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Media use and children's reading performance
105
Poetics 20 (1991) 105-118 North-Holland
Media use and children’s reading performance Cees M. Koolstra,
*
Tom H.A. van der Voort and Marcel W. Vooijs
This study explores the impact of leisure reading and television viewing on children’s development of reading skills among Dutch second- (N = 505) and fourth-graders (N = 515). Controlled for intelligence. sex, and parents’ educational attainment level. multiple regression analyses show that the frequencies with which children read books and comics contribute positively to the prediction of both decoding skills (Grades 2 and 4) and reading comprehension (Grade 4). Although the reading of television program subtitles appears to add positively to the prediction of decoding skills, viewing frequency is negatively related to reading performance. Apparently, the beneficial effect of reading subtitles is annulled because watching television. through other mechanisms, hinders the development of children’s reading performance.
1. Introduction Until now, research into the determinants of reading performance has primarily focused on the influence of background characteristics such as sex. socioeconomic background, vocabulary or intelligence. In this study we examine how the development of reading skills is affected by the use children make of the media at home. Whereas previous research concerned only the influence of watching television and reading books, the present study also examines the effects of reading comic books and television program subtitles. It is generally agreed that the recreational reading of books has a positive effect on children’s reading performance. Even after controlling for other predictors, a positive relationship between reading books and reading performance has been found (Anderson et al. 1988; Walberg and Tsai 1984). The literature provides no definite indication of the effects of comic books on the development of reading skills. In the early postwar years comics were seen by many educators as an evil to be fought. Although most objections concerned the immoral lessons taught by comic books (Wertham 1954). criticism was also voiced against the literary form. Since comic books are made up of short sentences which are frequently incomplete or incorrect and * This work was supported by a grant provided by the Netherlands Research (NWO). Correspondence address: Cees M. Koolstra, Center for Child senaarseweg 52, 2333 AK Leiden. The Netherlands.
0304-422X/91/$03.50
Organization and Media
0 1991 - Elsevier Science Publishers B.V. (North-Holland)
for Scientific Studies.
Was-
subordinate to the drawings. it was felt that reading comics was more likely to damage reading skills than to further them (Van der Burg and Van Campen 1983). As the comic book became more accepted. criticism gradually decreased, and at present some researchers believe comics to have a beneficial effect on reading skills (Wermke 1976). The debate about the effects of comic books is still undecided, because no research has been conducted into their influence on reading skills. Much research has been done on the influence of television upon reading skills. American research suggests that very large amounts of time spent watching television - three hours or more per day - can adversely affect the development of reading skills (Beentjes and Van der Voort 1988). This is especially true for children with higher intelligence and those from higher social environments. For these children, the intellectual stimulation provided by watching a large amount of television cannot compete with the opportunities for cognitive development offered by their immediate environment. According to the displacement hypothesis, television hinders the development of reading skills because watching television takes up time that otherwise could have been spent on activities providing a greater amount of cognitive stimulation. Another explanation is based on the alleged passive manner in which information from television is processed. It is suggested that this passive manner of information processing is generalized to reading, thereby hindering the development of reading skills (Beentjes and Van der Voort 1988). It is questionable, however, whether the results of American research into the influence of television hold in the Dutch situation. In the Netherlands it is possible to develop reading skills through reading subtitles of foreign television programs (Beentjes and Van der Voort 1988; see also Van der Voort 1991, this issue). There are few other countries in which the subtitling of television programs is used on such a large scale. No research has been done into the influence of reading subtitles upon the development of reading skills. Research into the determinants of reading skills has been mainly concerned with reading comprehension. The present study focuses on decoding skills as well as reading comprehension. The effects of a medium on the development of reading comprehension and decoding skills need not be the same. We believe the reading of books to further the development of both reading comprehension and decoding skills, because the text in books provides exercise in interpreting and decoding as well. Reading comic books also assumes that the text is decoded. so one would expect a positive effect on decoding skiIls. On the other hand, it seems unlikely that comic books stimulate the development of reading comprehension, because the balloon texts are not connected to one another and, separated from the drawings, do not offer a coherent story. As was indicated already, large amounts of television viewing can have an adverse effect on reading skills. In so far as television promotes passive
