Sources of individual differences in young Chinese children’s reading and mathematics skills: A longitudinal study

Abstract

This study investigated the longitudinal associations between four key elements of school readiness receptive vocabulary, socioemotional behavior, behavioral self-regulation, and approaches to learning and individual differences in young children's reading and mathematics trajectories. Chinese children (N = 588) were tested three times between the ages of five and six on their Chinese reading and mathematics skills, and their receptive vocabulary, problem behavior, behavioral self-regulation, and approaches to learning (competence motivation, learning strategy, and attention/persistence) were assessed at five years of age. Latent growth modeling revealed that receptive vocabulary and behavioral self-regulation played unique roles in predicting the levels of Chinese reading (vocabulary: beta = 0.15, p = .023; self-regulation: beta = 0.16, p = .001) and mathematics skills (vocabulary: beta = 0.25, p < .001; self-regulation: beta = 0.36, p < .001). Problem behavior and competence motivation were associated with the levels of mathematics skills (problem behavior: beta = -0.06, p = .046; competence motivation: beta = 0.16, p < .001) but not those of reading skills. Moreover, competence motivation predicted the growth rate of Chinese reading skills (beta = 0.18, p = .015). The findings extend the current literature by explicating the independent contributions made by early school readiness skills to individual differences in young Chinese children's acquisition of reading and mathematics skills.