Reading Self-Concept and Reading Anxiety in Second Grade Children: The Roles of Word Reading, Emergent Literacy Skills, Working Memory and Gender

Abstract

Background: Most studies in the field of reading have focused on the linguistic and cognitive factors. Less is known about the affective aspects of reading in young readers, such as self-perceptions of reading, and reading anxiety.Aims: This study aimed to shed light on the direct and indirect relations between reading and related skills (working memory, emergent literacy skills, word reading accuracy and rate, and gender) as sources of reading affect (reading self-concept and anxiety).Sample: A total of 115 Hebrew speaking second graders participated in this study.Methods: A set of measures assessing reading accuracy and rate, emergent literacy skills (phonological fluency, rapid automatized naming and working memory) and reading affect questionnaires (reading self-concept and reading anxiety) were administered to the participants.Results: Path analysis was used as the primary analytic approach. Results indicated a negative moderate relation between reading self-concept and reading anxiety. The relations of working memory and emergent literacy to reading self-concept and reading anxiety were indirect via word reading accuracy and reading rate. Girls reported higher reading anxiety and lower reading self-concept, despite higher performance in reading accuracy and no difference in reading rate.Conclusion: The current results support the importance of examining reading affect and potential sources of reading affect. Results suggest that reading self-concept and reading anxiety and their related skills should be considered in designing reading intervention and instructions.

Translation and cross-cultural adaptation of the Brazilian version of the Reading Anxiety Scale: Short version

“…This finding corroborates results from the Zbornik (1988) study using the original 45-item scale and contemporary research on reading anxiety (Katzir, Kim, & Dotan, 2018;Ramirez et al, 2019). The association between reading anxiety and reading performance reinforces the concept that the reading anxiety scale is measuring a concept associated with reading skills and highlights the importance of emotional aspects evaluation for a better understanding of school performance (Davis, Margolis, Thomas, Huo, & Marsh, 2018;Hendren, Haft, Black, White, & Hoeft, 2018;Jarrett, Black, Grills-Taquechel, & Ollendick, 2015;Katzir et al, 2018;Ramirez et al, 2019;Steinmayr et al, 2016). This study has limitations which we plan to overcome with future studies.…”

Toward Integrative Reading Science: The Direct and Indirect Effects Model of Reading

“…The third hypothesis of DIER is interactive relationscomponent skills are expected to develop interacting with each other and environments (e.g., Ford & Lerner, 1992). Studies have shown that motivation and affect (e.g., reading motivation, attitudes, self-concept, efficacy, anxiety) predict reading achievement (e.g., L. Baker & Wigfield, 1999;Katzir et al, 2009;Wigfield & Guthrie, 1997) and that reading skills predict motivation and affect (Chapman & Tunmer, 2003;Katzir et al, 2018). Indeed, longitudinal studies have shown bidirectional relations of motivation and affect with reading development (Lepola et al, 2000).…”

Validity Evidence of the Reading Screening Test for Portuguese First Graders

“…It consists of the ability to recover and name familiar items fluently, evaluating the speed and accuracy in the process of accessing the lexicon (Heikkilä, 2015). Slow performance on RAN tasks is associated with poor reading performance (Denkla and Rudel, 1976;Lúcio et al, 2017;Katzir et al, 2018;Landerl et al, 2019). Several studies confirm that RAN has a strong correlation with reading competence, with a progressively more relevant role throughout the school path (Cohen et al, 2018).…”