Mental health, literacy skills and gender: Examining their relationships in a longitudinal study from 5- to 9-year-old children

IF 2 2区教育学 Q2 EDUCATION & EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH

Journal of Research in Reading Pub Date : 2025-07-06 DOI:10.1111/1467-9817.70009

Jean Ecalle, Xavier Thierry, Annie Magnan

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Abstract

Background

The reciprocal relationships between literacy skills and various subscales of mental health have been examined in few studies. The objective is to re-examine this question in a longitudinal study with the possibility of a gender effect.

Methods

A 4-year longitudinal study was conducted as part of the French national cohort ELFE (N = 1064). The aim was twofold: 1/ To examine the links in both directions between literacy skills, assessed successively at 5, 7 and 9 years (LitSk5y; 7y; 9y), and mental health, assessed with the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) at 5 years by parents and 9 years by teachers. 2/To determine whether the gender effect on LitSk is still present when SDQ subscale scores show mental health difficulties. SDQ subscales consist of conduct problems, hyperactivity, emotional symptoms and peer relationships assessed at 5 years old, and conduct problems, hyperactivity and prosocial behaviour assessed at 9 years old.

Results

Negative links were found in the following directions with SDQ subscales as predictors: conduct problems at 5 years old to LitSk5–7–9y and conduct problems at 9 years old to LitSk9y, and there was also a positive link, prosocial behaviour at 9 years old to LitSk9y. Conversely, negative links were again found with LitSk considered as a predictor of SDQ subscales: LitSk5y to conduct problems, hyperactivity and peer relationships at 5 years old, LitSk5–7–9y to conduct problems and hyperactivity at 9 years old; a positive link was found for LitSk5–7–9y to prosocial behaviour at 9 years old. The links for SDQ subscales to LitSk were stronger than those for LitSk to SDQ subscales.

Conclusions

These results revealed three bidirectional relationships: conduct problems at 5 years old with LitSk5y, conduct problems at 9 years old with LitSk9y and prosocial behaviour at 9 years old with LitSk9y. Finally, the expected LitSk gender effect in favour of girls was reduced when these latter were affected by mental health problems.

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心理健康、识字技能和性别：在一项针对5至9岁儿童的纵向研究中检验它们之间的关系

背景阅读技能与心理健康各分量表之间的相互关系研究较少。目的是在纵向研究中重新审视这个问题，并考虑性别影响的可能性。方法作为法国国家队列ELFE （N = 1064）的一部分，进行了一项为期4年的纵向研究。目的有两方面：1 .在5岁、7岁和9岁时依次评估识字技能之间的双向联系(LitSk5y；7 y;9y)和心理健康，在5岁时由家长和9岁时由教师分别用优势和困难问卷（SDQ）进行评估。2/确定当SDQ分量表得分显示心理健康困难时，性别对LitSk的影响是否仍然存在。SDQ子量表包括5岁时评估的行为问题、多动、情绪症状和同伴关系，以及9岁时评估的行为问题、多动和亲社会行为。结果以SDQ子量表为预测因子，5岁至7 - 9y的行为问题与9岁至7 - 9y的行为问题存在负相关，9岁至9岁的亲社会行为与LitSk9y存在正相关。相反，LitSk被认为是SDQ子量表的预测因子，再次发现负相关：5岁时LitSk5y处理问题、多动和同伴关系，9岁时LitSk5-7-9y处理问题和多动；在9岁时，LitSk5-7-9y与亲社会行为呈正相关。SDQ子量表与LitSk的关联比LitSk与SDQ子量表的关联更强。结论5岁LitSk5y患儿的行为问题、9岁LitSk9y患儿的行为问题和9岁LitSk9y患儿的亲社会行为存在3种双向关系。最后，当女孩受到心理健康问题的影响时，预期的有利于女孩的LitSk性别效应就会减少。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Journal of Research in Reading Multiple-

CiteScore

4.50

自引率

0.00%

发文量

期刊介绍： Journal of Research in Reading provides an international forum for researchers into literacy. It is a refereed journal, principally devoted to reports of empirical studies in reading and related fields, and to informed reviews of relevant literature. The journal welcomes papers researching issues related to the learning, teaching and use of literacy in a variety of contexts; papers on the history and development of literacy; papers about policy and strategy for literacy as related to children and adults. Journal of Research in Reading encourages papers within any research paradigm and from researchers in any relevant field such as anthropology, cultural studies, education, history of education, language and linguistics, philosophy, psychology and sociology.