Autonomous and controlled reading motivation as predictors of reading behaviour and performance.

The aim of the present study was to examine how late primary school studentsU+2019 autonomous and controlled reading motivation contributes to their reading behaviour (i.e., reading frequency and engagement) and performance (i.e., comprehension) in a longitudinal study, since prior research was particularly cross-sectional and thus unable to test for the directions of effects. In addition, reading behaviour was examined as a mediator between reading motivation and comprehension, given that reading frequency and engagement have received mixed evidence as mediators in prior study. To pursue this aim, a longitudinal study (i.e., three measurement occasions) was set up. Participants included 458 fifth-grade primary school students (i.e., on average 10.5 years old). Path analyses indicated that recreational and academic autonomous reading motivation predicted higher leisure-time reading frequency and better reading comprehension as compared to controlled reading motivation. Interestingly, recreational and academic controlled reading motivation did not affect reading engagement and even yielded a significantly negative association with reading comprehension. This underlines the significance of distinguishing qualitatively different types of reading motivation (i.e., autonomous and controlled reading motivation). As for the mediation of the relationship between reading motivation and comprehension through reading behaviour, no evidence was found for reading frequency as a mediator between reading motivation and comprehension. In contrast, reading engagement mediated the relationship between recreational autonomous reading motivation and reading comprehension. This suggests that especially the emotional and behavioural quality of studentsU+2019 reading behaviour (i.e., engagement) rather than its quantity (i.e., frequency) is important in enhancing studentsU+2019 reading comprehension.

Jaar van publicatie:2013