How Does Family Socioeconomic Status Influence Children's Reading Ability? Evidence from Meta-analytic Structural Equation Modeling

Many studies have shown that family socioeconomic status (SES) influences the development of children's reading ability; however, the mechanisms underlying this effect remain unclear. This study used meta-analytic structural equation modeling (MASEM) analysis to examine the mediating role of children's linguistic skills (phonological awareness and vocabulary knowledge) in the relationships between SES and reading (accuracy, fluency, and comprehension), as well as potential moderators including age, country SES, SES measurement type, and writing system based on 85,102 individuals from 471 independent studies. The results indicated that (1) the relations between SES and reading were partially mediated by phonological awareness and vocabulary knowledge and (2) although age, country SES, SES measurement type, and writing system did not moderate the direct associations between SES and reading abilities, the moderation effects of age, country SES, SES measurement type, and writing system could manifest through the linguistic mediation pathway: older age, higher country SES, composite SES index, and alphabetic languages might induce a larger indirect impact from SES to reading ability. These results suggested that SES exerted both direct and indirect effects on reading via linguistic skills. Such a linguistic mediation mechanism may be moderated by age, country SES, SES measurement type, and writing system. Our findings have important implications for understanding the role of SES in reading development.