How gender and SES moderate the links between teacher-student closeness and reading

To examine how gender and SES predict teacher-student closeness and moderate its direct and mediated relations with reading, we analyzed data from 17,349 students (49% females; Mage = 73.45, SD = 4.48) with different ethnic backgrounds from The Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 2010–11 (ECLS-K: 2011). Latent growth curve modelling showed that male and lower-SES students had lower teacher-student closeness with faster decline from kindergarten to Grade 2 than their female and higher-SES peers. The direct relation between early closeness and Grade 4 reading was stronger for the female than male students; decline in closeness negatively predicted later reading only for the female students. While Grade 3 cognitive flexibility mediated between early closeness and later reading in both genders, Grade 3 reading motivation mediated the relation only for the male students. SES moderated neither the direct nor the mediated association between closeness and reading. Hence, gender is more important than SES in the consideration of early teacher-student closeness in relation to later reading, although both demographic factors predict early closeness and its change over time.