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Development and Validation of a Parent Belief and Preschoolers’ Attitudes Questionnaire on Supporting Chinese Preschoolers’ English as a Foreign Language Learning

  • Qingyun Li 1,   
  • Kimberley Kong 2,*,   
  • Qian Li 3

Received: 15 Apr 2025 | Revised: 05 Aug 2025 | Accepted: 02 Dec 2025 | Published: 24 Mar 2026

Abstract

The present study aimed to develop and validate a questionnaire assessing parents’ beliefs, the home literacy environment, and their support for young children’s English as a second/foreign language development—the Parents’ Beliefs and Preschoolers’ Attitudes toward English Learning Questionnaire (PBPAEL-Q). The PBPAEL-Q was initially piloted with 160 parents of kindergarten-aged children and subsequently validated with a sample of 405 parents in mainland China. A series of exploratory factor analyses and confirmatory factor analyses were conducted to explore the factor structure and evaluate model fit, resulting in a 51-item questionnaire with three factors: (1) parents’ beliefs about the importance of early childhood English learning, (2) the English home literacy environment, and (3) preschoolers’ English learning attitudes. The convergent and divergent validity of the PBPAEL-Q were supported by examining its relationships with parents’ home practices and family characteristics. The PBPAEL-Q exhibited acceptable model fit indices and demonstrated good reliability and validity. The findings suggest that the PBPAEL-Q is a reliable and valid tool for measuring parents’ beliefs and the home literacy environment related to young children’s English as a second/foreign language development. It may also contribute to a deeper understanding of how parental beliefs influence home practices and children’s attitudes toward English language learning.

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DOI
10.53941/sala.2026.100005
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Volume 1, Issue 1
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Li, Q., Kong, K., & Li, Q. (2026). Development and Validation of a Parent Belief and Preschoolers’ Attitudes Questionnaire on Supporting Chinese Preschoolers’ English as a Foreign Language Learning. Studies of Applied Linguistics in Asia, 1(1), 46–64. https://doi.org/10.53941/sala.2026.100005
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