The Relationship between SES and Reading Comprehension in Chinese: A Mediation Model.

Yahua Cheng,Xinchun Wu

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00672

Abstract

An increasing body of research provides evidence that socioeconomic status (SES) was significantly related to children’s reading development; however, the psychological mechanism underlying the association between them remained an open question. The present study is designed to test the hypothesized three-path effect of vocabulary knowledge and morphological awareness as mediators between SES and sentence reading comprehension in Chinese first-graders. Results of mediation model showed that SES exerted its effect on sentence reading comprehension through the indirect path via the simple mediating effect of morphological awareness and the three-path mediating effect of vocabulary knowledge and morphological awareness. The findings highlight a previously unidentified mechanism of the relationship between SES and reading comprehension in Chinese young children.

Highlights

Reading comprehension is one of the most important developmental achievements that relate to individual development and personal growth
Vocabulary knowledge, compounding awareness, and homophone awareness were significantly correlated with sentence reading comprehension
The results showed a satisfactory fit (Table 2), χ2(df = 11) = 6.96, p = 0.80 (χ2/df = 0.63), comparative fit index (CFI) = 1.00, Tucker-Lewis index (TLI) = 1.00, root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) = 0.00, SRMR = 0.03

Summary

Introduction

Reading comprehension is one of the most important developmental achievements that relate to individual development and personal growth. Previous studies have demonstrated that socioeconomic status (SES) is a powerful predictor of children’s early reading development (Bradley and Corwyn, 2002; Kieffer, 2010). Most studies on the relation between SES and reading development have been conducted in Western societies (Bowey, 1995; Kieffer, 2010, 2012; for an exception, Zhang et al, 2013). The purpose of the current study was to explore further the relationship between SES and reading comprehension – focusing on the roles of vocabulary knowledge and morphological awareness, as these appear to have unique influences in Chinese reading development (Song et al, 2015; Pan et al, 2016; Cheng et al, 2017)

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion