Health, safety, and well-being reading recognition abilities of young parents with functional disabilities: Construction and preliminary validation of a prescriptive assessment instrument

Young low-income parents with functional disabilities have difficulty ensur ing the safety and health of their children, in part because they have limi ted information and skills regarding these critical aspects of childcare. T hey are unaware of ways to anticipate and remediate dangerous situations an d to prevent child injury and have difficulty recognizing and responding to the symptoms associated with child illnesses. Often they are unfamiliar wi th and are unable to read the complex information that is provided on the l abels or bl the brochures for medications, for high-risk household products , for home health diagnostics or home treatment, and for the correct nse of infant development or other products. Similarly, healthcare providers may assume reading ability, when they present printed materials, while the pare nt may be reticent to ask questions or to admit being unable to read. In th e absence of suitable supports both the young parent and her child are then at heightened risk for injury and for poor health status. In order to effe ctively inform young parents, there is a critical need to determine how wel l they are able to read representative healthcare and safety-related words, The rationale for and construction and validation of a prescriptive parent ing reading recognition scale are described This instrument is designed to be used by health and other educators in rite assessment of parental readin g recognition abilities and ir? the development of prescriptive education, Measures of internal consistency and of internal reliability for standardiz ation purposes were high. Results of a study which used this instrument are presented and demonstrate that parents referred for healthcare, safety, an d wellness education did, in fact, have significant difficulties in reading . Several demographic variables were related to reading ability including s elf-identifications with a disability The results have implications for pol icy and program development.