The Impact of Perceived Teacher Support on Reading Literacy: The Mediating Roles of Reading Self-Concept and Reading Engagement

To date, limited research has systematically explored the interconnections between perceived teacher support, self-concept, engagement, and academic achievement specifically regarding the reading domain. Most previous studies have been conducted in Western cultures, making it difficult to extrapolate the findings to Eastern cultures, such as China. Therefore, this study investigated the relationship between perceived teacher support, reading self-concept, reading engagement, and reading literacy in a Chinese educational context. A structural equation modeling analysis was conducted using 12,058 Chinese students from the Programme for International Student Assessment 2018 data. The results revealed that perceived teacher support did not directly affect students’ reading literacy. However, it could indirectly affect reading literacy through the independent mediation effects of reading self-concept and reading engagement as well as their chain mediation effect. Hence, the results suggest that perceived teacher support can increase students’ sense of reading self-concept, resulting in greater reading engagement, which may lead to improved reading achievement.