once or twice a week (3), and Every day or almost every day (4). This item was available in both the 2009 and 2018 waves. Child Bookstore/Library Enjoyment. This measure was taken from the 2009 student questionnaire, which included the item: "I enjoy going to a bookstore or a library". Students responded on a 4-point scale: Strongly disagree (coded 1), Disagree (2), Agree (3), and Strongly agree (4). This item was only available in the 2009 wave. Controls Parental Bookstore/Library Enjoyment. This measure was taken from the 2009 parent questionnaire, which included the item: "I enjoy going to a bookstore or a library". Parents responded on a 4-point scale: Strongly disagree (coded 1), Disagree (2), Agree (3), and Strongly agree (4). This item was only available in the 2009 wave. Academic Achievement. PISA measures student achievement in three core domains (OECD, 2012 ). Reading literacy is defined as an individual’s capacity to understand, use, and reflect on written texts in order to achieve one’s goals, develop one’s knowledge and potential, and participate in society. Mathematics literacy is defined as an individual’s capacity to formulate, employ, and interpret mathematics in a variety of contexts to describe, predict, and explain phenomena. Because students in the PISA assessment answer only a subset of the total item pool, individual proficiency is reported as a set of five "plausible values" for each subject. These values are random draws from the estimated distribution of a student's ability, and they are considered the most accurate way to estimate population-level statistics. For the analyses in this study, the first plausible value was used to represent student achievement in both reading and mathematics. Country-Level Cultural Indices The World Values Survey includes several important indices, including the Equality Index , measuring the extent to which people think men and women should be treated equally with respect to jobs, politics, and university education, and the Autonomy Index , measuring the extent to which people think it is more important that children develop independence and determination than obedience and religious faith (Welzel, 2013). Data on these indices from countries around the world are publicly available from the World Values Survey (Haerpfer et al., 2022 ) and the European Values Study (EVS, 2021 ). For each index we use the country’s mean value in the most recent wave in which the country participated. Analysis Plan To test our first hypothesis regarding sex differences, we calculated the mean response for Parental Bookstore/Library Visits and Child Bookstore/Library Enjoyment separately for boys and girls in each country. We then calculated Cohen's d for the sex difference in each country using the pooled standard deviation to provide a standardized measure of the effect size. To test our second hypothesis regarding mediation, we used the 2009 dataset and specified two mixed-effects models with random intercepts and random slopes for each country. As a robustness check, we also included Parental Bookstore/Library Enjoyment as a control in the same analyses. Testing the Child-Driven Statistical Pathway : We first modeled the effect of student sex on Parental Bookstore/Library Visits. We then added Child Bookstore/Library Enjoyment to the model to observe the percentage of the sex effect on parental visits that is statistically mediated by children's enjoyment. Testing the Alternative Parent-Shaping Statistical Pathway : In parallel to the previous analysis, we first modeled the effect of student sex on Child Bookstore/Library Enjoyment. We then added Parental Bookstore/Library Visits to the model to observe the percentage of the sex effect on children's enjoyment that is statistically mediated by parental visits. Importantly, these models test statistical mediation patterns that are consistent with causal theories, but cannot establish causation due to the cross-sectional nature of the data. Finally, to explore the gender-equality paradox, we correlated the country-level effect sizes (Cohen's d ) with the Equality and Autonomy indexes from the World Values Survey using linear regression. Results Cross-Cultural Sex Differences in Children's Bookstore/Library Enjoyment Consistent with Hypothesis 1, our analysis revealed cross-culturally robust sex differences in children's bookstore/library enjoyment. Girls reported greater enjoyment than boys in every country with available data, with a large average effect size (mean Cohen's d = 0.53). To contextualize this effect size: approximately 59% of girls versus 37% of boys reported agreeing or strongly agreeing that they enjoy visiting bookstores or libraries, representing a substantial practical difference in engagement. Figure 1 illustrates how effect sizes were distributed across the globe. Cross-Cultural Sex Differences in Parental Bookstore/Library Visits Supporting Hypothesis 1, parents reported taking daughters to bookstores or libraries more frequently than sons across all examined countries and survey waves (mean Cohen's d = 0.17 in both 2009 and 2018). The consistency in direction suggests a widespread pattern of sex differences in literary environment engagement. This effect size corresponds to approximately 54% of parents reporting taking daughters versus 45% taking sons to these venues at least once or twice monthly. Mediation Analysis: Evaluating Competing Statistical Pathways Statistical mediation analysis using 2009 data revealed patterns consistent with the child-driven pathway over the parent-shaping alternative. Mixed-effects models with random intercepts and slopes for each country revealed a substantial asymmetry in the mediating effects of the two proposed pathways (see Supplementary Table S1 for complete model details). In the child-driven pathway, children's reported enjoyment of bookstores/libraries was statistically associated with mediation of 62.3% of the sex effect on parental visits. The total effect of child sex on parental visits (unstandardized coefficient B = 0.17, SE = 0.01, p < .001) was reduced to a direct effect of B = 0.06 (SE = 0.01, p < .001) when child enjoyment was included as a mediator. The indirect effect through child enjoyment was B = 0.10. In contrast, the alternative parent-shaping pathway showed minimal statistical mediation. Parental visits were associated with mediation of only 6.0% of the sex effect on children's enjoyment. While the total effect of child sex on enjoyment was substantial (B = 0.54, SE = 0.04, p < .001), this was only slightly reduced to B = 0.50 (SE = 0.04, p < .001) when parental visits were included as a mediator, yielding a small indirect effect of B = 0.03. Robustness Check To ensure that our findings were not confounded by sex differences in academic ability or unmeasured parental characteristics, we conducted a comprehensive robustness check using standardized variables and controlling simultaneously for parental bookstore/library enjoyment, reading achievement, and mathematics achievement. This is particularly important given that girls typically outperform boys in reading, which could potentially explain both their greater enjoyment of literary venues and their parents' increased likelihood of taking them to such places. Even under these stringent controls, the child-driven pattern remained dominant. Children's enjoyment mediated 51.1% of the sex difference in parental behavior, while parental behavior mediated only 4.7% of the sex difference in children's enjoyment—maintaining more than a ten-fold difference in mediation strength (see Supplementary Table S2 for complete results). The control variables revealed theoretically meaningful patterns: reading achievement positively predicted both bookstore/library enjoyment and parental visits, while mathematics achievement negatively predicted parental visits (β = -0.061, p < .001) but showed no significant relationship with children's enjoyment (β = -0.018, p = .280). This suggests that parents may direct children with stronger mathematical aptitudes toward activities that compete with literary venue visits. Parental enjoyment emerged as a strong predictor of visits (β = 0.275, p < .001), confirming that our findings are not simply due to unmeasured parental characteristics. These comprehensive controls strengthen confidence in the child-driven interpretation of literacy engagement patterns. Cross-National Variation in Effect Sizes The magnitude of sex differences in bookstore/library enjoyment varied across countries (see Fig. 1 ). The largest effects (Cohen's d > 0.75) were observed in Nordic and Baltic nations, while the smallest differences (Cohen's d < 0.25) appeared in several countries in Latin America and Southeast Asia. Correlations between national-level values and effect sizes suggested that these differences may be shaped in part by cultural factors. The Autonomy Index, which captures societal endorsement of child independence over obedience, was strongly correlated with the size of the sex difference (r = 0.60, p < .001); see Fig. 3 . The Equality Index also showed a moderate association with the size of the sex difference (r = 0.41, p = .002). However, in a joint model only autonomy remained a significant predictor (standardized coefficient β = 0.52, p < .001 for autonomy; β = 0.17, p = .18 for equality). Discussion This study contributes to a growing body of evidence suggesting that the home literacy environment (HLE) may be shaped by a dynamic interplay between child preferences and parental responsiveness rather than following a simple unidirectional model. Across diverse countries and timepoints, girls were consistently more likely to enjoy bookstore/library visits and to be taken there more frequently by their parents. Statistical mediation analyses using data from over 84,000 parent-child dyads indicated patterns consistent with children's own enjoyment being a stronger predictor of parental behavior than the reverse pathway. However, it is crucial to emphasize that this interpretation rests on several assumptions about causal direction that cannot be definitively tested with cross-sectional data. Alternative explanations remain possible, including unmeasured third variables that influence both child preferences and parental behavior, or reverse