Reading comprehension, vocabulary knowledge, and compound morphological awareness in grade 2 Chinese children: a two-wave longitudinal study

Research has established links between morphological awareness (MA) and Chinese reading, but the prospective association between reading comprehension and later MA remains less understood. This two-wave study examined longitudinally adjusted associations among reading comprehension, vocabulary knowledge, and compound MA. We assessed 143 second-grade students at two time points and the complete-case path analyses included 142 children. Hypothesized and reverse path models were estimated across three progressively adjusted covariate specifications, together with a concurrent-outcomes model. Indirect associations were evaluated using 5,000 bias-corrected bootstrap resamples.T1 reading comprehension, T2 vocabulary, and T2 compound MA were positively correlated. In Specification 1, both the hypothesized T1 reading comprehension → T2 vocabulary → T2 compound MA ordering (β = .070, SE = .032, 95% BC CI [.020, .148]) and the reverse ordering (β = .047, SE = .026, 95% BC CI [.010, .113]) yielded positive indirect associations. The indirect-association point estimates in Specification 2 were numerically lower under broader covariate adjustment, and in Specification 3 the bootstrap intervals for both orderings approximately spanned zero. The concurrent-outcomes model showed a significant residual association between T2 vocabulary and compound MA (standardized association = .265, p = .001). Reading comprehension, vocabulary, and compound MA showed close longitudinally adjusted associations. However, because both directional orderings were compatible with the data and the T2 constructs were measured concurrently, their temporal ordering cannot be determined. These findings may inform future longitudinal and intervention research.