Reading Anxiety: An Early Affective Impediment to Children's Success in Reading

Learning to read is a critical but often challenging academic task for young children. In the current study, we explore the relation between children's reading affect--particularly anxiety--and reading achievement in the early years of reading acquisition. We hypothesized that reading anxiety w...

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Published inJournal of cognition and development Vol. 20; no. 1; pp. 15 - 34
Main Authors Ramirez, Gerardo, Fries, Laura, Gunderson, Elizabeth, Schaeffer, Marjorie W, Maloney, Erin A., Beilock, Sian L., Levine, Susan C.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Philadelphia Psychology Press 01.01.2019
Routledge
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Subjects
Anxiety
Children
Children & youth
Elementary School Students
Grade 1
Grade 2
Mathematics Achievement
Negative Attitudes
Positive Attitudes
Reading
Reading Achievement
Reading Attitudes
Reading Strategies
Young Children
Indiana
Illinois (Chicago)
Wisconsin
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Summary:Learning to read is a critical but often challenging academic task for young children. In the current study, we explore the relation between children's reading affect--particularly anxiety--and reading achievement in the early years of reading acquisition. We hypothesized that reading anxiety would relate to reading achievement across the school year and that boys and girls might show differential patterns in the relation between reading anxiety and achievement due to the common stereotype that boys underperform in reading. A sample of first and second grade students completed measures of reading anxiety, positive reading affect, math achievement, and reading achievement in the fall and spring. Results show that reading anxiety and reading achievement share a bi-directional relation in which fall reading anxiety predicts spring reading achievement and vice versa. Furthermore, the pattern of relation between reading anxiety and achievement differs by gender: boys appear more susceptible to the reciprocal damaging effects of reading anxiety on reading achievement across the school year. Finally, reading achievement shares a stronger relation with reading anxiety than with positive reading affect, perhaps because of the phenomenon in which negative relative to positive experiences have a greater psychological impact.
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ISSN:1524-8372
1532-7647
DOI:10.1080/15248372.2018.1526175