Developing and testing a model of direct and indirect relationships between individual differences, processing, and multiple-text comprehension

•Path analysis revealed direct and indirect effects on multiple-text comprehension.•Effort and deeper-level strategies had direct effects on comprehension.•Epistemic beliefs, need for cognition, interest and knowledge had indirect effects.

The purpose of this study was to test a hypothesized model that specified direct and indirect linkages between the individual difference variables of epistemic beliefs, need for cognition, individual interest, and prior knowledge, the processing variables of effort, deeper-level strategies, and situational interest, and multiple-text comprehension. Using a path analysis approach with a sample of 279 Norwegian upper secondary school students, results indicated that students' effort and deeper-level strategies predicted their multiple-text comprehension, with the individual difference variables indirectly affecting multiple-text comprehension through their influence on effortful, adaptive multiple-text processing. In addition, students' prior knowledge about the topic of the texts seemed to affect their multiple-text comprehension directly as well as indirectly. Both theoretical and educational implications of the results are discussed.