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Reading comprehension in Caucasian middle school students: effects of the race of protagonists
Author(s) -
Casteel Clifton A.,
Rider David P.
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
british journal of educational psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.557
H-Index - 95
eISSN - 2044-8279
pISSN - 0007-0998
DOI - 10.1111/j.2044-8279.1994.tb01082.x
Subject(s) - psychology , reading comprehension , reading (process) , race (biology) , test (biology) , comprehension , developmental psychology , african american , linguistics , gender studies , sociology , anthropology , paleontology , philosophy , biology
The purpose of this study was to investigate whether Caucasian students would read fictional text passages depicting African‐American characters as carefully as they would those depicting characters of their own (Caucasian) race. Fifty‐seven 7th grade high ability and low ability readers read nine African‐American and nine Caucasian fictional passages. Following silent reading of each passage, the students responded to a 20‐item multiple‐choice test designed to measure comprehension. A 2 times 2 ANOVA was conducted on the number of test items answers correctly. Results demonstrated that all readers answered significantly more test items correctly over passages about Caucasian characters than they did over passages about African‐American characters.