The Moderator Role of Gender and Socioeconomic Status in the Relationship Between Metacognitive Skills and Reading Scores

Authors : İlhan KOYUNCU, Metin BULUS, Tahsin FIRAT

Pages : 82-97

Doi:10.17275/per.22.55.9.3

View : 25 | Download : 18

Publication Date : 2022-05-01

Article Type : Research Paper

Abstract :The aim of this study was to examine the moderator role of gender and socioeconomic status insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(SES); factors in the relationship between students` metacognitive skills and reading performance. The sample of the study was 6890 students in the age group of 15 years-old who participated in the Programme for International Student Assessment insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(PISA); in 2018 from Turkey. 3396 of the participants insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(49.30%); were female and 3494 insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(50.70%); of them were male. Of the participants, 2273 insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(32.99%); were classified as low, 2273 insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(32.99%); as medium and 2344 insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(34.02%); as high socioeconomic level. Moderator effects were tested with the multi-group structural equation modelling approach. Results revealed that SES and gender moderated the relationship between metacognitive skills and reading when controlling for other variables. Female students scored lower than male students in low and medium SES group, however they scored higher in the high SES group even after controlling for metacognitive skills, liking reading, and self-concept of perception of competence and difficulty. This means gender differences in reading scores were largely driven by SES. Therefore, the effect of these two factors should be taken into consideration while working on metacognition and reading. Moreover, it was advised to integrate training of metacognitive strategies in school curriculum and encourage reading engagement in order to reduce the effect of those factors.
Keywords : moderator effect, multi group structural equation modeling, metacognition, reading achievement, PISA