causation occurring earlier in development than captured by our 15-year-old sample. Challenging the Parent-Shaping Model These findings challenge the dominant parent-shaping model that has long guided both research and intervention in literacy development. Instead of parents primarily driving their children's engagement through environmental provision, our results align with a more bidirectional or child-driven framework in which parents actively respond to and support their children's existing interests. This responsive pattern suggests that what we often interpret as parental influence may actually reflect parents' sensitivity to their children's demonstrated preferences and aptitudes. The fact that this child-driven statistical pathway held even after accounting for parents' own reading enjoyment further strengthens this conclusion, indicating that parents may be responding to their child's specific interests rather than simply modeling their own behaviors or imposing uniform expectations across children. This is not to argue that parental socialization is unimportant, but rather that its role may be more responsive and amplifying than initiating. Parents clearly play a crucial role in literacy development, but our findings suggest this role may be less about creating interests from scratch and more about recognizing, nurturing, and providing opportunities for interests that children already demonstrate. It is plausible that these dynamics vary across development—parent-shaping effects may be more influential during early childhood when preferences are still forming, while child-driven effects become increasingly dominant as children's own interests solidify and they gain more agency in expressing their preferences. Further supporting evidence for this responsive framework comes from our robustness check, which revealed how parental behavior appears attuned to children’s specific academic profiles. As expected, reading achievement was a positive predictor of bookstore/library engagement. In contrast, mathematics achievement negatively predicted bookstore/library visits, even after controlling for reading ability. This suggests that parents may be responding not only to children's literary interests but also to their broader academic strengths—directing children with strong mathematical aptitudes toward STEM-related activities that compete with literary engagement. This pattern exemplifies how children's demonstrated strengths in different domains may guide parental investment decisions in specialized directions. The Nature of Literary Venue Engagement The typical bookstore and library environment (i.e., quiet, structured, and emphasizing sustained attention to narrative and informational content) may align more closely with behavioral patterns that, on average, girls find more naturally appealing. This contrasts with more physically active, competitive, or dynamic environments that may hold greater appeal for boys on average. Importantly, these are statistical tendencies, not universal rules, and the substantial individual variation within each sex underscores the importance of responding to each child's unique profile rather than making assumptions based on group membership alone. While these venues often share a common atmosphere, the conflation of bookstores and libraries in our measure limits our ability to distinguish between them. Bookstores involve purchasing and ownership, potentially appealing to different motivations than library borrowing. Future research should examine these venues separately to understand whether the patterns we observe generalize across different types of literary engagement. Ultimately, what is most striking is that despite these specific environmental characteristics or measurement limitations, the patterns are remarkably consistent across dramatically different cultural contexts, from Nordic social democracies to developing economies. This suggests that the underlying preferences may reflect more than arbitrary cultural conditioning. While cultural factors clearly shape how these preferences are expressed and reinforced, the universal direction of the sex difference points to influences that transcend specific socialization practices. The Gender-Equality Paradox and the Central Role of Autonomy-Promoting Culture If the observed sex differences were purely the product of arbitrary cultural gender stereotypes, one would expect the effect to diminish or even reverse in societies with higher levels of gender equality. Our findings reveal the opposite pattern. The fact that the female advantage in bookstore/library enjoyment held across every country examined is, in itself, a challenge to a simple cultural conditioning model. More strikingly, the sex difference was actually largest in the most gender-egalitarian nations, providing a compelling example of the 'gender-equality paradox' (Falk & Hermle, 2018). Our results further suggest a mechanism to explain this seemingly counterintuitive finding. We found that a nation's emphasis on child autonomy (valuing independence and determination over obedience and religious faith) was a stronger predictor of the sex difference in bookstore/library engagement (r = 0.60) than a general measure of gender equality (r = 0.41), and it renders the effect of the equality index non-significant in regression models. This pattern suggests that the crucial cultural factor magnifying these sex differences is not merely the presence of equal opportunities for adults, but a cultural ethos that encourages children to discover and pursue their own intrinsic interests without external constraint. This finding has important theoretical implications for understanding the relationship between culture and individual development. Rather than cultural freedom simply allowing random variation to emerge, our results suggest that reduced social constraints may systematically reveal underlying individual differences that are otherwise suppressed. This finding aligns with broader research demonstrating that individual differences in personality traits are amplified in societies that provide greater behavioral freedom (Haas et al., 2023 ). It is precisely in such autonomy-valuing cultures that we would expect child-driven effects to be strongest and, consequently, for sex-differentiated preferences to be most fully expressed. Practical Implications These findings have important practical implications for educators, parents, and policymakers. If parental behavior is largely a response to child interest, as our analysis suggests, then early reading gaps may not be easily corrected by interventions that target parents alone. Simply encouraging parents to "read more to their sons" may be ineffective if children do not demonstrate initial interest for parents to foster and amplify. Instead, our findings suggest that interventions should begin by cultivating intrinsic motivation in children themselves, particularly boys who consistently report lower reading enjoyment and confidence. For one thing, libraries and schools could develop programming that connects reading to diverse interests; for example, the UK's "Premier League Reading Stars" program that connects football with reading has shown promise in improving engagement among reluctant readers (See et al., 2019 ). For another, curricula could offer diverse entry points including graphic novels, non-fiction, technology-enabled exploration, or more interactive formats that appeal to children with varying preferences. Third, rather than prescriptive "read to your child" directives, parent education could focus on recognizing and responding to early signs of interest and providing diverse literacy experiences that allow different preferences to emerge. It is also possible that creating literary spaces that accommodate different engagement styles—including more active, social, or technology-integrated approaches—could help reduce engagement gaps. Importantly, this does not mean abandoning efforts to enhance the HLE, but rather reframing such efforts around responsiveness rather than prescription. Supporting parents in amplifying whatever engagement their children do demonstrate could be more effective than standardized approaches that assume uniform interests across children. Limitations While this study offers robust cross-cultural evidence and benefits from an exceptionally large sample, several limitations should be acknowledged. First, the PISA item conflates "bookstore or library" visits, preventing us from distinguishing between these fundamentally different literary activities. Bookstores involve purchasing and ownership, while libraries emphasize borrowing and community access. This conflation limits our ability to make specific claims about library engagement versus commercial book purchasing. Second, although statistical mediation models offer insight into plausible pathways, the correlational nature of the data precludes definitive causal claims about the direction of influence. The patterns we observe are consistent with child-driven effects but could also result from unmeasured confounders or reverse causation. Third, our analysis captures only a single developmental timepoint when children are 15 years old. By this age, literacy preferences are well-established, making it difficult to determine whether observed patterns reflect early childhood dynamics or later developmental processes. Longitudinal approaches beginning in early childhood would be better suited to disentangling these reciprocal effects as they unfold developmentally. Fourth, the measures rely on self-reports and retrospective parental judgments, which may introduce reporting bias or social desirability effects. Parents may be influenced by social expectations when reporting their behaviors, potentially inflating reports of educational activities. Finally, while our findings support a model of dynamic influence within the HLE, the focus on bookstore/library engagement represents only one aspect of the broader literacy environment. The extent to which these child-driven patterns generalize to other literacy activities—such as bedtime reading, storytelling, or educational games—remains an empirical question. Future Directions Building on these findings, future work could pursue several complementary