TY - JOUR A1 - Meixner, Johannes M. A1 - Warner, Greta J. A1 - Lensing, Johanna Nele A1 - Schiefele, Ulrich A1 - Elsner, Birgit T1 - The relation between executive functions and reading comprehension in primary-school students BT - a cross-lagged-panel analysis JF - Early Childhood Research Quarterly N2 - Higher-order cognitive skills are necessary prerequisites for reading and understanding words, sentences and texts. In particular, research on executive functions in the cognitive domain has shown that good executive functioning in children is positively related to reading comprehension skills and that deficits in executive functioning are related to difficulties with reading comprehension. However, developmental research on literacy and self-regulation in the early school years suggests that the relation between higher-order cognitive skills and reading might not be unidirectional, but mutually interdependent in nature. Therefore, the present longitudinal study explored the bidirectional relations between executive functions and reading comprehension during primary school across a 1-year period. At two time points (T1, T2), we assessed reading comprehension at the word, sentence, and text levels as well as three components of executive functioning, that is, updating, inhibition, and attention shifting. The sample consisted of three sequential cohorts of German primary school students (N = 1657) starting in first, second, and third grade respectively (aged 6-11 years at T1). Using a latent cross-lagged-panel design, we found bidirectional longitudinal relations between executive functions and reading comprehension for second and third graders. However, for first graders, only the path from executive functioning at T1 to reading comprehension at T2 attained significance. Succeeding analyses revealed updating as the crucial component of the effect from executive functioning on later reading comprehension, whereas text reading comprehension was most predictive of later executive functioning. The potential processes underlying the observed bidirectional relations are discussed with respect to developmental changes in reading comprehension across the primary years. KW - Reading Comprehension KW - Executive Functions KW - Longitudinal Study KW - Latent Variable Analysis KW - Cross-Lagged-Panel Design KW - Bidirectional Relations Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecresq.2018.04.010 SN - 0885-2006 SN - 1873-7706 VL - 46 SP - 62 EP - 74 PB - Elsevier CY - New York ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Schiefele, Ulrich A1 - Loeweke, Sebastian T1 - The Nature, Development, and Effects of Elementary Students’ Reading Motivation Profiles JF - Reading research quarterly N2 - The present study employed a longitudinal person-centered approach to examine the profiles of reading motivation in a sample of 405 elementary school students who were tested in grades 3 and 4. Two dimensions of intrinsic reading motivation (involvement and curiosity) and two dimensions of extrinsic reading motivation (recognition and competition) were considered. Latent profile analyses revealed the same set of four profiles across third and fourth grades: high intrinsic (i.e., high on involvement and curiosity, low on recognition and competition), high involvement (i.e., high on involvement, low on the remaining dimensions), high quantity (high on all dimensions), and moderate quantity (low to moderate on all dimensions). Further results showed that 35% of the students changed their profile membership from third to fourth grade. We particularly observed an increased probability of students in the high-quantity, moderate-quantity, and high-involvement profiles to move to the high-intrinsic profile. Finally, the moderate-quantity profile proved to be significantly lower in reading amount than the other groups that did not differ significantly. Pertaining to reading comprehension, however, the two intrinsic profiles outperformed both the high- and moderate-quantity groups. The latter finding emphasizes the particular importance of intrinsic reading motivation. KW - Comprehension KW - Depth of (higher level KW - literal level KW - etc KW - ) KW - Motivation KW - engagement KW - Extrinsic KW - Intrinsic KW - Childhood Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1002/rrq.201 SN - 0034-0553 SN - 1936-2722 VL - 53 IS - 4 SP - 405 EP - 421 PB - Wiley CY - Hoboken ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Soemer, Alexander A1 - Schiefele, Ulrich T1 - Reading amount as a mediator between intrinsic reading motivation and reading comprehension in the early elementary grades JF - Learning and individual differences N2 - Previous research suggests that children's growth in reading abilities is positively related to their intrinsic reading motivation and the amount of spare time reading. Furthermore, a number of previous studies point to the possibility that spare time reading amount mediates the positive association between intrinsic reading motivation and reading comprehension. However, to date, most of the available evidence for a mediation model is either cross-sectional and/or limited to late elementary and secondary school students, whereas the early elementary grades have only rarely been targeted in longitudinal studies. Accordingly, the present study investigated longitudinal relations between intrinsic reading motivation, reading amount, and reading comprehension in the early elementary grades with a particular focus on the potential mediator role of reading amount. Evidence was found for partial mediation by reading amount between reading comprehension and later intrinsic reading motivation. However, there was no evidence for (partial or full) mediation by reading amount between intrinsic reading motivation and later reading comprehension. It is concluded that in the process of becoming more sophisticated readers, early elementary students read more frequently in their spare time, and this makes reading more rewarding for them in the long run. In contrast, the potentially positive effect of spare time reading on later reading comprehension seems to be either non-existent or too weak to be reliably detected over longer time frames. KW - Reading motivation KW - Reading comprehension KW - Elementary school students KW - Longitudinal study Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lindif.2018.06.006 SN - 1041-6080 SN - 1873-3425 VL - 67 SP - 1 EP - 11 PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam ER -