C. M. Koolsrra et al. / Media use and reading performance
107
information-processing habits or displaces time spent on activities which further cognitive development. we expect that in the Dutch case a large amount of television is likely to interfere with the development of reading skills. At the same time, we expect that television’s negative influence will be partially compensated by another factor, namely the reading practice which subtitled television programs offer. Subtitles provide an opportunity to practice word recognition; they also enhance decoding speed, because the texts are displayed on the screen for a very short time. We suspect. however. that subtitles do not further reading comprehension. Like cartoon text balloons. the disjointed dialogue lines in television captions seem to offer little exercise in comprehending coherent texts. In predicting reading skills from media behavior, we will control for the influence of background characteristics that have been found to be determinants of reading performance in earlier studies. In particular. it has been demonstrated that reading performance is better for socially advantaged children (Jencks 1972) and for girls (Gates 1969). In addition, vocabulary, intelligence, and level of decoding skills appear to be important determinants of reading comprehension (Aamoutse and Van Leeuwe 1988). In the present study we examine whether children’s media use makes an additional contribution to the prediction of decoding skills and reading comprehension when the background factors mentioned above are held constant. ’
2. Method 2.1. Sample The study was carried out with children from Grades 2 (N = 505) and 4 (N = 515) of primary school. These two age groups were chosen because of the different reading phases they represent (Chall 1983). At the second grade level, children are still engaged in internalizing the process of word decoding. and have barely begun to read with comprehension on their own. At the fourth grade level, on the other hand, decoding technique has already been intemalized to a large extent, and reading is primarily concerned with acquiring new information (reading comprehension). As reading skills are taking definite shape during this age span, it seems especially appropriate for investigating external influences on reading development. If media use does influence ’ However, inseparable vocabulary which is an
we have not controlled for vocabulary. Knowing the meaning of words is an part of reading comprehension; hence, most reading comprehension tests include items. The use of vocabulary as a control variable would result in removing variance essential part of reading comprehension.
108
C. hf. Koolsrra et al. / Media ure and reading perfotmance
reading skills, it will presumably affect decoding skills among second-graders and reading comprehension among fourth-graders. The study was conducted with a purposive sample of sixteen primary schools in the province of South Holland. These schools were chosen so that children from lower, middle and higher socioeconomic backgrounds were more or less equally represented. 2.2. Procedure Testing was carried out in the period from October to December 1989. The questionnaires were administered in the children’s own classroom by trained examiners. To help poor readers, the examiner read each question aloud, following which all the children filled in an answer. Of course, with the reading comprehension tests children were required to do the reading independently. Measurements of decoding skills were carried out with individual children in a separate room. In order to avoid missing data, each questionnaire was checked. Children who failed to answer some of the questions were requested again to answer them. In addition, examiners returned to the schools to administer tests to children who had missed the scheduled testing. As a result, sample attrition was limited to only 3%. 2.3. itfeasures The measurement instruments to scaling procedures, reported here a short characterization measurement scales.
used in the present study have been subjected extensively in Koolstra (1990). Suffice it to give of the content and the reliabilities of the
Reading comprehension The ‘Read and Comprehend 2’ test (Verhoeven 1980) was used for secondgraders, whereas ‘Comprehensive reading 4’ (CITO 1981) was administered to fourth-graders. Both tests consisted of texts and corresponding multiple-choice questions which asked the children to find the main theme, to interpret the context and to draw conclusions. Decoding skills The ‘One Minute Test’ (Brus and Voeten 1973) was used to assess decoding skills for both age groups. The test measures the ability to decode a list of increasingly more difficult single words. A child’s score was the total number of words read correctly in one minute.
CM.
