Date of Award

Spring 6-13-2025

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Ph.D. in Child, Family, and School Psychology

Organizational Unit

Morgridge College of Education, Child, Family, and School Psychology

First Advisor

David Furjanic

Second Advisor

Duan Zhang

Third Advisor

Rashida Banerjee

Fourth Advisor

Garrett Roberts

Copyright Statement / License for Reuse

All Rights Reserved
All Rights Reserved.

Keywords

Commercially produced video games, Reading anxiety, Reading comprehension, Upper elementary school students, Video game use, Reading skills

Abstract

Youth in the United States continue to have difficulty developing reading skills, with only 31% of fourth graders reading at a “proficient level” (NAEP Reading: National Average Scores, 2024). Youth struggling to develop reading skills often have reading anxiety (Chow et al., 2021; Martinez, 2019; Ramirez et al., 2019), which impacts their reading skill development even more (Mohammadpur & Ghafournia, 2015); the interwoven and cyclical relationship between reading anxiety and reading comprehension requires interventions to address these needs concurrently (Francis et al., 2019; Francis et al., 2021; Grills et al., 2012). The increased avoidance and paired aversion of reading-related tasks may be circumvented through more modern means: video games. Specifically, exploring whether using commercially produced video games is a potential moderator for the relationship between reading anxiety and reading comprehension.

This two-part manuscript includes a conceptual model, an exhaustive literature review, a collection of new data, and an analysis of said data. The first manuscript describes the proposed conceptual model, illustrates the theoretical underpinnings, and represents the relevant literature. As an extension to the first manuscript, the second manuscript examined video game use (VGS-C; Donati et al., 2019), self-reported reading anxiety symptoms (RAS; Ramirez et al., 2019), and performance on a measure of reading comprehension (TOSREC; Wagner et al., 2009). Additionally, the population of interest iii included upper-elementary students, with a particular focus on students in fourth and fifth grade, given the already extensive reading research available for students in K-3 and 6-8 (Hudson et al., 2020; Scammacca et al., 2015; Silverman et al., 2020; Solis et al., 2012; Wanzek et al., 2010).

Copyright Date

6-2025

Publication Statement

Copyright is held by the author. User is responsible for all copyright compliance.

Rights Holder

Senaida Mehmedovic

Provenance

Received from ProQuest

File Format

application/pdf

Language

English (eng)

Extent

184 pgs

File Size

2.1 MB

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