Partnering with Reach Out and Read to understand families' experiences with books and their babies

Via a research–practice partnership centering community partners' needs and goals in the research design, we examined how parent, infant, and social‐contextual characteristics relate to shared book reading frequency and perceptions of Reach Out and Read (ROR), a national physician‐to‐family program.Shared book reading is associated with higher quality parent–child interactions and enhanced cognitive and socioemotional development. However, only a small percentage of families share books with their infants daily. Understanding factors related to engagement in book sharing is necessary to create developmental messaging that reflects families' experiences.Parents (N = 70) in a southeastern U.S. state were recruited from two participating pediatric clinics and responded to an online survey. Regression analyses examined significant infant, parent, and social‐contextual predictors of shared book reading frequency and perceived ROR value.Findings indicated that parents' insurance, mental health symptoms, and perceptions of the parent‐provider relationship significantly predicted shared book reading frequency. Perceived ROR value was best predicted by parents' mental health symptoms.Strengthening the parent–provider relationship and talking with families about their needs and experiences with their infants may support clinicians in partnering with families around literacy promotion and early relational health.Results suggest the value of considering socioeconomic status, parental mental health symptoms, and the parent–provider relationship when promoting early literacy and relationship‐building experiences during infancy.