Which would have the greatest negative influence on child literacy?

single parenting, minority ethnicity,
minimal parental education, or
low socioeconomic status

I am thinking low socioeconomic status,
but I am not real positive.

Please give help.

5 answers

The answer to this question really depends on your point of view. There is not one answer.
The most important influence on child education is the parent. If the parents 1) don't value education, 2) don't support education, 3) have had no education, then the child will had a harder time. Children who have been read to from the time they were infants grow up wanting to read, enjoying reading and reading well.

So minimal parent education would definitely be a problem.
I agree with GuruBlue. At first I leaned toward low socioeconomic status, but as this site emphasizes, it's not the money but the parent involvement that affects a child's learning to read.

http://books.nap.edu/html/prdyc/ch4.html
In rural areas, where access to libraries are difficult, a number of studies have indicated child literacy is adversely affected if there are no books in the home: low socioeconomic status, mainly, or commonly called poor. In cities, the correlation with poor student reading performance with family income is not as pronounced. Public libraries are more available, as are reading programs for children.
Other factors are at work.
Project Headstart greatly affected this literacy challenge, and now many public preschools are work on it. Children learn to read by being read to, and by reading themselves.
So,you are agreeing with me,that low
socioeconomic status would have the greatest negative influence on child literacy?
I definitely agree with you,but I guess
others feel otherwise. I guess others have different viewpoints.