Many studies have shown that family socioeconomic status (SES) influences the development of children’s reading ability; however, the mechanisms underlying this effect remain unclear. This study used meta-analytic structural equation modeling (MASEM) analysis to examine the mediating role of children’s linguistic skills (phonological awareness and vocabulary knowledge) in the relationships between SES and reading (accuracy, fluency, and comprehension), as well as potential moderators including age, country SES, SES measurement type, and writing system based on 85,102 individuals from 471 independent studies. The results indicated that (1) the relations between SES and reading were partially mediated by phonological awareness and vocabulary knowledge and (2) although age, country SES, SES measurement type, and writing system did not moderate the direct associations between SES and reading abilities, the moderation effects of age, country SES, SES measurement type, and writing system could manifest through the linguistic mediation pathway: older age, higher country SES, composite SES index, and alphabetic languages might induce a larger indirect impact from SES to reading ability. These results suggested that SES exerted both direct and indirect effects on reading via linguistic skills. Such a linguistic mediation mechanism may be moderated by age, country SES, SES measurement type, and writing system. Our findings have important implications for understanding the role of SES in reading development.

许多研究表明，家庭社会经济地位（SES）影响儿童阅读能力的发展；然而，这种效应的机制仍不清楚。本研究采用元分析结构方程模型（MASEM）分析来检验儿童语言技能（语音意识和词汇知识）在SES和阅读（准确性、流利性和理解性）关系中的中介作用，以及潜在的调节因素包括年龄、国家/地区 SES、SES 测量类型和基于 471 项独立研究中的 85,102 人的写作系统。结果表明，(1) SES 与阅读之间的关系部分由语音意识和词汇知识调节；(2) 尽管年龄、国家 SES、SES 测量类型和书写系统并没有调节 SES 与阅读能力之间的直接关联，年龄、国家SES、SES测量类型和书写系统的调节作用可以通过语言中介途径体现：年龄较大、国家SES较高、综合SES指数和字母语言可能会导致SES对阅读能力产生更大的间接影响。这些结果表明，SES 通过语言技能对阅读产生直接和间接的影响。这种语言中介机制可能会受到年龄、国家/地区 SES、SES 测量类型和书写系统的调节。我们的研究结果对于理解 SES 在阅读发展中的作用具有重要意义。