This blog post is part of our Research Article of the Month series. For this month, we highlight “Contributions of Reading Support From Teachers, Parents, and Friends to Reading Related Variables in Academic and Recreational Contexts,” an article published in Reading Research Quarterly in 2024. Important words related to research are bolded, and definitions of these terms are included at the end of the article in the “Terms to Know” section.

Key Takeaways

• Support from teachers impacts students’ reading motivation and engagement in academic settings.
• Autonomy and relatedness support from parents helps students maintain positive reading habits at home. 
• Secondary students perceive receiving significantly less reading support compared to elementary students.
• Competence support from parents and friends negatively contributes to student reading motivation and engagement.

What Did the Researchers Examine?

The social support students receive from teachers, parents, and friends can help improve their reading motivation, which is critical for supporting their overall reading achievement. 

This social support can take different forms, such as support with autonomy, competence, and relatedness. Support with autonomy—the power to make choices and decisions for oneself—may involve considering students’ likes, dislikes, and interests when selecting texts or letting students choose what they want to read. Support with competence—the ability to achieve one’s goals—may involve providing clear instructions, offering feedback, or suggesting different reading strategies. Support with relatedness—the feeling that others care—may look like taking an interest in what a child is reading. 

These different forms of support may impact student reading behaviors, including reading motivation, reading self-concept (i.e., confidence in one’s reading abilities), engagement in reading (i.e., the extent of one’s involvement in an activity, including attention, effort, perseverance, and interest), weekly reading frequency, and daily reading time.

Further, these impacts may vary depending on the context: academic (i.e., reading for a grade) or recreational (i.e., reading for enjoyment). 

Greater understanding of students’ sources of support and the impact of these supports on reading behaviors may help teachers and caregivers effectively motivate students and encourage positive reading habits. 

The researchers in this study had two aims. First, they intended to create a student questionnaire that measured the forms of support students received from teachers, parents, and friends. To that end, the researchers asked:

• Is there evidence that the concept of reading support includes nine dimensions: three types of reading support (i.e., autonomy, competence, and relatedness) offered by three sources (i.e., teachers, parents, and friends)?
• What is the strength of the correlations between the different dimensions of reading support?

After creating the questionnaire and testing its validity, the researchers sought to determine how the different forms and sources of support impacted certain reading behaviors and whether these impacts varied depending on gender and grade level of the student. To that end, the researchers asked: 

• What is the strength of the correlations between the dimensions of reading support and the following reading behaviors: reading motivation, reading self-concept, engagement in reading, weekly reading frequency, and daily reading time? And how do these correlations vary depending on the context—academic or recreational?
• Does the questionnaire effectively measure reading support for students of different genders and grade levels (K–12)?

What Did the Researchers Find? 

The findings of this study suggest that student perception of reading support varies by source (i.e., teachers, parents, and friends) and context (i.e., academic or recreational). 

Teachers were shown to particularly influence student reading motivation and engagement in an academic context. Outside of school, autonomy and relatedness support from parents and friends contributed the most to maintaining student reading habits and motivation. This suggests that parents can support their children’s reading motivation by doing things like taking an interest in what their child is reading (relatedness support) or letting their child choose what they want to read (autonomy support). 

Another important finding is that secondary students perceive receiving significantly less reading support compared to elementary students. This underscores the need for targeted support during the transition from elementary to secondary education, especially for psychological needs. For example, selecting reading materials based on students’ interests (autonomy support) and fostering peer collaboration (relatedness support) could significantly enhance overall student reading motivation and engagement. 

Additionally, competence support from parents and friends showed a consistent negative contribution, suggesting that overly directive feedback from these sources may undermine students’ confidence and motivation in reading.

How Did the Researchers Find This?

To create the questionnaire, the researchers developed statements that aimed to measure the support students received from teachers, parents, and friends in the areas of autonomy, competence, and relatedness in reading in both academic and recreational contexts. For example, the statement “My teacher asks me questions that help me understand texts or books better” measures teachers’ competence support in an academic context. A total of 1,246 students ages 9–16 in Quebec rated each statement on a 1–5 scale (1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree). 

