The Development of Scales to Measure Attitudes Towards Reading

The purpose of this study was to develop an instrument or instruments to measure the attitudes toward reading of children in grades one through six. Criteria were established for such an instrument. The Likert-type scale was chosen as the most appropriate type of instrument to meet the established criteria.

Two rural schools and two urban schools with normally distributed populations according to ability and socioeconomic levels were used in the study. Pilot work, consisting of individual interviews with children in grades one through six, was conducted to explore the area of reading attitudes and to obtain statements suitable for the attitude scale. Such interviews revealed that two scales were needed, one for grades one through three and one for grades four through six.

The two attitudes scales were administered to sample populations in the four schools. The final scales contain 20 items for grades one through three and 24 items for grades four through six. Answer formats were also designed for each scale.

The scales were checked for reliability by the test-retest method and for validity by item analysis and by teacher ratings of students with positive and negative attitudes.

Diagnostic clusters of questions were developed to be used by teachers to diagnose specific areas of children's attitudes which are positive or negative.

The scales were judged to meet the established criteria.