Teacher–child interaction quality, attitudes toward reading, and literacy achievement of Chinese preschool children: Mediation and moderation analysis

This study explores how classroom teaching quality and preschoolers' attitudes toward reading contribute to their literacy achievement in the Chinese context. A moderated mediation model is hypothesized where teacher-child interaction quality predicts children's literacy outcomes via their reading attitudes, but the strength of this whole mediation process is moderated by the level of teacher-child interaction quality. A sample of 567 Chinese kindergarteners from 29 classrooms was recruited to test the hypothesized model using a longitudinal design. The results support our assumptions: teacher's emotional support had a positive effect on children's reading attitudes, which in turn had a positive effect on their reading and vocabulary learning outcomes. Three domains of teacher-child interaction quality at the baseline together were associated with children's Chinese reading through later classroom organization. Moreover, children with better reading attitudes benefited more from higher instructional support and then gained more vocabulary learning achievement. Implication for preschool teaching training and professional development are included.