A study of parental reading attitude and selected school life variables as predictors of the reading attitude and reading achievement of grade eight students

• Main Author: Witherall, Wayne
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: Memorial University of Newfoundland 1987
• Subjects: Newfoundland
• Online Access: https://research.library.mun.ca/4314/; https://research.library.mun.ca/4314/1/Witherall_Wayne.pdf; https://research.library.mun.ca/4314/3/Witherall_Wayne.pdf

This study sought to investigate the relationship between selected school-life variables: parental reading attitude and the reading attitude and reading achievement of the grade eight student. -- The subjects of this study were one hundred and forty students from an urban and a rural school in Central Newfoundland. All students completed the Gates-MacGinitie Reading Test (Canadian edition), Level E, Form 1, the Estes Attitude Scale for reading and the School Life scale. The parent sample completed the Parent Attitude Scale, an instrument designed by the investigator to assess parental attitude toward reading. -- After the data were collected, the Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient was used to determine the significance of the relationship between the dependent and independent variables of the study. Correlation coefficients were calculated for the total group of subjects and for males and females separately. -- At the .05 level of confidence, statistically significant correlations were found between many of the variables of this study. The correlation between reading attitude and reading achievement in this study supports the theory that attitude toward reading and reading achievement are directly related. Another variable that was found to be significantly associated with the students' reading achievement was the reading attitude of the parent or guardian. It was found that significant correlations existed between the reading attitude of the maternal and paternal parent or guardian and the reading achievement of both the male and female student. With regard to reading attitude, it was found that the reading attitude of the paternal parent significantly correlated with the female students' reading attitude, while the maternal reading attitude was significantly associated with the reading attitude of the male students. Correlations between maternal reading attitude and the female students' reading attitude and between paternal reading attitude and the reading attitude of the male student were not ...