CHILDRENS ATTITUDES TOWARD READING - A NATIONAL SURVEY

THIS STUDY investigated the reading attitudes of a stratified national sample of 18,185 U.S. children in Grades 1 through 6. Students responded to a group pictorial rating scale, comprising two subscales devoted to attitude toward reading for recreational and for academic purposes. Scores were analyzed on the basis of gender, grade level, ethnicity, reading ability, and the use of basal readers. Results supported a model of reading attitude in which social factors and expectations gradually shape attitudes over time. Findings included the following. First, recreational and academic reading attitudes, on average, were observed to become more negative gradually, but steadily, throughout the elementary school years, beginning al a relatively positive point and ending in relative indifference. Second, the trend toward more negative recreational attitudes was clearly related to ability and was steepest for least able readers. The attitudinal gap among ability levels widened with age, though for academic reading attitude the negative trend was similar regardless of ability. Third, girls as a group possessed more favorable attitudes than boys at all grade levels, toward both recreational and academic reading. In the case of recreational attitude, this gap widened with age, while in the case of academic attitude, it remained relatively constant. These gender differences appeared to be unrelated to ability. Fourth, ethnicity was observed to play little role in the negative trends in either recreational or academic reading attitude. Fifth, the extent of a reacher's reliance on basal readers did nor appear to be meaningfully related to recreational or academic reading attitude. In general, these findings are supportive of the McKenna model of reading attitude acquisition.