Koolstru et al. / Media use and reading performance
109
Intelligence Raven’s Standard Progressive Matrices Test (Raven et al. 1988) was used to measure intelligence. Raven’s test, in which for sixty patterns the child had to select the missing part from six or eight alternatives. gives an indication of nonverbal intelligence. ’ Reading frequency Separate scales were used to measure the frequencies with which books and comic books were read. Each scale consisted of nine items used to elicit estimates of the quantity of books or comic books read (for example. ‘How many books have you read this week?‘) as well as of the reading frequencies in specified time periods (for example, ‘During vacations, do you often, sometimes, or never read a book?). Viewing frequency To measure viewing frequency we used a list of 76 television series that were broadcast weekly during the research period. The children were asked to indicate whether they ‘always’, ‘often’, ‘sometimes’, or ‘never’ watched each program. Reading frequency for subtitles The children were asked whether they ‘always’, ‘often’, ‘sometimes’, or ‘never’ read the subtitles for a subset of 24 foreign programs out of the list mentioned above. In order to determine the reading frequency score for subtitles. the viewing frequency score per child for each television program was multiplied by the corresponding reading frequency score for subtitles, after which the resulting products were totaled. Thus, we obtained an indication of the reading frequency for subtitles which took into account the number of times each television program was watched. Socioeconomic status Children’s socioeconomic status was established via the participating schools. Using the parents’ levels of educational attainment. each principal classified his or her school as a low-, middle- or high-SES school. This global measure was used because a questionnaire sent to parents produced only a 58% response. All the children in a particular school were then assigned the same score. This rough score correlated 0.56 with the individual indications of socioeconomic status obtained from parents’ questionnaires. As further analyses will show, the global SES measure only marginally affected the results of the study. * We have chosen a nonverbal measure for intelligence because measures of verbal intelligence almost identical to measures of reading comprehension (Aamoutse and Van Leeuwe 1988).
are
The reliability of each instrument ties were satisfactory. varying from measures for viewing and reading tion research (Vooijs et al. 1987). discussed in Koolstra (1990).
is given in table 1. In general, the reliabili0.81 to 0.99. The concurrent validity of the frequency was established in earlier validaThe construct validity of the measures is
d
3. Results
3.1. Prediction
of decoding skills
For the prediction of decoding skills, separate hierarchical multiple regression analyses were carried out for each of the two age groups. Socioeconomic status, sex and intelligence were used as predictors in the first step. In the second step, the variables pertaining to the children’s media use were added to the first set of predictors. In this way, it could be determined whether children’s exposure to the media made an independent contribution to the prediction of decoding skills. In the first step. the background variables accounted for 5% of the variance in decoding skills for Grade 2 (F = 8.47, p < 0.001) and 1% of the variance in decoding skills for Grade 4 (F = 1.51, n.s.). For both groups. the addition of the media variables to the first set of predictors resulted in a significant increase in the variance explained. Media variables added 7% to the explained variance for second-graders ( F = 9.86. p < 0.001) and 10% for fourth-graders (F = 14.18, p -C 0.001).
Table
1
Reliability
of the measures.
Variable
Reliability
coefficient
Grade 2
Grade 4
Reading comprehension
0.91 *
0.85 =
Decoding
0.98 ’
0.99 h
0.88 A
0.86 =
skills
Intelligence Reading
frequency
for comic books
0.88 ’
0.90 E
Reading
frequency
for books
0.81 =
0.86 E
Reading
frequency
for subtitles
0.91 c
0.87 c
Viewing
frequency
0.96 =
0.95 c
hiore: Calculated a KR20
according
method
’ split-half F Cronbach’s
method alpha
to:
C. M
Table 2 Multiple regression
Koolstra
prediction
et al. /
Medio use and readrng
of decoding
skills in Grades
Raw correlation with decoding skills
performonce
111
2 and 4.
/3
Subgroups
f2
Grade 2
Background characteristics: Socioeconomic status Sex Intelligence Media use: Reading frequency comics Reading frequency books Reading frequency subtitles Viewing frequency
0.06 0.15 c 0.14 = 0.06 0.12 b 0.00 -0.15 =
R R (with weights of the other subgroup) Correlation between predicted scores from both regression solutions used for the whole group
-0.04 0.08 0.14 =
-0.01 0.07 0.14 =
- 0.04
0.11 0.10 0.32 - 0.46
0.13 0.12 0.22 - 0.34
0.09 0.09 0.40 c -0.55 c
a = ’ =
0.09 0.13 a
il = b b
0.31 0.29
0.34
0.38 0.35 0.93
Grade 4
Background characteristics: Socioeconomic status Sex Intelligence Media use: Reading frequency comics Reading frequency books Reading frequency subtitles Viewing frequency
-0.03 0.08 a 0.02
- 0.08 -0.00 0.00
0.10 h 0.16 = 0.13b - 0.05
0.11 0.14 0.40 - 0.42
R R (with weights of the other subgroup) Correlation between predicted scores from both regression solutions used for the whole group Note: The final beta weights -z 0.05 ip p -c0.01
0.33
- 0.07 0.04 0.00 a h = ’
0.14 0.14 0.27 -0.37
- 0.08 - 0.02 0.01 a = ’ E
0.08 0.15 = 0.51 = - 0.47 c
0.30 0.27
0.37 0.33 0.90
are shown;
Table 2 gives the final beta weights that were found after the media variables had been added to the background variables. Besides the beta weights for the total populations in both age groups. the table also shows weights obtained for two subgroups that were formed to conduct a cross validation to which we will return later. The relatively low multiple correlations found for both Grade 2 (R = 0.34) and 4 (R = 0.33) indicate that