avenues. For example, research beginning in early childhood could track how children's preferences and parental behaviors evolve in tandem over time, offering deeper insight into the reciprocal dynamics of HLE development and testing whether early manifestations of interest predict later parental investment patterns. Studies could examine bookstores and libraries separately, and include additional literacy activities to test the generalizability of child-driven patterns across different aspects of the HLE. Detailed ethnographic work could illuminate the micro-processes through which child-driven effects operate and identify the specific cues that parents use to gauge their children's interests. Experimental interventions could include testing strategies to foster reading engagement—particularly among boys—by targeting motivational pathways. Conclusions This study suggests that early sex differences in literary engagement—often framed as straightforward outcomes of parental socialization—may instead reflect a more complex, reciprocal process in which children's own preferences actively shape the environments that parents create for them. Girls' consistently higher reported enjoyment of bookstore/library visits across diverse cultural contexts appears to be associated with greater parental investment in such activities, rather than simply resulting from differential treatment. This pattern points toward a child-driven model of HLE development that challenges traditional assumptions about the primary direction of influence in parent-child literacy interactions. These findings have important implications for both theory and practice. Theoretically, they suggest that effective HLEs may emerge less from parents imposing activities on children and more from parents recognizing, responding to, and amplifying their children's demonstrated interests and aptitudes. Practically, they imply that interventions aimed at reducing reading gaps may be most successful when they begin by understanding and cultivating children's intrinsic motivations while also supporting responsive parental behaviors. The cross-cultural consistency of these patterns, combined with their amplification in autonomy-promoting cultures, suggests that the underlying preferences may reflect more than arbitrary social conditioning. By viewing literacy development through the lens of a responsive HLE—one that emerges from the dynamic interplay between child signals and parental responsiveness—we move beyond simplistic nature-versus-nurture debates toward a more integrative understanding of how individual differences and environmental supports co-construct early educational experiences. This perspective offers promising directions for creating more effective, individually responsive approaches to fostering literacy engagement in all children. Declarations Ethics approval and consent to participate Not applicable. This study only uses anonymous secondary data. Consent for publication Not applicable. Availability of data and materials The datasets supporting the conclusions of this article, as well as the PISA questionnaires, are available in the OSF repository, https://osf.io/nzdm2/?view_only=c538c429c3f346709b80721c4ee669c5. Competing interests The authors declare that they have no competing interests. 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B. (2020). Why do girls do better in reading than boys? How parental emotional contagion explains gender differences in reading achievement. Psychology in the Schools , 57 (2), 310–319. https://doi.org/10.1002/pits.22330 Niklas, F., Wirth, A., Guffler, S., Drescher, N., & Ehmig, S. C. (2020). The Home Literacy Environment as a Mediator Between Parental Attitudes Toward Shared Reading and Children’s Linguistic Competencies. Frontiers in Psychology , 11 . https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01628 OECD. (2012). PISA 2009 technical report . OECD Publishing. https://www.oecd.org/pisa/pisaproducts/50036771.pdf Park, H. (2008). Home literacy environments and children’s reading performance: A comparative study of 25 countries. Educational Research and Evaluation , 14 (6), 489–505. https://doi.org/10.1080/13803610802576734 Pfost, M., & Heyne, N. (2023). Joint book reading, library visits and letter teaching in families: Relations to parent education and children’s reading behavior. Reading and Writing , 36 (10), 2627–2647. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-022-10389-w Puglisi, M. L., Hulme, C., Hamilton, L. G., & Snowling, M. J. (2017). The Home Literacy Environment Is a Correlate, but Perhaps Not a Cause, of Variations in Children’s Language and Literacy Development. Scientific Studies of Reading , 21 (6), 498–514. https://doi.org/10.1080/10888438.2017.1346660 See, B.H and Gorard, S. and Morris, R. and Siddiqui, N. (2019) 'Evaluation of the National Literacy Trust's Literacy for Life programme.', Project Report. Durham University Evidence Centre for Education, Durham. https://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/161911/ Tok, Ö., & Canatar, M. (2025). Parental Attitudes Toward Supporting Early Literacy and the Role of Library Use in Children’s Literacy Development. Public Library Quarterly , 1–24. https://doi.org/10.1080/01616846.2025.2515802 Voyer, D., & Voyer, S. D. (2014). Gender differences in scholastic achievement: A meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin , 140 (4), 1174–1204. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0036620 Yeo, L. S., Ong, W. W., & Ng, C. M. (2014). The Home Literacy Environment and Preschool Children’s Reading Skills and Interest. Early Education and Development , 25 (6), 791–814. https://doi.org/10.1080/10409289.2014.862147 Zhang, S., Inoue, T., & Georgiou, G. K. (2024). Is There a Genetic Confound in the Relation of Home Literacy Environment with Children’s Reading Skills? A Familial Control Method Approach. Reading Research Quarterly , 59 (3), 408–423. https://doi.org/10.1002/rrq.553 Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Supplementary Files SupplementaryInformation.docx Cite Share Download PDF Status: Under Review Version 1 posted Reviews received at journal 25 Sep, 2025 Reviewers agreed at journal 16 Sep, 2025 Reviewers invited by journal 16 Sep, 2025 Editor invited by journal 21 Aug, 2025 Editor assigned by journal 18 Aug, 2025 Submission checks completed at journal 18 Aug, 2025 First submitted to journal 17 Aug, 2025 You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. 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13:13:09","extension":"html","order_by":11,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":91297,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"earlyproof.html","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7392543/v1/7f347a9a908dd053e1195338.html"},{"id":92088519,"identity":"d7a44139-abdc-4289-bcda-afd5cc574025","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-09-24 13:13:09","extension":"png","order_by":1,"title":"Figure 1","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"figure","size":249732,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eEffect sizes for sex differences in students' self-reported enjoyment of visiting bookstores or libraries across countries in the PISA dataset.\u003c/strong\u003e Positive values indicate higher enjoyment reported by girls than boys. The female advantage is consistently positive across all countries but varies in magnitude; the largest effects occur in Nordic and Baltic countries, while the smallest differences are seen in parts of Latin America and Southeast Asia.\u003c/p\u003e","description":"","filename":"floatimage1.png","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7392543/v1/4909e2d8e31acfb90f588d25.png"},{"id":92086714,"identity":"1d0265e4-b281-49fe-9fdf-82c6379dd509","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-09-24 13:05:09","extension":"png","order_by":2,"title":"Figure 2","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"figure","size":29996,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eStatistical mediation model testing the child-driven pathway for the observed sex differences in bookstore/library engagement.\u003c/strong\u003e The total effect of sex on parental visits (c = 0.17) is substantially reduced to a direct effect of c' = 0.06 when children's enjoyment is included as a mediator, indicating that 62.3% of the sex difference in parental behavior is statistically mediated by children's enjoyment. *** p \u0026lt; .001.\u003c/p\u003e","description":"","filename":"floatimage2.png","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7392543/v1/387402b13bad4a479bf9d70d.png"},{"id":92086716,"identity":"6e310227-1732-49b5-afb0-e5e968fa22db","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-09-24 13:05:09","extension":"png","order_by":3,"title":"Figure 3","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"figure","size":40444,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eCultural moderation.\u003c/strong\u003eThe scatter plot shows the relationship between national Autonomy Index scores (World Values Survey) and the magnitude of sex differences (Cohen's d) in students' enjoyment of bookstore or library visits. The positive association (r = 0.60) indicates that countries placing greater cultural value on child autonomy tend to exhibit larger sex differences, supporting the hypothesis that autonomy-promoting cultures amplify intrinsic, sex-differentiated preferences.\u003c/p\u003e","description":"","filename":"floatimage3.png","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7392543/v1/6a6d263cb81ad86021c24e42.png"},{"id":92090010,"identity":"b72cf9a4-615c-4feb-bfb1-9700d7741f83","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-09-24 13:29:10","extension":"pdf","order_by":0,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":1200203,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"manuscript.