Reading Anxiety’s Longitudinal Associations With Reading Skills and Reading Interest From Second to Third Grade

To support literacy acquisition, abundant research has focused on cognitive predictors. However, reading processes involve also affective factors. The present study explored children’s readingrelated anxiety and its longitudinal associations with reading skills and reading interest value among a sample of 790 Finnish children followed from Grade 2 to 3. The assessments administered in the classrooms included children’s self-reported reading anxiety and reading interest, followed by reading fluency skill tests. The multiple linear regression models suggested that having lower reading fluency in Grade 2 predicted experiencing higher reading anxiety in Grade 3. Poorer reading was also associated with developing less reading interest, particularly among girls. The separate gender group analyses suggested that reading interest may support girls against developing anxiety in reading. The results suggest that the associations between reading skills, interest, and anxiety emerge early and that in the developmental ways to prevent reading anxiety, both skills and interest can be useful targets.