Is There a Bidirectional Relationship between Children’s Reading Skills and Reading Motivation?

Young children who enjoy reading do it more often and they tend to become skilled at it. Poor readers, by contrast, often display low motivation to read. One possible explanation of this is that reading skill and reading motivation influence each other. 15 studies were reviewed addressing the relationship between young children’s reading and competency beliefs or goal orientations. Results indicate that reading skills and motivation correlate (albeit moderately), and support the possibility of a bidirectional relationship between the two. Researchers, practitioners, and parents may need to target both reading skill and motivation to best help poor readers become proficient.