Enjoyment, anxiety and boredom, and their control-value antecedents as predictors of reading comprehension

Reading comprehension is one of several vital activities necessary to success in contemporary formal education systems. This study aims to investigate the links between the three achievement emotions of enjoyment, anxiety, and boredom, and their control-value antecedents to reading comprehension. One hundred and fifty-two 5th graders completed a self-report for control-value antecedents, the Achievement Emotions Questionnaire-Elementary School (AEQ-ES) for reading-specific achievement emotions, and performed a reading comprehension task. Gender, non-verbal skills, vocabulary knowledge, and decoding skills were also considered as potentially confounding variables. Results from a path analysis revealed that the control antecedent explained about 3% of the variability in reading comprehension and anxiety partially mediated the relationship between control and reading comprehension, explaining 3% of the variance. Specifically, perceived control of reading comprehension negatively predicted anxiety, which in turn negatively predicted students' performance in a reading comprehension task. These findings highlight the contribution of anxiety to reading comprehension when controlling for gender and cognitive measures. Implications for educational practice are discussed regarding teaching strategies to self-regulate anxiety and, indirectly, promote students' reading comprehension.