decoding ability was poorly predicted by the variables used. The background variables in particular contributed little to the prediction of decoding skills. In the final multiple regression solution obtained, only intelligence made a significant contribution to the prediction for Grade 2. None of the background characteristics made a significant contribution to the prediction for Grade 4. For both age groups. each media variable made an independent contribution to the prediction of decoding skills. The reading frequency for comic books, books and subtitles contributed positively, whereas viewing frequency contributed negatively to the prediction of decoding skills. It is striking that the reading of subtitles obtained a positive weight in the regression solution for Grade 4, although this variable did not directly correlate with decoding skills (r = 0.00). This paradoxical result was caused by the fact that viewing frequency also was used as a predictor in the analysis. Viewing frequency and the reading frequency for subtitles were strongly interrelated because the measure of the reading of subtitles included the viewing frequency of the subtitled television programs. The interdependence between these two components is canceled out in the multiple regression analysis, which gives the independent contribution for each predictor. As the viewing frequency component is removed in the analysis, the measure for reading subtitles thus clarified can make a positive contribution to the prediction of decoding skills. Technically speaking, the viewing frequency functions as a suppressor variable, which has the effect of suppressing the viewing frequency component in the variance of the reading measure for subtitles (Tabachnick and Fidel1 1989). 3 A double cross validation was carried out in order to check the stability of the regression solutions. 4 The results of this double cross validation are also given in table 2. The regression solutions for the two age groups were fairly stable. In both cases, the multiple correlation coefficients (R) which were found per subgroup using the weights from the other subgroup were only a few points lower than the original multiple correlations found per subgroup. The correlations between the predicted scores obtained from both regression 3 The suppressor effect can also be seen when the correlation between decoding skills and the reading frequency for subtitles is calculated with viewing frequency held constant. This results in a partial correlation of 0.24. ’ The two age groups were each randomly divided into halves, and new regression analyses were carried out for each subgroup. The regression weights found for subgroup 1 were then assigned to subgroup 2 and vice versa, and the correlation between the predicted and observed values of the dependent variable were once again calculated for each subgroup. The extent to which these cross-correlations differed from the earlier multiple correlations found for each subgroup gave a first indication of the stability of the prediction. Two regression analyses were then carried out in which the regression weights from each subgroup were used to predict the scores for the dependent variable for the whole group. The correlation between the resulting two sets of predicted scores provided a second indication of the stability of the prediction (Kerlinger and Pedhazur 1973).
C. M. Koolstra et al. / Media uw and reading performance
113
equations when applied to the whole group were 0.93 and 0.90 for Grades 2 and 4 respectively. The regression weights of the predictors found per subgroup fluctuated very little. For Grade 2 the weights of the reading frequency for comic books and books for one subgroup were a little too low to be significant. American research gives reason to assume that reading performance is relatively poor for frequent viewers among children from higher socioeconomic backgrounds and for frequent viewers among children with higher intelligence. To test this hypothesis, multiple regression analyses were carried out in which an interaction block was added to the two original blocks of predictors. This interaction block was composed of the product terms of socioeconomic status and intelligence with viewing frequency. In this way it was possible to establish whether the interactions made a significant contribution to the prediction in addition to the previously introduced predictors (Jaccard et al. 1990). This appeared not to be the case: the negative relationship between viewing frequency and decoding skills was not stronger for high-IQ or high-SES children than for the other children. To assess whether the results of the multiple regression analyses were distorted by the global measure used for socioeconomic status, we repeated the regression analyses for those children for whom we had available an individual SES score (N = 592). This resulted in a relative increase of the importance of socioeconomic level for the prediction (at the cost of the importance of the predictor intelligence). The change occurring in the regression weights for the media variables is negligible. Hence, the relations found between the media variables and reading performance have not been distorted by the global measure used for the control variable socioeconomic level. 3.2. Prediction of reading comprehension To predict reading comprehension, a hierarchical multiple regression analysis was carried out with each of the two age groups. In addition to socioeconomic status, sex and intelligence, decoding ability was entered as a control variable. Decoding ability is considered to be a necessary but insufficient condition for reading comprehension (LaBerge and Samuels 1974; Lesgold and Perfetti 1978). The introduction of decoding skills as a control variable made it more difficult to find a significant effect for the media variables. In the first step, the background characteristics accounted for 18% of the variance in reading comprehension for both Grade 2 (F = 37.83, p -C 0.001) and Grade 4 (F = 35.82, p < 0.001). The introduction of decoding skills in the set of predictors resulted in a significant additional contribution to the prediction. The amount of explained variance increased by 24% for Grade 2 (F = 198.95, p -C0.001) and by 12% for Grade 4 (F = 81.63, p -C0.001). In the third step, the addition of the set of media variables did not contribute
significantly to the prediction of reading comprehension for Grade 2 ( F = 2.16, n.s.). For Grade 4. however, the media variables did make a significant additional contribution to the prediction of reading comprehension, adding 5% to the explained variance (F = 11.48, p -C 0.001).
