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Motivational predictors of struggling readers’ reading comprehension: the effects of mindset, achievement goals, and engagement

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Abstract

Reading for understanding is a challenging task for many upper elementary struggling readers, and their attitudes toward such challenges can make a difference in their subsequent engagement and reading achievement. Mindset and achievement goals provide a useful explanatory framework for understanding struggling readers’ engagement and reading comprehension. This study examined the extent to which mindset and achievement goals are associated with reading comprehension; as well as the mechanism through which engagement mediates this relation, controlling for the effects of vocabulary, word recognition, and limited English proficiency status. Structural equation modeling of four and fifth grade struggling readers (N = 107) demonstrated the importance of achievement goals in predicting reading comprehension. Effects of mindset on engagement and reading comprehension were completely mediated by mastery and performance-avoidance goals; further, these goals had indirect relations to reading comprehension through emotional engagement. Performance-approach goals had a direct, negative relation to reading comprehension. Findings highlight the importance of including motivational variables in understanding sources of individual differences in reading comprehension for struggling readers.

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Notes

  1. Reliabilities are based on the final scale, modified based on the confirmatory factor analyses results.

  2. Although, path from fixed mindset and mastery goals was marginally significant (p = .05), p value for standardized coefficient was statistically significant (β = − 0.22, SE = 0.10, p = .03) and this path becomes statistically significant in the models with reading comprehension.

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported in part by the Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education, through Grant R305F100013 to The University of Texas at Austin as part of the Reading for Understanding Research Initiative. The opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not represent views of the Institute or the U.S. Department of Education.

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Cho, E., Toste, J.R., Lee, M. et al. Motivational predictors of struggling readers’ reading comprehension: the effects of mindset, achievement goals, and engagement. Read Writ 32, 1219–1242 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-018-9908-8

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