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7392543/v1/aa2df3f9-ddec-4968-9343-e996827e42c4.pdf"},{"id":92086715,"identity":"a3c8a097-3464-41a2-8919-2726aec4a52e","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-09-24 13:05:09","extension":"docx","order_by":0,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"supplement","size":33207,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"SupplementaryInformation.docx","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7392543/v1/4f67e6f73e008ca523b30341.docx"}],"financialInterests":"No competing interests reported.","formattedTitle":"Do Parents Shape or Respond? Evidence for a Child-Driven Model of Literary Venue Engagement across Cultures","fulltext":[{"header":"Educational Impact and Implications Statement","content":"\u003cp\u003eThis study challenges the common assumption that parents primarily shape their children\u0026apos;s reading habits through encouragement and activities. Instead, our findings indicate that children\u0026apos;s own interests and enjoyment drive parents to provide more reading opportunities\u0026mdash;suggesting that effective literacy interventions should focus first on sparking children\u0026apos;s intrinsic motivation.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e"},{"header":"Background","content":"\u003cp\u003eThe home literacy environment (HLE)\u0026mdash;comprising the resources and parent-led activities that support children's reading\u0026mdash;is widely considered a crucial factor in literacy development. However, the causal direction of this relationship is a subject of ongoing debate. It is often assumed that parents shape their children's literacy engagement through the HLE, yet it is equally plausible that parents are primarily responding to their children's pre-existing interests. This distinction has significant implications for both the theoretical understanding of literacy development and the design of effective interventions.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe \"parent-shaping\" model has traditionally been dominant in educational research. This framework posits that parents are the primary drivers of their children's literacy skills, with the HLE serving as the main mechanism for this influence. A substantial body of evidence supports this view: large-scale studies consistently show that parent-led activities, such as joint reading and library visits, predict children's later reading habits and comprehension (Pfost \u0026amp; Heyne, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR19\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2023\u003c/span\u003e). Furthermore, parental attitudes toward reading and the number of books in the home are significant predictors of academic attainment, and the HLE appears to mediate the effects of parents' own educational backgrounds on their children's success (Niklas et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR16\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2020\u003c/span\u003e; Park, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR18\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2008\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHowever, several lines of inquiry have challenged this unidirectional model. Some research suggests that the HLE may be a correlate, rather than a direct cause, of children's literacy, as its predictive power diminishes when controlling for factors like parents' own linguistic abilities (Puglisi et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR20\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2017\u003c/span\u003e). Moreover, a child's self-reported interest in literacy has been shown to be a powerful predictor of their skills, even after accounting for HLE and socioeconomic status (Carroll et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR4\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2019\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThese findings suggest a more complex, bidirectional relationship, in which children are active agents in their own learning environments. Children's interest in literacy has been shown to correlate with the quality of their HLE, and engaged parents appear to further encourage their children's existing interests, suggesting a dynamic feedback loop rather than a one-way influence (Yeo et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR24\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2014\u003c/span\u003e). The direction of this relationship has significant implications for intervention design: strategies targeting parents may be insufficient if they do not also account for child motivation.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe consistent finding that girls outperform boys on literacy measures across diverse cultures provides a particularly revealing test case for examining these competing models (Chiu \u0026amp; McBride-Chang, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR5\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2006\u003c/span\u003e; Voyer \u0026amp; Voyer, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR23\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2014\u003c/span\u003e). Explanations often rely on the parent-shaping framework, attributing the gap to differential parental treatment (Gurgand et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR10\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2025\u003c/span\u003e; H\u0026oslash;jen et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR13\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2022\u003c/span\u003e; Nalipay et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR15\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2020\u003c/span\u003e). An alternative, child-driven explanation posits that the gap may originate from sex-differentiated preferences, as boys often show greater interest in activities that compete with the sedentary behaviors associated with reading (Below et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR2\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2010\u003c/span\u003e; Gambell \u0026amp; Hunter, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR9\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e1999\u003c/span\u003e). If children are indeed active agents in their development, these different preferences should elicit different parental responses.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eCross-cultural research offers a unique opportunity to test these models. If sex differences in literacy engagement reflect arbitrary cultural stereotypes, one would expect substantial variation across cultures. If they reflect more fundamental differences in children's interests, greater consistency would be expected. Furthermore, cross-cultural data allows for an investigation of the \"gender-equality paradox\"\u0026mdash;the finding that some sex differences are larger, not smaller, in more egalitarian societies (Falk \u0026amp; Hermle, 2018; Schmitt, 2015). This phenomenon suggests that when social constraints are reduced, underlying individual differences may be more freely expressed, providing a natural experiment for testing whether observed differences reflect imposed social roles or intrinsic preferences. More specifically, this effect may not be driven by gender equality in the abstract, but by a deeper cultural emphasis on personal autonomy. In societies that encourage children to discover and pursue their own individual interests, rather than conform to prescribed roles, one would expect intrinsic, sex-differentiated preferences to become most pronounced. This provides an even more precise test: the largest differences should emerge not just in egalitarian societies, but in those that most value self-determination.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eThe Present Study\u003c/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe present study leverages a vast, cross-cultural dataset from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) to directly test these competing parent-shaping versus child-driven models in the domain of bookstore and library use\u0026mdash;a key proxy for reading engagement.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBookstore and library visits represent an ideal testing ground because they require active parental investment while simultaneously reflecting children's preferences for literary environments. We ask: Do parents take daughters to bookstores or libraries more often because they are actively shaping them according to gender role expectations, or do they do so in response to their daughters demonstrating greater intrinsic enjoyment?\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eCritically, our design examines 15-year-old adolescents, an age when literacy preferences are well-established. This allows us to test whether the proposed child-driven dynamics are observable even in adolescence, though we cannot determine whether similar patterns would emerge during early childhood when preferences may be more malleable.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSpecifically, we test three core hypotheses.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eUniversal sex differences hypothesis\u003c/strong\u003e\u003cp\u003eSex differences in the enjoyment of visiting bookstores or libraries (with girls reporting higher enjoyment than boys) and parental behavior (with parents reporting more frequent visits with daughters than sons) will be consistent across cultures.\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eChild-driven mediation hypothesis\u003c/strong\u003e\u003cp\u003eChildren's enjoyment of bookstore or library visits will be statistically associated with greater mediation of the sex difference in parental behavior than the reverse pathway, consistent with (but not proving) a child-driven model.\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eCultural moderation hypothesis\u003c/strong\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe magnitude of these sex differences will be systematically related to cultural values, particularly those promoting individual autonomy.\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBy testing these hypotheses across dozens of countries using data from over 84,000 parent-child dyads, this study provides a large-scale test of child-driven versus parent-shaping models, advancing both theoretical understanding and practical approaches to fostering literacy engagement in all children.