Table 3 Multiple regression
prediction
of reading
comprehension
Raw correlation with reading comprehension
Background characteristics: Socioeconomic status Sex Intelligence Decoding skills Media use: Reading frequency comics Reading frequency books Reading frequency subtitles Viewing frequency
0.22 0.17 0.36 0.56
in Grades p
Subgroups 1 Pl
c c ’ ’
0.11 b 0.07 0.26 b 0.47 c
- 0.03 0.09 a -0.10 h - 0.24 ’
- 0.02 0.06 0.08 -0.16 a
R
2 and 4.
0.65
0.12 = 0.10 0.21 = 0.50 c
0.11 a 0.03 0.32 ’ 0.44 c
- 0.01 0.05 0.03 - 0.09
- 0.04 0.07 0.14 - 0.24 =
0.64 0.62
R (with weights of the other subgroup) Correlation between predicted scores from both regression solutions for the whole group
0.67 0.65 0.97
Grade 4 Background characteristics: Socioeconomic status Sex Intelligence Decoding skills Media use: Reading frequency comics Reading frequency books Reading frequency subtitles Viewing frequency
0.27 0.14 0.37 0.34
= c = c
0.10 0.21 -0.10 - 0.28
a c = =
R R (with weights of the other subgroup) Correlation between predicted scores from regression solutions for the whole group NOW: The final beta weights c 0.05 LP p < 0.01 = p
are shown;
0.15 c 0.02 0.27 = 0.27 ’ 0.11 0.14 0.14 - 0.32 0.60
b c a ’
0.18 b - 0.03 0.22 = 0.27 =
0.12 * 0.07 0.31 c 0.27 =
0.07 0.09 0.16 = - 0.37 c
0.13 0.17 0.13 - 0.29
0.59 0.57
0.62 0.59 0.96
= b p b
C. M. Koolsrru er al. / Media USCand readiq
per/ormancr
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The multiple correlation was 0.65 for Grade 2 and 0.60 for Grade 4. Reading comprehension therefore was considerably more predictable than decoding skills. An inspection of table 3, in which the final regression weights are given, shows that for both age groups socioeconomic status. intelligence and decoding skills made a significant positive contribution to the prediction of reading comprehension. Decoding skills produced a considerably higher contribution to the prediction in Grade 2 than in Grade 4. Although for Grade 2 the block of media variables taken together did not contribute significantly to the prediction, viewing frequency stood out with a significant negative weight in the final regression solution. By contrast, each of the media variables made a significant contribution to the prediction of reading comprehension for Grade 4. Reading frequencies for books, comic books and subtitles contributed positively to the prediction; viewing frequency was once again a negative predictor. Viewing frequency, again, functioned as a suppressor variable for the reading frequency of subtitles. For both grades. reading subtitles had a positive beta weight even though the raw correlations with reading comprehension were negative. The multiple regression analyses held up well to the double cross-validation procedure (see table 3). The multiple correlations for each subgroup differed little from those obtained by using the weights from the other subgroup. The correlations between the predicted scores obtained from both regression equations applied to the whole group were high. both for Grade 2 (r = 0.97) and for Grade 4 (r = 0.96). The regression weights found for both subgroups all pointed in the same direction and showed slight fluctuations. Viewing frequency was significant for only one of the subgroups in Grade 2; the same applied to the regression weights found for reading books and comics in Grade 4. To investigate whether the regression solutions were sensitive to the global measure of socioeconomic status, we repeated the original analyses with the group of children whose individual scores were known (N = 592). For both age groups, the regression solutions were almost identical to the solutions found in the original analyses, with one exception for Grade 2. For this grade the viewing frequency, already an unstable predictor in the original solution, made no significant contribution to the prediction of reading comprehension. Once again, there was no indication of the expected differential influence of intelligence and socioeconomic status on the relationship between television and reading skills. In further analyses, the interaction terms of socioeconomic status and intelligence with viewing frequency made no significant contribution to the prediction of reading comprehension.
