Identification, Prediction and Intervention in Adolescent Reading

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The long term goal of this project is to identify the motivational and cognitive characteristics that act as facilitators or barriers to achievement in reading for young Caucasian and African American adolescents. This project will determine the optimal combination of cognitive and motivational measures to predict success in reading comprehension for Grade 7 students. This knowledge will inform scientists in the field of reading. It will also be useful for professionals in the field of education and psychology who are attempting to reduce and ameliorate the effects of reading disability and motivational resistance to reading that prevent normal school progress. The research design contains three phases. First, a qualitative investigation is conducted to identify the motivations with negative effects (reading resistance and avoidance) as well as positive motivations (e.g., internal). This consists of interviews with 104 students. These interviews are audio taped, transcribed and coded quantitatively and qualitatively. Second, pretests and posttests of 3 cognitive and 3 motivational measures will be used to determine the optimal path model of success and failure in reading comprehension. Third, two reading interventions will be designed for low-achieving students to increase cognitive and motivational processes of reading. One intervention will provide four supports for motivation; one will provide two supports, and a normal school control will be used. We hypothesize the high support will maximize achievement for the resistant students, and the moderate support will maximize achievement for the extrinsically motivated students. HIM and SEM will be used to examine intervention effects on outcomes and to investigate the interaction of intervention and motivation types; and the interaction of intervention and ethnicity. This project is relevant to public health because reading failure and disability in adolescence are major contributors to mental health issues of school drop-out, violence, and crime. The interventions studied here may reduce the severity and frequency of middle school reading disabilities, which is an antecedent to major forms of psychosocial maladjustment in adulthood.