Value of writing, writing apprehension, and writing performance in Chinese children with and without reading difficulties

Abstract

The present study aims to investigate the role of affect in writing performance in children with dyslexia in Chinese. Measures of cognitive factors in writing (including working memory, word dictation, and syntactic skills), affective factors in writing (including value of writing and writing apprehension) and writing performance were administered to 41 children with dyslexia (RD group) and 41 age-matched children (CA group) without reading difficulties in Grades 3 to 5. Based on the literature, value of writing refers to perceived importance, interest, and enjoyment of writing; and writing apprehension refers to an individual’s tendency to avoid writing situations which are perceived to be accompanied by some form of evaluation. Preliminary analyses showed that the RD group performed less well than the CA group in all cognitive measures and writing performance, but no significant between-group differences were found in the two measures of affective factors in writing. Multiple regression analysis results showed that value of writing contributed significant amount of unique variance to writing quality in the CA group, but not in the RD group. On the other hand, value of writing was a unique predictor of writing fluency in both RD and CA groups. Writing apprehension did not contribute significant amount of unique variance to writing quality or writing fluency in either group. These findings suggested that positive affect may play an important role in the writing development in elementary grade children with and without reading difficulties.