TY - JOUR
T1 - Are attitudes toward writing and reading separable constructs? a study with primary grade children
AU - Graham, Steve
AU - Berninger, Virginia
AU - Abbott, Robert
N1 - Funding Information:
This cross-site collaboration was supported in part by Grant No. HD25858-15 from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development at the University of Washington. Address correspondence to Steve Graham, Department of Special Education, Vanderbilt University, Peabody Box 328, Nashville, TN 37203, USA. E-mail: steve.graham@vanderbilt.edu
PY - 2012/1
Y1 - 2012/1
N2 - This study examined whether attitude toward writing is a unique and separable construct from attitude toward reading for young beginning writers. Participants were 128 first-grade children (70 girls and 58 boys) and 113 third-grade students (57 girls and 56 boys). We individually administered to each child a 24-item attitude measure that contained 12 items assessing attitude toward writing and 12 parallel items for reading. Students also wrote a narrative about a personal event in their life. A factor analysis of the 24-item attitude measure provided evidence that generally supported the contention that writing and reading attitudes are separable constructs for young beginning writers, as it yielded 3 factors: a writing attitude factor with 9 items, a reading attitude factor with 9 parallel items, and an attitude about literacy interactions with others factor containing 4 items (2 items in writing and 2 parallel items in reading). We obtained further validation that attitude toward writing is a separable construct from attitude toward reading at the third-grade level, where writing attitude made a unique and significant contribution beyond the other 2 attitude measures to the prediction of 3 measures of writing: quality, length, and longest correct word sequence. At the first-grade level, none of the 3 attitude measures predicted students' writing performance. Finally, girls had more positive attitudes concerning reading and writing than boys.
AB - This study examined whether attitude toward writing is a unique and separable construct from attitude toward reading for young beginning writers. Participants were 128 first-grade children (70 girls and 58 boys) and 113 third-grade students (57 girls and 56 boys). We individually administered to each child a 24-item attitude measure that contained 12 items assessing attitude toward writing and 12 parallel items for reading. Students also wrote a narrative about a personal event in their life. A factor analysis of the 24-item attitude measure provided evidence that generally supported the contention that writing and reading attitudes are separable constructs for young beginning writers, as it yielded 3 factors: a writing attitude factor with 9 items, a reading attitude factor with 9 parallel items, and an attitude about literacy interactions with others factor containing 4 items (2 items in writing and 2 parallel items in reading). We obtained further validation that attitude toward writing is a separable construct from attitude toward reading at the third-grade level, where writing attitude made a unique and significant contribution beyond the other 2 attitude measures to the prediction of 3 measures of writing: quality, length, and longest correct word sequence. At the first-grade level, none of the 3 attitude measures predicted students' writing performance. Finally, girls had more positive attitudes concerning reading and writing than boys.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84861116564&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84861116564&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/10573569.2012.632732
DO - 10.1080/10573569.2012.632732
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84861116564
SN - 1057-3569
VL - 28
SP - 51
EP - 69
JO - Reading and Writing Quarterly
JF - Reading and Writing Quarterly
IS - 1
ER -