\u003c/p\u003e"},{"header":"Methods","content":"\u003cdiv id=\"Sec3\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis study was not preregistered. Large language models (Google\u0026rsquo;s Gemini and Anthropic\u0026rsquo;s Claude) were used to edit the text for readability and style and to generate the Supplementary Tables from SPSS output.\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003ch2\u003eParticipants\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eData came from the 2009 and 2018 waves of PISA, focusing on countries where both parent and student questionnaires were available. The 2009 wave included 14 countries with complete data for mediation analyses (Chile, Germany, Denmark, Hong Kong, Croatia, Hungary, Italy, Korea, Lithuania, Macao-China, New Zealand, Panama, Portugal, and Qatar), comprising 82,470 parent-child dyads. The 2018 wave provided additional data for examining the consistency of parental behavior patterns across time. Countries varied considerably in their economic development, educational systems, and cultural values, providing substantial diversity for testing cross-cultural patterns.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eMain Measures\u003c/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eParental Bookstore/Library Visits.\u003c/b\u003e This measure was taken from the PISA parent questionnaire, which asked: \"How often do you or someone else in your home do the following things with your child?\". One of the listed activities was \"Go to a bookstore or library with your child\". Responses were given on a 4-point scale: \u003cem\u003eNever or hardly ever\u003c/em\u003e (coded 1), \u003cem\u003eOnce or twice a month\u003c/em\u003e (2), \u003cem\u003eOnce or twice a week\u003c/em\u003e (3), and \u003cem\u003eEvery day or almost every day\u003c/em\u003e (4). This item was available in both the 2009 and 2018 waves.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eChild Bookstore/Library Enjoyment.\u003c/b\u003e This measure was taken from the 2009 student questionnaire, which included the item: \"I enjoy going to a bookstore or a library\". Students responded on a 4-point scale: \u003cem\u003eStrongly disagree\u003c/em\u003e (coded 1), \u003cem\u003eDisagree\u003c/em\u003e (2), \u003cem\u003eAgree\u003c/em\u003e (3), and \u003cem\u003eStrongly agree\u003c/em\u003e (4). This item was only available in the 2009 wave.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eControls\u003c/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eParental Bookstore/Library Enjoyment.\u003c/b\u003e This measure was taken from the 2009 parent questionnaire, which included the item: \"I enjoy going to a bookstore or a library\". Parents responded on a 4-point scale: \u003cem\u003eStrongly disagree\u003c/em\u003e (coded 1), \u003cem\u003eDisagree\u003c/em\u003e (2), \u003cem\u003eAgree\u003c/em\u003e (3), and \u003cem\u003eStrongly agree\u003c/em\u003e (4). This item was only available in the 2009 wave.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eAcademic Achievement.\u003c/b\u003e PISA measures student achievement in three core domains (OECD, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR17\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2012\u003c/span\u003e). Reading literacy is defined as an individual\u0026rsquo;s capacity to understand, use, and reflect on written texts in order to achieve one\u0026rsquo;s goals, develop one\u0026rsquo;s knowledge and potential, and participate in society. Mathematics literacy is defined as an individual\u0026rsquo;s capacity to formulate, employ, and interpret mathematics in a variety of contexts to describe, predict, and explain phenomena. Because students in the PISA assessment answer only a subset of the total item pool, individual proficiency is reported as a set of five \"plausible values\" for each subject. These values are random draws from the estimated distribution of a student's ability, and they are considered the most accurate way to estimate population-level statistics. For the analyses in this study, the first plausible value was used to represent student achievement in both reading and mathematics.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eCountry-Level Cultural Indices\u003c/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe World Values Survey includes several important indices, including the \u003cem\u003eEquality Index\u003c/em\u003e, measuring the extent to which people think men and women should be treated equally with respect to jobs, politics, and university education, and the \u003cem\u003eAutonomy Index\u003c/em\u003e, measuring the extent to which people think it is more important that children develop independence and determination than obedience and religious faith (Welzel, 2013). Data on these indices from countries around the world are publicly available from the World Values Survey (Haerpfer et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR12\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2022\u003c/span\u003e) and the European Values Study (EVS, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR8\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2021\u003c/span\u003e). For each index we use the country\u0026rsquo;s mean value in the most recent wave in which the country participated.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cdiv id=\"Sec8\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e\u003ch2\u003eAnalysis Plan\u003c/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eTo test our first hypothesis regarding sex differences, we calculated the mean response for Parental Bookstore/Library Visits and Child Bookstore/Library Enjoyment separately for boys and girls in each country. We then calculated Cohen's \u003cem\u003ed\u003c/em\u003e for the sex difference in each country using the pooled standard deviation to provide a standardized measure of the effect size.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTo test our second hypothesis regarding mediation, we used the 2009 dataset and specified two mixed-effects models with random intercepts and random slopes for each country. As a robustness check, we also included Parental Bookstore/Library Enjoyment as a control in the same analyses.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003col\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cli\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eTesting the Child-Driven Statistical Pathway\u003c/b\u003e: We first modeled the effect of student sex on Parental Bookstore/Library Visits. We then added Child Bookstore/Library Enjoyment to the model to observe the percentage of the sex effect on parental visits that is statistically mediated by children's enjoyment.\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cli\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eTesting the Alternative Parent-Shaping Statistical Pathway\u003c/b\u003e: In parallel to the previous analysis, we first modeled the effect of student sex on Child Bookstore/Library Enjoyment. We then added Parental Bookstore/Library Visits to the model to observe the percentage of the sex effect on children's enjoyment that is statistically mediated by parental visits.\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/ol\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eImportantly, these models test statistical mediation patterns that are consistent with causal theories, but cannot establish causation due to the cross-sectional nature of the data.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFinally, to explore the gender-equality paradox, we correlated the country-level effect sizes (Cohen's \u003cem\u003ed\u003c/em\u003e) with the Equality and Autonomy indexes from the World Values Survey using linear regression.\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e"},{"header":"Results","content":"\u003cdiv id=\"Sec10\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e\u003ch2\u003eCross-Cultural Sex Differences in Children's Bookstore/Library Enjoyment\u003c/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eConsistent with Hypothesis 1, our analysis revealed cross-culturally robust sex differences in children's bookstore/library enjoyment. Girls reported greater enjoyment than boys in every country with available data, with a large average effect size (mean Cohen's d\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.53). To contextualize this effect size: approximately 59% of girls versus 37% of boys reported agreeing or strongly agreeing that they enjoy visiting bookstores or libraries, representing a substantial practical difference in engagement. Figure\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Fig1\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e1\u003c/span\u003e illustrates how effect sizes were distributed across the globe.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv id=\"Sec11\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e\u003ch2\u003eCross-Cultural Sex Differences in Parental Bookstore/Library Visits\u003c/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eSupporting Hypothesis 1, parents reported taking daughters to bookstores or libraries more frequently than sons across all examined countries and survey waves (mean Cohen's d\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.17 in both 2009 and 2018). The consistency in direction suggests a widespread pattern of sex differences in literary environment engagement. This effect size corresponds to approximately 54% of parents reporting taking daughters versus 45% taking sons to these venues at least once or twice monthly.\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv id=\"Sec12\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e\u003ch2\u003eMediation Analysis: Evaluating Competing Statistical Pathways\u003c/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eStatistical mediation analysis using 2009 data revealed patterns consistent with the child-driven pathway over the parent-shaping alternative. Mixed-effects models with random intercepts and slopes for each country revealed a substantial asymmetry in the mediating effects of the two proposed pathways (see Supplementary Table \u003cspan refid=\"MOESM1\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003eS1\u003c/span\u003e for complete model details).