Social-Emotional Skills Correlate with Reading Ability among Typically Developing Readers: A Meta-Analysis

This meta-analysis examined the correlation between social-emotional skills and reading ability and identified possible moderators by synthesizing 285 correlations from 37 studies among 38 samples with 28,404 participants. Results showed a significantly positive correlation between social-emotional skills and reading ability among typically developing readers, r = 0.23, 95% CI [0.19, 0.28]. The moderation analysis revealed that, after controlling for types of social-emotional skills and grade level, the correlation between social-emotional skills and reading ability was moderated by the levels of reading (i.e., word reading vs. reading comprehension), beta = 0.07, 95% CI [0.02, 0.11], t = 5.03, p < 0.05. Specifically, social-emotional skills had a significantly stronger correlation with reading comprehension than it with word reading. This work provides support for the lattice model of reading, suggesting that future research efforts are needed to examine the underlying mechanisms between social-emotional skills and reading ability.