In emotion and reading motivation, children with a diagnosis of dyslexia are not just the end of a continuum

Abstract

Children with dyslexia (CwD) often report poor psychological well‐being. We examined (i) whether anxiety, self‐concept and reading motivation in CwD differed from those of typically developing children (TDC; case–control design, Study 1a) and (ii) whether these differences mirrored the linear relationships that these variables present with reading ability in the TDC group (dimensional approach, Study 1b). In Study 1a, 34 CwD were compared with 191 TDC in grades 4–8 on anxiety, self‐concept, reading motivation and reading strategy using self‐reports (controlling for sex, intelligence and math ability scores). In Study 1b, the differences that emerged in Study 1a were compared with the results obtained from a simulation procedure that generated dyslexia observations under the assumptions of a dimensional hypothesis. The CwD group presented small‐to‐moderate difficulties, which partially mirrored the predictions in the TDC group. However, violations of predictions based on the population without dyslexia were found for reading self‐concept, social anxiety and reading competitiveness. In sum, children's diagnoses affect their self‐perception as readers and social anxiety in a way that cannot be inferred from linear relationships. CwD need support to preserve an adequate image of themselves as readers and cope with social anxiety.