Developmental paths of reading skills during lower secondary education: associations with literacy-related emotions and psychological well-being

This study investigates developmental paths of reading fluency and comprehension among adolescents in lower secondary education. Furthermore, we examined the association between these paths, literacy-related emotions and psychological well-being. This longitudinal study’s sample ( n = 1,035, 55% girls) comprised Finnish adolescents (mean age = 13.79, SD = 0.35 at the outset) in Grades 7 and 9. The participants’ reading fluency and comprehension were measured using standardized tests, while literacy-related emotions and psychological well-being were measured via self-reports. Research questions were analyzed using latent profile analysis. Three developmental paths of reading skills were found: (1) low reading comprehension and low and slowly increasing reading fluency (11%), (2) average-increasing reading comprehension and fluency (59%) and (3) high reading comprehension and high-increasing reading fluency (30%). Adolescents on Path 3 reported higher literacy-related enjoyment, hope, and pride and lower literacy-related anger, anxiety, hopelessness, and shame than adolescents on other paths. No differences between paths were found in life satisfaction, but adolescents on Developmental path 1 and 3 reported a higher level of depressive symptoms than adolescents on Path 2, and their symptoms increased faster from Grade 7 to 9. Reading skills continue to develop during adolescence, and the development follows heterogenous paths. A nonlinear connection exists between reading skills and depressive symptoms, which would be important to consider in the efforts to support adolescent reading skills and well-being. The results suggest that both adolescents with particularly low and high reading skills are vulnerable to increased depressive symptoms.