Predicting Reading Achievement: The Role of Reading Support, Motivation, and Frequency in Elementary and Secondary Students

This study investigates the role of reading support (from teachers, parents, and friends), reading motivation (academic and recreational), and reading frequency in predicting reading achievement for 9-16 year old students. Findings indicate that relatedness support from parents and friends significantly boosts reading motivation and frequency across both academic and recreational contexts. Recreational reading motivation is a stronger predictor of reading frequency than academic motivation. While reading motivation itself didn't directly predict reading achievement, reading frequency did, even after accounting for prior achievement. This pattern held consistent across elementary and secondary school students, emphasizing the ongoing importance of relatedness support, particularly for fostering recreational reading, throughout a student's academic journey.

Reading skills are crucial for academic success and critical judgment in the digital age. Despite traditional cognitive models explaining reading proficiency, motivation is increasingly recognized as a key factor. This research utilizes Self-Determination Theory (SDT) to examine how perceived reading support from different social agents (teachers, parents, friends) influences self-determined reading motivation and frequency, ultimately impacting reading achievement. SDT differentiates motivation types, from amotivation to intrinsic motivation, and posits that autonomous motivation (driven by personal volition) leads to higher engagement and persistence. Autonomous motivation is linked to positive reading outcomes, while controlled motivation can be inconsistent or negative. The study also recognizes that motivation types can vary by reading context (academic vs. recreational).

SDT highlights three basic psychological needs: autonomy, competence, and relatedness. Fulfilling these needs through adequate support is crucial for developing autonomous motivation. Reading support is defined as behaviors and statements that encourage reading activities. This support, provided by teachers, parents, and friends, can manifest in ways that foster autonomy (e.g., choosing books), competence (e.g., feedback on strategies), and relatedness (e.g., modeling enthusiasm for reading). While early reading support is important, its significance extends through late childhood and adolescence, a critical period for reading development where motivation often declines, especially if perceived support is lacking.

Teachers play a vital role in reading development by selecting appropriate materials and strategies. Studies show that teacher practices supporting autonomy, competence, and relatedness positively impact reading motivation and comprehension. Parents, as sustained sources of support, also significantly contribute to motivation and reading habits, with their own reading motivation impacting their children's. Their practices, like modeling reading and providing access to books, foster relatedness, competence, and autonomy. Peers become increasingly influential, especially in adolescence, with peer-assisted learning showing positive effects on reading comprehension, though their independent contribution to motivation needs further research. The effectiveness of support can vary across sources and contexts, with relatedness support generally showing the strongest associations across studies.

The relationship between reading motivation and achievement is complex and often attenuated by confounding variables. Reading frequency is identified as a crucial mediating variable, as frequent reading practice helps automate skills and reduce cognitive load. Intrinsic reading motivation is linked to increased time spent reading, suggesting that reading frequency is a pathway connecting motivation to achievement. However, studies on this mediating role show inconsistent results, possibly due to varying conceptualizations and measurements of reading motivation. The study proposes using bifactor models to capture a global self-determination factor for clearer predictive utility.

This study aims to validate a conceptual model of reading achievement by addressing several research questions. It asks which types of reading support from teachers, parents, and friends (autonomy, competence, relatedness) contribute most to academic and recreational reading motivation and frequency. It also examines if self-determined motivation predicts reading frequency and achievement, considering prior achievement. The study hypothesizes that motivation mediates the relationship between reading support and frequency. It further investigates if reading frequency predicts achievement and if frequency mediates the link between motivation and achievement. Another question explores whether academic or recreational reading contexts better explain motivation, frequency, and achievement, and if the associations vary between elementary and secondary students.

The study involved 1533 elementary and secondary school students (aged 9-16) from Quebec, Canada, with data collected in late 2019 and early 2020. Students completed a questionnaire. The analysis demonstrated acceptable fit indices for the prediction models, and notably, the prediction links between constructs remained invariant across elementary and secondary school students. This indicates that the patterns observed are consistent across age groups, reinforcing the broad applicability of the findings.