Hybrid Schooling and Reading Acquisition: Motivational, Well-Being, and Achievement Profiles in Second Grade

Abstract

COVID-19 led to substantial changes in early literacy instruction. Although emerging evidence documents its effects on children’s reading achievement, much less is known about how these changes relate to young children’s reading motivation and school-related well-being. This study compared two cohorts of second graders (N = 287) from the same four low-SES schools, all assessed at the beginning of second grade. A pre-COVID-19 cohort, whose first-grade instruction was delivered entirely face-to-face, was compared with a during-COVID-19 cohort whose first-grade reading instruction took place amid extended distance learning with intermittent, restricted in-person schooling. Cohorts were compared on reading motivation, school-related well-being (covitality), and reading achievement (word reading, vocabulary, and reading comprehension). Multivariate analyses of variance (MANOVAs) were conducted to compare cohorts (pre- vs. during COVID-19) and reader groups (typical vs. poor readers), with gender, class, and school entered as control variables. In motivation, self-concept was higher during COVID-19, and typical readers reported higher motivation than their peers. In well-being, covitality was higher during COVID-19 at the total score and across gratitude, optimism, zest, and persistence; a cohort by group interaction for persistence indicated higher scores for typical readers during COVID-19. In achievement, phonological decoding and orthographic word identification were lower during COVID-19; typical readers scored higher than poor readers on all achievement outcomes. Together, these findings suggest that the educational setting shapes motivation and well-being alongside achievement, and that distance learning is not uniformly detrimental, as it coincided with higher covitality and reading self-concept at school reentry.