\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn the child-driven pathway, children's reported enjoyment of bookstores/libraries was statistically associated with mediation of 62.3% of the sex effect on parental visits. The total effect of child sex on parental visits (unstandardized coefficient B\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.17, SE\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.01, p\u0026thinsp;\u0026lt;\u0026thinsp;.001) was reduced to a direct effect of B\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.06 (SE\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.01, p\u0026thinsp;\u0026lt;\u0026thinsp;.001) when child enjoyment was included as a mediator. The indirect effect through child enjoyment was B\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.10.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn contrast, the alternative parent-shaping pathway showed minimal statistical mediation. Parental visits were associated with mediation of only 6.0% of the sex effect on children's enjoyment. While the total effect of child sex on enjoyment was substantial (B\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.54, SE\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.04, p\u0026thinsp;\u0026lt;\u0026thinsp;.001), this was only slightly reduced to B\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.50 (SE\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.04, p\u0026thinsp;\u0026lt;\u0026thinsp;.001) when parental visits were included as a mediator, yielding a small indirect effect of B\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.03.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv id=\"Sec13\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e\u003ch2\u003eRobustness Check\u003c/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eTo ensure that our findings were not confounded by sex differences in academic ability or unmeasured parental characteristics, we conducted a comprehensive robustness check using standardized variables and controlling simultaneously for parental bookstore/library enjoyment, reading achievement, and mathematics achievement. This is particularly important given that girls typically outperform boys in reading, which could potentially explain both their greater enjoyment of literary venues and their parents' increased likelihood of taking them to such places.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eEven under these stringent controls, the child-driven pattern remained dominant. Children's enjoyment mediated 51.1% of the sex difference in parental behavior, while parental behavior mediated only 4.7% of the sex difference in children's enjoyment\u0026mdash;maintaining more than a ten-fold difference in mediation strength (see Supplementary Table S2 for complete results).\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe control variables revealed theoretically meaningful patterns: reading achievement positively predicted both bookstore/library enjoyment and parental visits, while mathematics achievement negatively predicted parental visits (β = -0.061, p\u0026thinsp;\u0026lt;\u0026thinsp;.001) but showed no significant relationship with children's enjoyment (β = -0.018, p\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;.280). This suggests that parents may direct children with stronger mathematical aptitudes toward activities that compete with literary venue visits. Parental enjoyment emerged as a strong predictor of visits (β\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.275, p\u0026thinsp;\u0026lt;\u0026thinsp;.001), confirming that our findings are not simply due to unmeasured parental characteristics. These comprehensive controls strengthen confidence in the child-driven interpretation of literacy engagement patterns.\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv id=\"Sec14\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e\u003ch2\u003eCross-National Variation in Effect Sizes\u003c/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe magnitude of sex differences in bookstore/library enjoyment varied across countries (see Fig.\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Fig1\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e1\u003c/span\u003e). The largest effects (Cohen's d\u0026thinsp;\u0026gt;\u0026thinsp;0.75) were observed in Nordic and Baltic nations, while the smallest differences (Cohen's d\u0026thinsp;\u0026lt;\u0026thinsp;0.25) appeared in several countries in Latin America and Southeast Asia. Correlations between national-level values and effect sizes suggested that these differences may be shaped in part by cultural factors. The Autonomy Index, which captures societal endorsement of child independence over obedience, was strongly correlated with the size of the sex difference (r\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.60, p\u0026thinsp;\u0026lt;\u0026thinsp;.001); see Fig.\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Fig3\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e3\u003c/span\u003e. The Equality Index also showed a moderate association with the size of the sex difference (r\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.41, p\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;.002). However, in a joint model only autonomy remained a significant predictor (standardized coefficient β\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.52, p\u0026thinsp;\u0026lt;\u0026thinsp;.001 for autonomy; β\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.17, p\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;.18 for equality).\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e"},{"header":"Discussion","content":"\u003cp\u003eThis study contributes to a growing body of evidence suggesting that the home literacy environment (HLE) may be shaped by a dynamic interplay between child preferences and parental responsiveness rather than following a simple unidirectional model. Across diverse countries and timepoints, girls were consistently more likely to enjoy bookstore/library visits and to be taken there more frequently by their parents. Statistical mediation analyses using data from over 84,000 parent-child dyads indicated patterns consistent with children's own enjoyment being a stronger predictor of parental behavior than the reverse pathway. However, it is crucial to emphasize that this interpretation rests on several assumptions about causal direction that cannot be definitively tested with cross-sectional data. Alternative explanations remain possible, including unmeasured third variables that influence both child preferences and parental behavior, or reverse causation occurring earlier in development than captured by our 15-year-old sample.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cdiv id=\"Sec16\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e\u003ch2\u003eChallenging the Parent-Shaping Model\u003c/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eThese findings challenge the dominant parent-shaping model that has long guided both research and intervention in literacy development. Instead of parents primarily driving their children's engagement through environmental provision, our results align with a more bidirectional or child-driven framework in which parents actively respond to and support their children's existing interests. This responsive pattern suggests that what we often interpret as parental influence may actually reflect parents' sensitivity to their children's demonstrated preferences and aptitudes.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe fact that this child-driven statistical pathway held even after accounting for parents' own reading enjoyment further strengthens this conclusion, indicating that parents may be responding to their child's specific interests rather than simply modeling their own behaviors or imposing uniform expectations across children. This is not to argue that parental socialization is unimportant, but rather that its role may be more responsive and amplifying than initiating. Parents clearly play a crucial role in literacy development, but our findings suggest this role may be less about creating interests from scratch and more about recognizing, nurturing, and providing opportunities for interests that children already demonstrate.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt is plausible that these dynamics vary across development\u0026mdash;parent-shaping effects may be more influential during early childhood when preferences are still forming, while child-driven effects become increasingly dominant as children's own interests solidify and they gain more agency in expressing their preferences.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFurther supporting evidence for this responsive framework comes from our robustness check, which revealed how parental behavior appears attuned to children\u0026rsquo;s specific academic profiles. As expected, reading achievement was a positive predictor of bookstore/library engagement. In contrast, mathematics achievement negatively predicted bookstore/library visits, even after controlling for reading ability. This suggests that parents may be responding not only to children's literary interests but also to their broader academic strengths\u0026mdash;directing children with strong mathematical aptitudes toward STEM-related activities that compete with literary engagement. This pattern exemplifies how children's demonstrated strengths in different domains may guide parental investment decisions in specialized directions.\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv id=\"Sec17\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e\u003ch2\u003eThe Nature of Literary Venue Engagement\u003c/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe typical bookstore and library environment (i.e., quiet, structured, and emphasizing sustained attention to narrative and informational content) may align more closely with behavioral patterns that, on average, girls find more naturally appealing. This contrasts with more physically active, competitive, or dynamic environments that may hold greater appeal for boys on average. Importantly, these are statistical tendencies, not universal rules, and the substantial individual variation within each sex underscores the importance of responding to each child's unique profile rather than making assumptions based on group membership alone.