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Reading and emotional-behavioural development in Finnish children : a longitudinal study of associations
Robidoux, Serje Eklund, Kenneth McArthur, Genevieve Francis, Deanna A. Aro, Tuija Torppa, Minna
Robidoux, Serje
Eklund, Kenneth
McArthur, Genevieve
Francis, Deanna A.
Aro, Tuija
Torppa, Minna
Abstract
Poor reading has been linked to negative outcomes on a wide range of emotional-behavioural dimensions in children. However, little is known about the time course of these associations. In this study we analyse data from a sample of Finnish children (N = 199; 106 boys) which included measures of reading fluency in grade 1 (age 7 or 8), and emotional (anxiety, depression, and somatization) and behavioural (adaptability, aggression, attention, atypicality, hyperactivity, social skills, and withdrawal) development at ages 4, 5, 6 (pre-school) and 9 (school-aged). In a series of stepwise regression models that controlled for non-verbal IQ and family risk for dyslexia, we tested if pre-school emotional-behavioural measures were associated with school-aged reading fluency, and whether school-aged reading fluency was associated with later emotional-behavioural development. We also tested if these associations were moderated by reported gender. Consistent with previous longitudinal studies, we found that poorer attention before school was associated with poorer reading in the early school years which in turn was associated with higher levels of anxiety and inattention in children in middle school. None of these associations were moderated by gender.
Keywords
Reading, Anxiety, Emotional health, Psychosocial development, Children
Date
2024
Type
Journal article
Journal
Book
Volume
Issue
Page Range
1-24
Article Number
ACU Department
Faculty of Education and Arts
Collections
Relation URI
Event URL
Open Access Status
Open access
License
CC BY 4.0
File Access
Open
Notes
© The Author(s) 2024
This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.