How Social-emotional Skills Affect Children’s Reading Comprehension: A Cross-Lagged Longitudinal Study

This study will make several novel contributions to the literature. Most significantly, it will employ a longitudinal design to systematically examine the bidirectional relation between social-emotional skills and reading comprehension, resulting in a more comprehensive picture of how social-emotional skills affect child reading comprehension and vice versa. Our results will also shed light on the mechanisms linking social-emotional skills and reading comprehension by testing the mediating roles of cognitive and oral language skills and word reading on the association between social-emotional skills and reading comprehension。 Given the fundamental role of reading comprehension in successful academic learning, and professional and personal opportunities, documenting these mechanisms is critical for informing policies and interventions designed to reduce reading comprehension disparities among children. Furthermore, this study’s findings will 1) inform parents, educators, and policymakers about ways to promote reading comprehension and social-emotional skill intervention programs that benefit child development; 2) enhance these intervention programs by incorporating socialemotional skills with other language- and cognitive-related skills to screen for at-risk readers; and 3) inform policies and programs that provide support to children with social-emotional problems and poor comprehension skills.

Funding Source: RGC - General Research Fund (GRF)