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhile these venues often share a common atmosphere, the conflation of bookstores and libraries in our measure limits our ability to distinguish between them. Bookstores involve purchasing and ownership, potentially appealing to different motivations than library borrowing. Future research should examine these venues separately to understand whether the patterns we observe generalize across different types of literary engagement.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eUltimately, what is most striking is that despite these specific environmental characteristics or measurement limitations, the patterns are remarkably consistent across dramatically different cultural contexts, from Nordic social democracies to developing economies. This suggests that the underlying preferences may reflect more than arbitrary cultural conditioning. While cultural factors clearly shape how these preferences are expressed and reinforced, the universal direction of the sex difference points to influences that transcend specific socialization practices.\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv id=\"Sec18\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e\u003ch2\u003eThe Gender-Equality Paradox and the Central Role of Autonomy-Promoting Culture\u003c/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eIf the observed sex differences were purely the product of arbitrary cultural gender stereotypes, one would expect the effect to diminish or even reverse in societies with higher levels of gender equality. Our findings reveal the opposite pattern. The fact that the female advantage in bookstore/library enjoyment held across every country examined is, in itself, a challenge to a simple cultural conditioning model. More strikingly, the sex difference was actually largest in the most gender-egalitarian nations, providing a compelling example of the 'gender-equality paradox' (Falk \u0026amp; Hermle, 2018).\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOur results further suggest a mechanism to explain this seemingly counterintuitive finding. We found that a nation's emphasis on child autonomy (valuing independence and determination over obedience and religious faith) was a stronger predictor of the sex difference in bookstore/library engagement (r\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.60) than a general measure of gender equality (r\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.41), and it renders the effect of the equality index non-significant in regression models. This pattern suggests that the crucial cultural factor magnifying these sex differences is not merely the presence of equal opportunities for adults, but a cultural ethos that encourages children to discover and pursue their own intrinsic interests without external constraint.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis finding has important theoretical implications for understanding the relationship between culture and individual development. Rather than cultural freedom simply allowing random variation to emerge, our results suggest that reduced social constraints may systematically reveal underlying individual differences that are otherwise suppressed. This finding aligns with broader research demonstrating that individual differences in personality traits are amplified in societies that provide greater behavioral freedom (Haas et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR11\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2023\u003c/span\u003e). It is precisely in such autonomy-valuing cultures that we would expect child-driven effects to be strongest and, consequently, for sex-differentiated preferences to be most fully expressed.\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv id=\"Sec19\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e\u003ch2\u003ePractical Implications\u003c/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eThese findings have important practical implications for educators, parents, and policymakers. If parental behavior is largely a response to child interest, as our analysis suggests, then early reading gaps may not be easily corrected by interventions that target parents alone. Simply encouraging parents to \"read more to their sons\" may be ineffective if children do not demonstrate initial interest for parents to foster and amplify. Instead, our findings suggest that interventions should begin by cultivating intrinsic motivation in children themselves, particularly boys who consistently report lower reading enjoyment and confidence. For one thing, libraries and schools could develop programming that connects reading to diverse interests; for example, the UK's \"Premier League Reading Stars\" program that connects football with reading has shown promise in improving engagement among reluctant readers (See et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR21\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2019\u003c/span\u003e). For another, curricula could offer diverse entry points including graphic novels, non-fiction, technology-enabled exploration, or more interactive formats that appeal to children with varying preferences. Third, rather than prescriptive \"read to your child\" directives, parent education could focus on recognizing and responding to early signs of interest and providing diverse literacy experiences that allow different preferences to emerge. It is also possible that creating literary spaces that accommodate different engagement styles\u0026mdash;including more active, social, or technology-integrated approaches\u0026mdash;could help reduce engagement gaps.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eImportantly, this does not mean abandoning efforts to enhance the HLE, but rather reframing such efforts around responsiveness rather than prescription. Supporting parents in amplifying whatever engagement their children do demonstrate could be more effective than standardized approaches that assume uniform interests across children.\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv id=\"Sec20\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e\u003ch2\u003eLimitations\u003c/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhile this study offers robust cross-cultural evidence and benefits from an exceptionally large sample, several limitations should be acknowledged.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFirst, the PISA item conflates \"bookstore or library\" visits, preventing us from distinguishing between these fundamentally different literary activities. Bookstores involve purchasing and ownership, while libraries emphasize borrowing and community access. This conflation limits our ability to make specific claims about library engagement versus commercial book purchasing.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSecond, although statistical mediation models offer insight into plausible pathways, the correlational nature of the data precludes definitive causal claims about the direction of influence. The patterns we observe are consistent with child-driven effects but could also result from unmeasured confounders or reverse causation.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThird, our analysis captures only a single developmental timepoint when children are 15 years old. By this age, literacy preferences are well-established, making it difficult to determine whether observed patterns reflect early childhood dynamics or later developmental processes. Longitudinal approaches beginning in early childhood would be better suited to disentangling these reciprocal effects as they unfold developmentally.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFourth, the measures rely on self-reports and retrospective parental judgments, which may introduce reporting bias or social desirability effects. Parents may be influenced by social expectations when reporting their behaviors, potentially inflating reports of educational activities.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFinally, while our findings support a model of dynamic influence within the HLE, the focus on bookstore/library engagement represents only one aspect of the broader literacy environment. The extent to which these child-driven patterns generalize to other literacy activities\u0026mdash;such as bedtime reading, storytelling, or educational games\u0026mdash;remains an empirical question.\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv id=\"Sec21\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e\u003ch2\u003eFuture Directions\u003c/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eBuilding on these findings, future work could pursue several complementary avenues. For example, research beginning in early childhood could track how children's preferences and parental behaviors evolve in tandem over time, offering deeper insight into the reciprocal dynamics of HLE development and testing whether early manifestations of interest predict later parental investment patterns. Studies could examine bookstores and libraries separately, and include additional literacy activities to test the generalizability of child-driven patterns across different aspects of the HLE. Detailed ethnographic work could illuminate the micro-processes through which child-driven effects operate and identify the specific cues that parents use to gauge their children's interests. Experimental interventions could include testing strategies to foster reading engagement\u0026mdash;particularly among boys\u0026mdash;by targeting motivational pathways.\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e"},{"header":"Conclusions","content":"\u003cp\u003eThis study suggests that early sex differences in literary engagement\u0026mdash;often framed as straightforward outcomes of parental socialization\u0026mdash;may instead reflect a more complex, reciprocal process in which children's own preferences actively shape the environments that parents create for them. Girls' consistently higher reported enjoyment of bookstore/library visits across diverse cultural contexts appears to be associated with greater parental investment in such activities, rather than simply resulting from differential treatment. This pattern points toward a child-driven model of HLE development that challenges traditional assumptions about the primary direction of influence in parent-child literacy interactions.