Effects of attending preschool on adolescents’ reading literacy: Evidence from the ethnic minority children in China

This study aims to investigate the long-term effects of attending preschool on Chinese reading literacy in the ethnic minority Zhuang adolescents. Altogether 457 Zhuang students (N_female = 250, M_age = 13.81, SD = 0.86) were randomly sampled, surveyed, and tested with the PISA Reading Literacy (Chinese). The OLS, PSM, and regression analyses results jointly indicated that: (1) Chinese reading literacy varied over different levels of extracurricular reading, parental educational expectation (PEE), and preschool attendance; (2) family income, extracurricular reading, parental expectations of academic achievement and educational levels, and self-education expectations were found the significant predictors of reading literacy; and (3) after controlling for the confounding factors, preschool attendance did not predict any variation in Chinese reading literacy. The implications for policymaking and educational development for ethnic children are also discussed. Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Ltd.