4. Discussion
The study suggests that the use children make of the media at home is important for the development of both decoding skills and reading comprehension. Even after controlling for background variables which have been shown to be important determinants of readin g skills in previous research, children’s use of the media makes a significant contribution to the prediction of reading achievement. The study indicates that in particular decoding skills are influenced by media use. For both age groups, the frequency of use of the media accounts for a larger proportion of the variance in decoding skills than the background characteristics. For second-graders, media use appears to be of minor importance for reading comprehension. This outcome was anticipated. as the second-graders are still involved in mastering the decoding of words and have barely entered the stage of true comprehension. Among fourth-graders, who have already internalized decoding skills and are primarily concerned with comprehending what they read, media use does affect reading comprehension. As expected, and in agreement with earlier research, the reading of books at home makes a positive contribution to the prediction of decoding skills. Book reading also influences reading comprehension, although this is only evident at the fourth-grade level. Although there was no previous research to which we could refer, we hypothesized that the reading of comic books will specifically stimulate decoding skills. The reading of comic books does indeed contribute positively to the prediction of decoding skills. However, contrary to expectations, reading comic books also appears to be important for reading comprehension, at least for fourth-graders. We expected the positive effects of reading comic books to be limited to decoding skills; we did not think comic books would provide practice in the reading of coherent texts. We may have underrated comic books in this respect. It is true that, objectively speaking, the texts in individual balloons are not directly connected to one another. This does not necessarily mean, however, that children do not experience balloon texts as forming a coherent text. Each new balloon text and accompanying drawing can be interpreted on the basis of the preceding texts and drawings. Notice however that reading comic books makes only a small contribution to the prediction; for the subgroups in the cross validation the contribution is not always significant. But even if comic books do not make a large contribution to reading performance, the present study at least casts doubt on the pessimistic notion that comic books have a negative effect on children’s reading performance. American research suggests that television viewing hinders children’s development of reading skills. Children’s viewing frequency indeed is negatively related to reading performance. We assumed that in the Dutch situation the
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reading of subtitles would actually further reading performance, particularly decoding skills. This hypothesis is supported by the present study. After a statistical removal of viewing frequency, the reading frequency of subtitles is positively related to reading skills. It would appear, then, that television viewing can simultaneously have a positive and a negative influence on reading performance. On the one hand, television offers the opportunity to practice reading skills with the many subtitles which can be seen on the screen, thereby promoting the development of reading skills. On the other hand, television viewing seems to hinder the development of reading skills in other ways. The present study does not disclose which mechanisms are at work here. The time children spend watching television may take time from reading and other activities which stimulate cognitive development; it may also be that television viewing encourages passive information-processing habits which are then generalized to include reading. It is important to note the exploratory nature of the study. The investigation provides insight into the correlative relations between the use of the media at home and reading performance, without indicating how those relations should be causally interpreted. For example, the finding that reading books and comics contributes positively to the prediction of reading skills does not necessarily imply that reading at home facilitates reading performance. The reverse explanation, namely that good readers are more inclined to read at home, may also be valid. The results presented here are drawn from the first data wave of a three-year panel study, in which the same group of children will be resurveyed in two consecutive years. As soon as the data from the second and third waves have been collected, causal relations can be established. The causal arrows need not point in only one direction. It is quite possible that the relation between media use and reading performance is circular, so that on the one hand media influences reading performance and, on the other, reading ability affects children’s media habits.
