The Role of Anxiety on Reading Comprehension in the Context of Socioemotional and Cognitive Risk and Promotive Factors

Children’s socioemotional and cognitive traits may hinder or support reading comprehension based on models of risk and resilience. Effortful control, attention, and positive affect were examined as promotive factors and general and test anxiety as risk factors. Participants included 197 twin children (115 girls; Mage= 13.6 years) from the Florida Twin Project on Reading, Behavior, and Environment. A path model examined whether Time 1 general anxiety, effortful control, attention, and positive affect predicted Time 2 reading comprehension, with test anxiety as a mediator. A curvilinear regression tested whether general anxiety had a nonlinear relationship with reading comprehension. Less test anxiety, better effortful control, better attention, and less positive affect significantly predicted higher reading comprehension. Results indicated moderate general anxiety may support reading, while extreme levels may be a risk factor. Effortful control and attention emerged as key promotive factors. These findings may inform targeted interventions to improve reading comprehension.