Is a good example the best sermon? Children’s imitation of parental reading

TLDR: In this paper, the authors used the last two waves of the Italian Time Use Survey to analyse whether children imitate the reading habits of their parents, finding that children were more likely to read after seeing either their mother or their father reading.

Abstract: We use the last two waves of the Italian Time Use Survey to analyse whether children imitate the reading habits of their parents. As reading is crucial for continuous investment in human capital throughout a person’s life, it is important that children acquire the habit of reading. This habit may be developed through both cultural and educational transfers from parents to children, and through imitative behaviours. Imitation is of particular interest, as it suggests that parents can have a direct influence on the formation of their children’s preferences and habits, and that active policies promoting good parenting behaviours might therefore be desirable. We investigate the short-run imitative behaviour of children using a household fixed-effects model in which we identify the impact of the parents’ role model by exploiting the differences in the exposure of siblings to their parents’ example within the same household. We find robust evidence of the existence of an imitation effect: on the day of the survey, children were more likely to had read after seeing either their mother or their father reading.

Figures

Table 7 Sample average of regressors by treatment status in the full sample and in the mother and father fixedeffects samples

Table 2 Sample distribution of child’s reading activity after having observed parental reading activity

Table 13 Robustness check: sample selected on all mother/child pairs and father/child pairs with no missing. Estimated imitation effect. Linear probability model, family fixed effects

Table 15 Robustness check: parental reading without the category “Talking and reading to the child”. Estimated imitation effect. Linear probability model, family fixed effects

Table 14 Robustness check: child’s previous reading activities. Estimated imitation effect. Linear probability model, family fixed effects

Table 8 Estimated imitation effect: linear probability model, family fixed effects—mother

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Is a good example the best sermon? Children’s imitation of parental reading
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DOI:10.1007/s11150-015-9287-8
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Children’s imitation of parental reading. REVIEW OF ECONOMICS OF
THE HOUSEHOLD. None pp: ---.
DOI: 10.1007/s11150-015-9287-8
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1
Is a good example the best sermon? Children’s imitation of parental reading
Anna Laura Mancini, Chiara Monfardini, Silvia Pasqua
Abstract
We use the last two waves of the Italian Time Use Survey to analyse whether children imitate the reading
habits of their parents. As reading is crucial for continuous investment in human capital throughout a
person’s life, it is important that children acquire the habit of reading. This habit may be developed through
both cultural and educational transfers from parents to children, and through imitative behaviours. Imitation
is of particular interest, as it suggests that parents can have a direct influence on the formation of their
children’s preferences and habits, and that active policies promoting good parenting behaviours might
therefore be desirable. We investigate the short-run imitative behaviour of children using a household fixed-
effects model in which we identify the impact of the parents’ role model by exploiting the differences in the
exposure of siblings to their parents’ example within the same household. We find robust evidence of the
existence of an imitation effect: on the day of the survey, children were more likely to had read after seeing
either their mother or their father reading.
Keywords
Parental role model Imitation Intergenerational transmission Household fixed effects
This is a thoroughly revised version of the paper titled: “On the Intergenerational Transmission of Time Use
Patterns. Is a Good Example the Best Sermon?” Anna Laura Mancini, Chiara Monfardini and Silvia Pasqua,
IZA Discussion Paper No. 6038, October 2011.
JEL Classification
J13 J22 J24 C21
1 Introduction
Reading is a crucial activity in the process of human capital accumulation, as it is positively linked to
educational outcomes and subsequent earnings (Connolly et al. 1992). Cunningham and Stanovich (2001)
have shown that reading has accumulated effects over time, with profound implications for the development
of a wide range of cognitive abilities, verbal skills, and declarative knowledge. Similarly, Stanovich (1986)
emphasised the role of reading in increasing the efficiency of the cognitive process. In light of these benefits,
educators and policy makers have been looking for ways to encourage young people to read. Research
suggests that parents often transmit their preferences and habits to their children, and can thus act as role
models in promoting reading (Mullan 2010).

2
In this paper, we look at whether children imitate their parents’ reading activity. Imitation is an important
channel for the intergenerational transmission of habits. It is widely assumed that parents directly influence
the formation of children’s preferences by serving as role models. This suggests that active policies aimed at
promoting good parenting behaviour could affect the reading habits of children. Clearly, the
intergenerational transmission of attitudes towards reading occurs not only through imitative behaviours, but
also through cultural and educational transmission from parents to children. While parents who wish to
encourage their children to read can do so by reading to their children when they are very young (as in Kalb
and van Ours 2014), teaching them the importance of reading, and providing them with books, Teale and
Sulzby (1986) have found that adults’ reading habits also influence the reading habits of children. Studies on
habit formation (Neal et al. 2006; Wood and Neal 2007) have shown that a large share of everyday actions
are characterised by habitual repetition. Therefore, when parents read in the presence of their children, the
children may develop the habit of reading through imitation. While reading is clearly not the only activity
that builds human capital, the early acquisition of reading skills appears to facilitate the development of a
lifetime habit of reading (Cunningham and Stanovich 1997), and therefore seems to have long-term and
multiplying effects.
Our analysis relies on the Italian Time Use Survey (2002–2003 and 2008–2009 pooled waves) conducted by
ISTAT. While most Time Use Surveys collect data from only one member of each household, and rarely
include children of primary school age, the Italian dataset provides detailed information on the time devoted
to reading by both parents and their children, including when, with whom, and in the presence of whom the
activity is performed. The availability of this information allows us to investigate whether children are more
likely to allocate time to reading if they observed their parents engaged in this activity on the same day. We
are able to examine the time children aged 6–15 devoted to reading on their own. As the dataset also includes
information on a large number of siblings, we can identify the imitation effect using a family fixed-effects
approach. We do so by exploiting the variation that occurs among siblings: different children, for exogenous
reasons, may have been exposed differently to their parents’ reading activities on the survey day. This
within-family variation allows us to isolate the causal effect of imitation from the effects of the household
environment and education provided by the parents, which would have been experienced by all of the
children in the household. Our identification strategy is validated by a number of robustness checks, which
prove that the relationship and witnessing one or both of their parents reading is neither spurious nor
mechanical.
We find new and clear-cut evidence of the existence of an imitation effect, which confirms the truth of the
adage that “a good example is the best sermon”. On the day of the survey, the probability that children spent
time reading increased significantly after they saw their parents reading. We look separately at mothers and
fathers, since past research has shown that individual parents can affect their children’s decisions and
behaviour differently.
1
The probability that the child spent time reading increased from about 4 % to about

