The Morphological Awareness Test for Mainland Chinese School-age Children: Development and Validation of a New Test

There is a pressing need for a developmentally appropriate morphological awareness assessment that can be effectively implemented in mainland Chinese elementary classrooms. To address this, we developed the Chinese Morphological Awareness Test (CMAT), specifically designed for mainland Chinese students in Grades 1–6. The CMAT is grounded in developmentally appropriate morphological awareness concepts and can be administered to entire classes. This study evaluated the CMAT with a cohort of 1,544 students across Grades 1–6. The CMAT, designed as a four-factor model, exhibited acceptable reliability and validity. These findings provide initial psychometric support for the CMAT, highlighting its ease of administration and scoring. By filling a critical gap, this tool provides a practical assessment to evaluate morphological awareness in mainland Chinese school-age students, with the potential to inform the development of targeted interventions. The study also discusses the limitations of this tool and suggests directions for future research.