References Aamoutse. C.A.J. and J.F.J. van Leeuwe, 1988. Het belang van technisch lezen, woordenschat en ruimtelijke intelligentie voor begrijpend laen [The importance of decoding, vocabulary, and spatial intelligence for reading comprehension]. Pedagogische Stud&t 65, 49-59. Anderson, R.C., P.T. Wilson and L.G. Fielding, 1988. Growth in reading and how children spend their time outside of school. Reading Research Quarterly 23, 285-303. Beentjes, J.W.J. and T.H.A. van der Voort, 1988. Television’s impact on children’s reading skills: A review of research. Reading Research Quarterly 23. 389-413. Brus, B.Th. and MJ.M. Voeten, 1973. Etn-Minuut-Test: Verantwoording en handleiding [One Minute Test: Justification and manual]. Nijmegen: Berkhout. Chall. J.S., 1983. Stages of reading development. New York: McGraw-Hill. CITO, 1981. Begrijpend lezen leerjaar 3. 4 en 5 basisonderwijs [Reading comprehension for Grades 3.4 and 5 of the primary school]. Arnhem: CITO.
Gates. A.I.. 1969. Sex differences in reading ability. In: A.R. Bmter. J.J. Dlabal and L.K. Kise (eds.). Readings on reading. Scranton. PA: International Textbook Company. Jaccard. J.. R. Turrisi and C.K. Wan. 1990. Interaction effects in multiple regression. Newbury Park. London. New Delhi: Sage. Jencks. C.. 1972. Inequality: A reassessment of the effects of family and schooling in America. New York: Basic Books. Kerlinger. F.N. and E.J. Pedhazur. 1973. Multiple regression in behavioral research. New York: Holt. Rinehart and Winston. Koolstra. C.M.. 1990. Televisie en Ieesgedrag: Interim-rapport over de vooronderzoeken en de eerste datagolf [Television and reading behavior: Interim-report on the pretests and results of the first data wave]. Leiden: Leiden University. Center for Child and Media Studies. LaBerge. D. and S.J. Samuels. 1974. Toward a theory of automatic information processing in reading. Cognitive Psychology 6. 293-323. Lesgold, A.M. and C.A. Perfetti. 1978. Interactive processes in reading comprehension. Discourse Processes 1. 323-336. Raven. J.C.. J.H. Court and J. Raven, 1988. Manual for Raven’s Progressive Matrices. London: H.K. Lewis. Tabachnick. B.G. and L.S. Fidell. 1989. Using multivariate statistics. (2nd ed.) New York: Harper and Row. Van der Burg. C. and S. van Campen. 1983. Kijk-lezen: Stripverhalen in het basisonderwijs [Watch and Read: Comic books in primary school]. Tilburg: Zwijsen. Van der Voort, T.H.A.. 1991. Television and the decline of reading. Poetics 20. 73-89 (this issue), Verhoeven. L.T.W., 1980. Handleiding ‘Lees en begrijp 2’: Toets voor begrijpend lezen [Manual for ‘Read and Comprehend 2’: Test for reading comprehension]. Arnhem: CITO. Vooijs. M.W., T.H.A. van der Voort and J.W.J. Beentjes. 1987. De geschiktheid van verschillende type” vragen om de kijktijd en leestijd van kinderen te meten [Validity of self-report measures of children’s television viewing and reading time]. Massacommunicatie 15. 65-80. Walberg. H.J. and S. Tsai. 1984. Reading achievement and diminishing returns to time. Journal of Educational Psychology 76, 442-451. Wermke. J.. 1976. Wozu Comics gut sind?! [What is the use of comics?!]. Kronberg: Scriptor Verlag. Wertham, F., 1954. Seduction of the innocent. New York: Holt, Rinehart and \Vinston.
Poetics 20 (1991) 105-118 North-Holland
Media use and children’s reading performance Cees M. Koolstra,
*
Tom H.A. van der Voort and Marcel W. Vooijs
This study explores the impact of leisure reading and television viewing on children’s development of reading skills among Dutch second- (N = 505) and fourth-graders (N = 515). Controlled for intelligence. sex, and parents’ educational attainment level. multiple regression analyses show that the frequencies with which children read books and comics contribute positively to the prediction of both decoding skills (Grades 2 and 4) and reading comprehension (Grade 4). Although the reading of television program subtitles appears to add positively to the prediction of decoding skills, viewing frequency is negatively related to reading performance. Apparently, the beneficial effect of reading subtitles is annulled because watching television. through other mechanisms, hinders the development of children’s reading performance.
