Sociodemographic diversity, reading literacy, and instructional focus: Disentangling complex relations on the individual and classroom level

A main goal of primary school is teaching students to be successful readers. However, reading literacy is influenced by a variety of sociodemographic background variables and, beyond these individual-level effects, the sociodemographic classroom composition. Teachers’ instruction has been proposed as one important mediator of these associations in theoretical models, but its role as a mediator of classroom-level and more importantly moderator of individual-level effects, has not been conclusively studied. Moreover, different confounded sociodemographic background variables have often been conflated in the extant literature. Therefore, we analyzed the role of central sociodemographic background variables (socioeconomic risk, language minority, first-generation immigrant) for core indicators of reading literacy (reading competence, reading enjoyment, reading self-concept) on the individual and classroom level, as well as the mediating and moderating role of instructional focus (reading-related support, support of language-minority students, cognitive activation). Multilevel structural equation models based on German PIRLS 2021 data (N = 3414 fourth-grade students, 195 classrooms) revealed negative associations of individual socioeconomic risk and language minority status with aspects of reading literacy, but motivational advantages among first-generation immigrant students. Negative classroom effects were found for socioeconomic and immigrant composition, positive classroom effects on self-concepts for share of language minority students. Instructional focus did not significantly mediate or moderate these associations. The results emphasize that especially socioeconomic risk threatens reading literacy on the individual and classroom level and suggest that while teachers adapt their instructional focus based on classroom composition, this in turn does not mediate or moderate associations on either level.