3
34 % when the mother was observed reading. The imitation effect for fathers was similar, raising the
probability that a child spent time reading from about 5 % to about 36 %.
Our research sheds new light on the mechanisms of intergenerational transmission of preferences and
attitudes that are essential for targeting human capital accumulation policies.
Are parents able to influence their children’s preferences and choices through their behaviour? Can we
assume that policies targeted at adults also have effects on members of the next generation, and are therefore
more productive? Our findings suggest that role modelling by parents is one important channel through
which parental time use may affect children’s behaviour and time allocation decisions, and thus future child
outcomes.
The paper is organised as follows. Section 2 presents a review of the main literature. Section 3 describes the
dataset used and the sample selection made for our empirical analysis. Section 4 presents the empirical
strategy. The results and robustness checks are discussed in Sect. 5. Section 6 concludes.
2 Background literature
There is a vast literature on intergenerational transmission, but few studies have focused on the mechanisms
of the transmission, especially those involving behavioural patterns, habits, and attitudes. The existing
research on intergenerational transmission has mainly examined the transmission of education and income,
or has analysed the transmission of cognitive abilities, and shown that the positive correlation between
parents and children is the result of both “nature” (genetic endowment) and “nurture”; i.e., that better
educated parents invest more in their children’s education (for a complete review, see Black and Devereux
2011). The transmission of cognitive abilities from parents to children has been investigated to a lesser
extent. Brown et al. (2010) for the UK and Anger and Heineck (2010) for Germany looked at correlations in
test scores, and found a strong transmission effect that is largely explained by the investments parents make
in their children (see also Sénéchal and LeFevre 2002).
However, the transmission of preferences, habits, and attitudes also appears to be relevant. In 1976, Robert
Pollak argued that preferences, especially in the short run, are influenced by other people’s past consumption
behaviour: i.e., that individuals tend to consume a given good after observing other people around them
consuming that good. Waldkirch et al. (2004) analysed the transmission of consumption preferences and
behaviour, while Booth and Kee (2009) and Blau et al. (2013) examined the intergenerational cultural
transmission of norms regarding fertility. Jackson et al. (1997) and Loureiro et al. (2006) explored whether
smoking habits were passed on from parents to children. Meanwhile, Lindbeck and Nyberg (2006) looked at
the intergenerational transmission of norms related to hard work, Wilhelm et al. (2008) studied the
intergenerational transmission of generosity, and Dohmen et al. (2012) examined the transmission of risk and

Frequently asked questions

Q1. What are the contributions in "Is a good example the best sermon? children’s imitation of parental reading" ?

The authors investigate the short-run imitative behaviour of children using a household fixedeffects model in which they identify the impact of the parents ’ role model by exploiting the differences in the exposure of siblings to their parents ’ example within the same household. 

Q2. What future works have the authors mentioned in the paper "Is a good example the best sermon? children’s imitation of parental reading" ?

The authors therefore conclude that parents ’ time use may affect their children ’ s behaviour and time allocation decisions, and thus the future outcomes of their children. Further research is needed to study the imitation of both “ positive ” behaviours, like socializing, engaging in physical activities, and healthy eating ; 18 and “ negative ” behaviours, like smoking and alcohol consumption, watching TV, and being violent. The authors estimated a very strong correlation between the child ’ s reading activity in weekend days and their reading activity in weekdays, which kept sizeable and significant even after controlling for household unobserved heterogeneity. 9 “ Talking or reading to… ” is a unique category in the dataset from which the authors can not separate out the talking component. 

Q3. What is the effect of the observation period on children?

Since the observation period is larger for children who did not observe the reading activity of the parent, this makes it more likely that the authors would observe reading activity among children who did not imitate their parents. 

Q4. What is the importance of the imitation mechanism for children with less educated parents?

The imitation mechanism could be particularly important for children with less educated parents, who are less likely to encourage their children to read, but who might act as an example by reading while at home. 

Q5. How does the mother’s reading probability increase?

17 Having observed the mother reading raises the estimated reading probability from about 4 % (reference probability) to about 34 %. 

Q6. How does the study examine the short-run imitative behaviour of children?

The authors investigate the short-run imitative behaviour of children using a household fixedeffects model in which the authors identify the impact of the parents’ role model by exploiting the differences in the exposure of siblings to their parents’ example within the same household.