Abstract
Purpose: This study examined the level of reading and writing anxiety in a cross-sectional sample of Finnish school children and the moderating roles of gender, grade level, and reading competence. Method: We used a reading and writing anxiety questionnaire (RWAQ) that consists of three factors: workload-related reading and writing anxiety, evaluation-related reading and writing anxiety, and social reading and writing anxiety. Linear regression modeling was used to analyze how gender, grade level, and reading competence moderate different dimensions of reading and writing anxiety. Participants were 9,723 Finnish-speaking children in grades 3–9, including 4,832 girls and 4,891 boys.Results: Finnish school-age children showed relatively low reading and writing anxiety overall, but it increased with age (lowest in grades 3–5, highest in grades 7–9). This was especially evident in girls’ social and evaluation-related anxiety, while boys reported higher workload-related anxiety across grades. Lower reading competence was linked to higher reading and writing anxiety, but this effect varied by gender. Math anxiety and general anxiety were controlled in the models, and both anxiety types predicted reading and writing anxiety strongly.Conclusion: Together the results suggest that workload-related reading and writing anxiety, evaluation-related reading and writing anxiety, and social reading and writing anxiety are distinct dimensions of reading and writing anxiety, and that future research could benefit from accounting that grade level, gender, and reading competence may influence these dimensions differently.