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThese findings have important implications for both theory and practice. Theoretically, they suggest that effective HLEs may emerge less from parents imposing activities on children and more from parents recognizing, responding to, and amplifying their children's demonstrated interests and aptitudes. Practically, they imply that interventions aimed at reducing reading gaps may be most successful when they begin by understanding and cultivating children's intrinsic motivations while also supporting responsive parental behaviors.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe cross-cultural consistency of these patterns, combined with their amplification in autonomy-promoting cultures, suggests that the underlying preferences may reflect more than arbitrary social conditioning. By viewing literacy development through the lens of a responsive HLE\u0026mdash;one that emerges from the dynamic interplay between child signals and parental responsiveness\u0026mdash;we move beyond simplistic nature-versus-nurture debates toward a more integrative understanding of how individual differences and environmental supports co-construct early educational experiences. This perspective offers promising directions for creating more effective, individually responsive approaches to fostering literacy engagement in all children.\u003c/p\u003e"},{"header":"Declarations","content":"\u003ch3\u003eEthics approval and consent to participate\u003c/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNot applicable. This study only uses anonymous secondary data. \u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eConsent for publication\u003c/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNot applicable.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eAvailability of data and materials\u003c/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe datasets supporting the conclusions of this article, as well as the PISA questionnaires, are available in the OSF repository, https://osf.io/nzdm2/?view_only=c538c429c3f346709b80721c4ee669c5.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eCompeting interests\u003c/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe authors declare that they have no competing interests.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eFunding\u003c/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis research received no funding.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eAuthors\u0026apos; contributions\u003c/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eT.E.D. formulated the hypotheses and wrote the introduction. K.E. performed the analysis and wrote the methods, results and discussion sections. All authors reviewed the manuscript.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eAcknowledgements\u003c/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNot applicable.\u003c/p\u003e"},{"header":"References","content":"\u003col\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eApplegate, R. (2008). Gender Differences in the Use of a Public Library. \u003cem\u003ePublic Library Quarterly\u003c/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003e27\u003c/em\u003e(1), 19\u0026ndash;31. https://doi.org/10.1080/01616840802122468\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eBelow, J. L., Skinner, C. H., Fearrington, J. Y., \u0026amp; Sorrell, C. A. (2010). Gender Differences in Early Literacy: Analysis of Kindergarten through Fifth-Grade Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills Probes. \u003cem\u003eSchool Psychology Review\u003c/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003e39\u003c/em\u003e(2), 240\u0026ndash;257. https://doi.org/10.1080/02796015.2010.12087776\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eBiggs, E. E., Arserio, A. P., Robison, S. E., \u0026amp; Ross, M. E. (2023). 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Is There a Genetic Confound in the Relation of Home Literacy Environment with Children\u0026rsquo;s Reading Skills? A Familial Control Method Approach. \u003cem\u003eReading Research Quarterly\u003c/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003e59\u003c/em\u003e(3), 408\u0026ndash;423. https://doi.org/10.1002/rrq.553\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ol\u003e"}],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":true,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":false,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":false,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":false,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"bmc-psychology","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"externalIdentity":"psyo","sideBox":"Learn more about [BMC Psychology](http://bmcpsychology.biomedcentral.com/)","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"","title":"BMC Psychology","twitterHandle":"BMC_series","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":true,"editorialSystem":"stoa","reportingPortfolio":"BMC Series","inReviewEnabled":true,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"sex differences, parental investment, reading engagement, parent-offspring coadaptation, cross-cultural analysis","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-7392543/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-7392543/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003ch2\u003eBackground\u003c/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eSex differences in literacy behaviors are consistently observed across cultures, but their developmental origins remain contested: Do they emerge through top-down parental socialization, or from child-driven preferences that shape parental engagement? This study examines these competing models of how the home literacy environment (HLE) develops.\u003c/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eMethods\u003c/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eUsing data from the 2009 and 2018 waves of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), we conducted mediation analyses with over 82,000 parent-child dyads across 14 countries. We examined sex differences in children's enjoyment of bookstore/library visits and parental frequency of taking children to such venues, controlling for parental enjoyment and children's reading and mathematics achievement.\u003c/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eResults\u003c/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eAcross all participating countries, parents reported taking daughters to bookstores or libraries more frequently than sons, and girls reported greater enjoyment of such visits. Mediation analysis revealed a stark asymmetry: children's enjoyment was statistically associated with mediating 62.3% of the sex difference in parental behavior, while parental behavior was associated with mediating only 6.0% of the sex difference in children's enjoyment. This more than ten-fold difference remained robust even after comprehensive controls. Cross-cultural analysis revealed that the magnitude of these sex differences is largest in the most gender-egalitarian societies, with greater child autonomy as the underlying mechanism for this \"gender-equality paradox.\"\u003c/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eConclusions\u003c/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eThese findings support a child-driven model in which parental engagement responds to children's demonstrated interests rather than primarily shaping them. The results highlight the central role of child motivation and suggest that interventions, particularly for boys, should focus on cultivating intrinsic interest and supporting responsive parenting.\u003c/p\u003e","manuscriptTitle":"Do Parents Shape or Respond? Evidence for a Child-Driven Model of Literary Venue Engagement across Cultures","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2025-09-24 13:05:05","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-7392543/v1","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0},{"type":"editorInvitedReview","content":"","date":"2025-09-25T13:51:43+00:00","index":"hide","fulltext":""},{"type":"reviewerAgreed","content":"120355365120256376372213507910548151578","date":"2025-09-16T12:33:32+00:00","index":"hide","fulltext":""},{"type":"reviewersInvited","content":"","date":"2025-09-16T05:08:33+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"editorInvited","content":"","date":"2025-08-21T16:57:06+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"editorAssigned","content":"","date":"2025-08-18T23:24:13+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"checksComplete","content":"","date":"2025-08-18T23:23:56+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"submitted","content":"BMC Psychology","date":"2025-08-17T13:11:35+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"bmc-psychology","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"externalIdentity":"psyo","sideBox":"Learn more about [BMC Psychology](http://bmcpsychology.biomedcentral.com/)","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"","title":"BMC Psychology","twitterHandle":"BMC_series","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":true,"editorialSystem":"stoa","reportingPortfolio":"BMC Series","inReviewEnabled":true,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"6fdd2a6b-fb43-47a0-9aae-74d7eeaecb8a","owner":[],"postedDate":"September 24th, 2025","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"under-review","subjectAreas":[],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2025-09-24T13:05:05+00:00","versionOfRecord":[],"versionCreatedAt":"2025-09-24 13:05:05","video":"","vorDoi":"","vorDoiUrl":"","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-7392543","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-7392543","identity":"rs-7392543","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"8U1c8b4HqxoKbykW_rLl7","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}