An international reading literacy study: factor structure of the Chinese PIRLS student questionnaire

Abstract

The student questionnaire (PIRLS-SQ 2011) of the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) was designed to gather information from students on reading literacy development related to aspects of students’ self, home and school lives across countries/districts. The questionnaire was translated into different languages for international comparison and research purposes. This study aims to assess the psychometric properties of the Chinese version of the student questionnaire (PIRLS–SQCV 2011) and identify the underlying factor structure using exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis among 3875 Chinese fourth-grade students in Hong Kong. A 10-factor structure model has been identified and confirmed to resemble much to the original PIRLS structure. While the similarity allows international comparisons of studies carried out in different places of the world following the PIRLS strategy, the findings add further insights into the inconclusive results in the literature regarding the relationship between student factors and reading achievement.