Effortful control, task persistence, and reading skills

The present study aimed to explore the shared and unique variance of children's effortful control and task persistence as rated by mothers and language teachers, and to investigate their associations with reading skills. Overall, 732 sixth-grade children (52% boys) from 57 classes participated in the study. Bifactor models fit the data best, showing that effortful control and task persistence, as measured by widely-used questionnaires, have not only a great amount of shared variance which is explained by the common Effortful-Control factor, but also some unique variance explained by specific factors. The parent- and teacher-rated common Effortful-Control factor and unique Task-Persistence factor were both positively associated with reading skills. In contrast, the Inhibitory-Control-specific factor was negatively associated with reading skills. The results suggest that latent variables, rather than composite scores, should be used when employing questionnaires to measure these constructs.