A study of the relationships among reading comprehension, reader self-concept, reading attitude, children's perceptions of parental and peer expectations, gender and grade in high ability elementary level language arts students

Pink, Gina M. (1996) A study of the relationships among reading comprehension, reader self-concept, reading attitude, children's perceptions of parental and peer expectations, gender and grade in high ability elementary level language arts students. Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

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Abstract

This study investigated the relationships among reader self-concept, reading attitude, reading comprehension, gender and grades in high ability elementary level language arts students. The purposes of the study were to provide insights to teachers about high ability students in their classrooms and to contribute to the field of research about reader self-concept. -- The testing instruments used in this study were the Elementary Reading Attitude Survey, to measure reading attitude, and the Reader Self-Perception Scale, to measure reader self-perception. Students included in this study had previously completed the reading comprehension subtest of the Canadian Test of Basic Skills. -- This study was conducted with 74 high ability language arts students in grades 4, 5 and 6. Thirty-six boys and 38 girls participated in the study. The students were involved in enrichment programs in 5 urban Newfoundland schools. Regular correlational analyses using the Pearson Product-Moment Method were performed to examine the relationships among measures of reader self-perception, reading attitude, reading comprehension and children's perceptions of parental and peer expectations. Analyses of variance were used to determine the influence of gender on reader self-perception, reading attitude, reading comprehension and children's perceptions of parental and peer expectations. Spearman coefficient correlational tests were used with grade level and reader self-perception, reading attitude, reading comprehension and children's perceptions of parental and peer expectations. -- For this group of elementary level high ability language arts students, statistically significant relationships were found between: -- 1. reading attitude and reader self-perception. -- 2. parental expectations and reader self-perception. -- 3. parental expectations and reading attitude. -- 4. peer expectations and reader self-perception. -- 5. peer expectations and reading attitude. -- For this group of high achieving students, the following relationships were not statistically significant: -- 1. reading comprehension and reader self-perception. -- 2. reading comprehension and reading attitude. -- 3. parental expectations and reading comprehension. -- 4. peer expectations and reading comprehension. -- 5. gender and reading comprehension. -- 6. gender and reader self-perception. -- 7. gender and reading attitude. -- 8 gender and parental expectations. -- 9 gender and peer expectations. -- 10. grade and reading comprehension. -- 11. grade and reader self-perception. -- 12. grade and reading attitude. -- 13 grade and parental expectations. -- 14. grade and peer expectations. -- The finding of a relationship between reader self-perception and reading attitude indicates that it is important that students be encouraged to feel good about reading and their reading performances with experiences of success and reward. Perceptions of parental and peer expectations are important to the development of reader self-perception and reading attitude.

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