(PS11-C56) Anxiety and Reading Achievement in Diverse Sample of Young Struggling Readers Receiving Intervention

Research indicates a negative correlation between anxiety and reading achievement in children (reviewed by Francis et al., 2019). Evidence suggests the influences are bi-directional, though exactly how these factors influence one another across development remains unclear (Grills-Taquechel et al., 2012). Socioemotional factors associated with anxiety, such as negative affect and avoidance, have also been shown to predict inadequate response to reading interventions (Cho et al., 2015; Greulich et al., 2014). However, few studies have examined anxiety itself as a predictor of intervention response (Grills et al., 2014). The current study examines anxiety as a predictor of reading achievement and vice versa, as well as examines whether anxiety predicts response to intervention for struggling readers in an academic intervention. Data were collected prior to the pandemic, yet the findings have implications for schools and clinicians responding to learning loss and increasing mental health problems associated with COVID-19, both of which disproportionately impacted Black and Latinx students (Hawrilenko et al., 2021). 

Participants were a diverse sample of 292 first and second grade students (n = 148 females) in public schools in Texas, participating in a randomized controlled trial (see Denton et al., 2014). The majority were struggling readers (n = 218), randomized to receive a reading intervention from researchers or their school’s usual intervention. Across participants, 53.4% identified as Black/African American and 28.8% as Hispanic/Latinx. At the beginning (T1) and end (T2) of the school year, students completed the Woodcock-Johnson III Basic Reading Skills subtests (WJII BRS; Woodcock et al., 2001), the Test of Word Reading Efficiency (TOWRE; Torgesen et al., 1999), and the Multidimensional Anxiety Scale for Children (MASC; March et al., 1997), which contains subscales for Physical Symptoms, Harm Avoidance, Social Anxiety, and Separation Anxiety. Hierarchical linear regression models were used to examine anxiety subscales as predictors of reading achievement and vice versa. For all reading achievement and anxiety scales, score at T1 (Block 1) significantly predicted score at T2. For the model predicting TOWRE score, the R2 obtained by regressing T2 TOWRE on T1 was .830 (p < .001). Inclusion of the Social Anxiety subscale as a predictor at Block 2 significantly increased the total R2 to .835 (p = .039). No other anxiety subscales significantly contributed to the models predicting achievement. Neither reading achievement measure at T1 significantly increased the R2 for any of the models predicting anxiety. Next, logistic regression analyses were run to examine anxiety subscales as predictors of response to intervention (Yes/No) among struggling readers. Physical Symptoms, Harm Avoidance, and Social Anxiety at T1 did not predict response to intervention. Separation Anxiety was a significant predictor, such that children with higher Separation Anxiety at T1 were less likely to respond to intervention (OR estimate = 0.93, p = 0.04). These findings suggest that for young struggling readers in racially marginalized groups, integrating anxiety management skills into academic interventions may improve outcomes.