Developing the Bilingual Adult Reading History Questionnaire (Bi-ARHQ): Initial Validation, Psychometric Properties, and Factor Structure in a Chinese-English Context

Despite the growing number of bilingual and multilingual adults, most existing reading difficulty assessments focus primarily on individuals’ first language (L1) and often overlook their literacy experiences across languages. To address this gap, this study developed the Bilingual Adult Reading History Questionnaire (Bi-ARHQ) and evaluated its psychometric properties and factor structure in 593 Hong Kong Chinese-English bilingual adults. All participants completed the self-reported Bi-ARHQ, which assesses reading, writing, and learning histories in L1 Chinese and second language (L2) English. Subsets of participants also completed Chinese ( N = 456) and English word reading tasks ( N = 358). Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses supported a three-factor structure: L1 literacy difficulty (25 items), L1 literacy ability (15 items), and L2 English literacy competency (38 items). The L1 literacy difficulty and L1 literacy ability subscales significantly predicted Chinese word reading, whereas the L2 English literacy competency subscale significantly predicted English word reading. These findings indicate that the Bi-ARHQ is a reliable and valid tool for screening and identifying reading and writing difficulties in bilingual adults, particularly for Chinese-English readers.