Reading Attitudes and Interests Questionnaire

Abstract

This article presents an instrument for the evaluation of reading attitudes and interests of Spanish students who have just started to read, that derives from the scale developed by Meirisuo-Storm & Soinien (2012). Attitude and motivation can be one of the main reasons why most readers read and possibly the main reason why many do not read. The important role that they play, however, has often been ignored. The questionnaire assesses five dimensions related to reading: motivation towards reading, reader’s interests, attitudes toward social reading, perception of reading competence and motivation towards learning or study. A confirmatory factor analysis was carried out with a sample of 1135 second graders, with an age between 7 and 8.4 years old (median 7.7 and standard derivation=0.99). This analysis shows a good fit of the five factor model to the data. Also invariance studies have been done to prove that the instrument can be applied without significant biases to 2nd grade boys and girls. Once the main sources of invariance were eliminated, the analysis showed some significant sex differences: girls showed greater motivation towards reading and more positive attitudes toward social reading, while boys showed a better perception of their reading competence. Also interesting differences in reader’s interests were observed. It is concluded that this instrument can be useful as it can help teachers estimate levels of attitude and motivation of their students in a reliable manner, as well as for the evaluation of specific students and for the estimation of the changes that occur in attitudes following intervention programmes.