Beyond cognition: The relation between parents' reading-related activities and reading-related achievement emotions in Chinese students

Numerous studies have revealed the benefits of parents' reading-related activities that support children's cognitive development. However, little is known about the reading-related achievement emotions that are essential for self-confidence and well-being as a reader. To advance research in this important area of achievement emotions, it is critical to focus on the impact of parents' reading-related activities on reading-related achievement emotions pertaining to enjoyment and boredom and their internal mechanisms. Based on the control-value theory of achievement emotions, we investigated 12,322 Chinese students through a national reading program. Results indicated that parents' reading-related activities positively predicted reading enjoyment but negatively predicted reading boredom through the mediators of self-educational expectation and reading self-efficacy after controlling for gender, age, and SES. This study highlights the values of parent-child shared reading, makes a unique contribution to the field of achievement emotions, and explains how self-educational expectation and reading self-efficacy mediate this process.