Influence of Mothers’ Habits on Reading Skills and Emotional Intelligence of University Students: Relationships in the Social and Educational Context

Abstract

Numerous studies show that the family plays a crucial role not only in the education of children but also in the acquisition of skills in the process of teaching and formal learning, especially in their reading competence. Furthermore, within the family, studies point to the basic role of the mother as the main axis of both educational and social teaching. The approach of this research aims to analyze whether maternal habits can influence the reading competence of their children. On the other hand, numerous studies point to the relationship between reading skills and emotional intelligence. Its inclusion in the equation of this construct can give information that will nuance the learning process in this evolutionary process. Thus, in this research, the objective is to establish the existence of a relationship between maternal reading habits with respect to reading competence and emotional intelligence in post-adolescents. Four-hundred-twenty first-year university students participated between the ages of 18 and 20 (43.8% men and 56.2% women) from the Andalusian universities of Granada, Malaga, and Jaen, all of them located in areas of medium socio-cultural context. Moderate mediation and factorial ANCOVA analyses have been carried out. The results point to the fact that the profile of the post-adolescents with the best score in reading competence also scores better in emotional intelligence and their mothers are those who score highest in reading habits. Thus, the role of the mother within the family is even more important than it appears in a society that seeks parity. New forms of work–family conciliation are necessary in order not to break the mother–child bond.