The Mediation of Interpersonal Skills Between Executive Functioning and Reading Achievement Among First-Grade Emerging Bilinguals

• In Event: The Dynamics of Cognition and Motivation in Reading, Recall, and Comprehension

Abstract

The present study examined the mediation of interpersonal skills between the effect of executive functioning on reading achievement among emerging bilingual students in the U.S. We included 2,941 kindergarteners from a national sample selected from Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 2010–11 (ECLS-K:2011). Multiple regression analyses and mediation analysis were conducted to examine the longitudinal relations between cognitive flexibility measured in kindergarten fall, interpersonal skills in kindergarten spring, and English reading achievement in first-grade spring. Controlling for SES, English language proficiency, cognitive flexibility, and initial reading achievement, cognitive flexibility uniquely predicted reading achievement; interpersonal skills mediated the relationship between cognitive flexibility and first-grade reading achievement. Practical and theoretical implications will be discussed.

Authors

• Jialin Lai, Augusta University

• Xiaoyu Yang, Texas A&M University

• Ying Xu, Texas A&M University

• Wen Luo, Texas A&M University