Then, the researchers conducted factor analysis to determine whether the nine dimensions of support represented in the questionnaire accurately reflected the concept of reading support.

Next, they performed invariance tests between genders and grade levels (elementary and secondary) to determine whether the properties of the questionnaire were the same across groups. 

Finally, the researchers used multiple regression analysis to measure the correlations between the nine dimensions of reading support and the reading outcome variables (i.e., academic motivation, recreational reading motivation, academic reading self-concept, recreational reading self-concept, academic reading engagement, recreational reading engagement, weekly reading frequency, and daily reading time).

What Are the Limitations of This Paper?

When interpreting the findings of this study, limitations should be considered. First, the study did not examine other potential factors that could influence the relationship between reading support and the outcomes studied, such as teacher-student relationships. Second, the student sample was limited; the predominantly French-speaking student population may not represent the broader range of linguistic contexts in which reading support is experienced. In addition, the correlational design of the study cannot determine the causal relationship between reading support and the outcomes studied. In other words, while correlations were found to be significant, it remains unclear whether increased reading support leads to improved reading behaviors and motivation. Future research could address these factors to provide further understanding of how reading support impacts various student populations in different contexts. 

Terms to Know

Correlation: A correlation between variables means that when one variable changes, another variable also changes in a specific direction. For example, if the length of intervention and reading comprehension are correlated, then when the length of reading intervention increases, student reading comprehension will also increase. A common way to measure a correlation is Pearson’s correlation coefficient, which is represented by r. Pearson’s correlation coefficient ranges from -1 to 1. Negative values indicate a negative correlation between variables (as one variable changes, the other variable changes in the opposite direction); positive values indicate a positive correlation (as one variable changes, the other variable changes in the same direction). The absolute value, or distance from zero, indicates the strength of the relationship between the variables.

Validity: Validity refers to the extent to which an assessment measures what it was designed to measure. 

Factor Analysis: Factor analysis is a statistical method used to test measurement tools. When measuring an abstract concept, researchers hypothesize which factors underlie the concept. Then, they create a tool to measure the concept based on those factors. For example, if a researcher is measuring the concept of “reading support,” they may hypothesize that the concept includes support from teachers, caregivers, and friends. They then create a measurement tool, such as a questionnaire, that measures the support students receive from those three sources. After collecting data using the measurement tool, researchers can use factor analysis to determine whether the hypothesized factors help explain the data. In the example of the reading support measurement, factor analysis may confirm that the three factors of teacher support, caregiver support, and friend support help explain the data. Alternatively, factor analysis may reveal that only two factors are needed to explain the data, such as adult support and peer support. Factor analysis helps researchers design more effective measurement tools.

Invariance: Invariance is a statistical property of a measurement tool (e.g., a questionnaire on student reading support) that indicates that the same concept (e.g., reading support) is being measured across groups. For example, invariance means that a measurements from respondents of different ages, genders, or cultural backgrounds can be interpreted in a similar manner. Invariance testing can help researchers and test designers improve their assessments and interpret their findings accurately.

Multiple regression analysis: Multiple regression analysis is a statistical approach used to describe the relationship between two or more independent variables and one dependent variable. 

• Dependent variable: Dependent variables are factors that may change in response to an independent variable. For example, a student’s composite reading score (dependent variable) may change in response to the length of reading intervention they receive in total minutes (independent variable).
• Independent variable: An independent variable is a factor that influences dependent variables in experimental studies. For example, the length of a reading intervention in total minutes (independent variable) may affect a student’s composite reading score (dependent variable). They are called “independent” because they are manipulated by the experimenter and therefore independent of other influences.

For example, multiple regression analysis could be used to determine the strength of the relationship between parent support and student reading motivation.

Significant: If a study’s findings are statistically significant, it means they are unlikely to be explained by chance alone.

References

Pelletier, D., Guay, F, & Falardeau, E. (2024). Contributions of reading support from teachers, parents, and friends to reading related variables in academic and recreational contexts. Reading Research Quarterly, 59(3), 56-84. https://doi.org/10.1002/rrq.538