Reading and psychosocial development in Finnish children: poor reading is associated with later anxiety

Poor reading has been linked to negative outcomes on a wide range of psychosocial dimensions in children. However, little is known about the time course of these associations. In this study we analyse data from the Finnish Jyväskylä Longitudinal Study of Dyslexia (N=199; 106 boys) which included measures of adaptability, aggression, anxiety, attention, atypicality, depression, hyperactivity, social skills, somatization and withdrawal at ages 4, 5, 6 (pre-school), 8, and 9. Reading fluency was assessed in Grade 1 (age 7 or 8). In a series of stepwise regression models, we assessed whether pre-school psychosocial measures were associated with reading fluency, and whether reading fluency was associated with later psychosocial development, after controlling for family-risk of dyslexia and the children’s non-verbal IQ. We also examined whether associations between reading and psychosocial development differed between boys and girls. Consistent with previous longitudinal studies, we found that of the pre-school measures, only symptoms of attention difficulties were associated with poorer reading outcomes in Grade 1. Associations between reading fluency and pre-school measures of atypicality and somatization (not significant as main effects) interacted with gender, but are difficult to interpret. Also consistent with other studies, we found that poor reading fluency in Grade 1 was associated with increased symptoms of anxiety in children at ages 8 and 9. Gender did not moderate any associations between reading fluency and later measures of psychosocial development.