1. Introduction Until now, research into the determinants of reading performance has primarily focused on the influence of background characteristics such as sex. socioeconomic background, vocabulary or intelligence. In this study we examine how the development of reading skills is affected by the use children make of the media at home. Whereas previous research concerned only the influence of watching television and reading books, the present study also examines the effects of reading comic books and television program subtitles. It is generally agreed that the recreational reading of books has a positive effect on children’s reading performance. Even after controlling for other predictors, a positive relationship between reading books and reading performance has been found (Anderson et al. 1988; Walberg and Tsai 1984). The literature provides no definite indication of the effects of comic books on the development of reading skills. In the early postwar years comics were seen by many educators as an evil to be fought. Although most objections concerned the immoral lessons taught by comic books (Wertham 1954). criticism was also voiced against the literary form. Since comic books are made up of short sentences which are frequently incomplete or incorrect and * This work was supported by a grant provided by the Netherlands Research (NWO). Correspondence address: Cees M. Koolstra, Center for Child senaarseweg 52, 2333 AK Leiden. The Netherlands.
0304-422X/91/$03.50
Organization and Media
0 1991 - Elsevier Science Publishers B.V. (North-Holland)
for Scientific Studies.
Was-
subordinate to the drawings. it was felt that reading comics was more likely to damage reading skills than to further them (Van der Burg and Van Campen 1983). As the comic book became more accepted. criticism gradually decreased, and at present some researchers believe comics to have a beneficial effect on reading skills (Wermke 1976). The debate about the effects of comic books is still undecided, because no research has been conducted into their influence on reading skills. Much research has been done on the influence of television upon reading skills. American research suggests that very large amounts of time spent watching television - three hours or more per day - can adversely affect the development of reading skills (Beentjes and Van der Voort 1988). This is especially true for children with higher intelligence and those from higher social environments. For these children, the intellectual stimulation provided by watching a large amount of television cannot compete with the opportunities for cognitive development offered by their immediate environment. According to the displacement hypothesis, television hinders the development of reading skills because watching television takes up time that otherwise could have been spent on activities providing a greater amount of cognitive stimulation. Another explanation is based on the alleged passive manner in which information from television is processed. It is suggested that this passive manner of information processing is generalized to reading, thereby hindering the development of reading skills (Beentjes and Van der Voort 1988). It is questionable, however, whether the results of American research into the influence of television hold in the Dutch situation. In the Netherlands it is possible to develop reading skills through reading subtitles of foreign television programs (Beentjes and Van der Voort 1988; see also Van der Voort 1991, this issue). There are few other countries in which the subtitling of television programs is used on such a large scale. No research has been done into the influence of reading subtitles upon the development of reading skills. Research into the determinants of reading skills has been mainly concerned with reading comprehension. The present study focuses on decoding skills as well as reading comprehension. The effects of a medium on the development of reading comprehension and decoding skills need not be the same. We believe the reading of books to further the development of both reading comprehension and decoding skills, because the text in books provides exercise in interpreting and decoding as well. Reading comic books also assumes that the text is decoded. so one would expect a positive effect on decoding skiIls. On the other hand, it seems unlikely that comic books stimulate the development of reading comprehension, because the balloon texts are not connected to one another and, separated from the drawings, do not offer a coherent story. As was indicated already, large amounts of television viewing can have an adverse effect on reading skills. In so far as television promotes passive
C. M. Koolsrra et al. / Media use and reading performance
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information-processing habits or displaces time spent on activities which further cognitive development. we expect that in the Dutch case a large amount of television is likely to interfere with the development of reading skills. At the same time, we expect that television’s negative influence will be partially compensated by another factor, namely the reading practice which subtitled television programs offer. Subtitles provide an opportunity to practice word recognition; they also enhance decoding speed, because the texts are displayed on the screen for a very short time. We suspect. however. that subtitles do not further reading comprehension. Like cartoon text balloons. the disjointed dialogue lines in television captions seem to offer little exercise in comprehending coherent texts. In predicting reading skills from media behavior, we will control for the influence of background characteristics that have been found to be determinants of reading performance in earlier studies. In particular. it has been demonstrated that reading performance is better for socially advantaged children (Jencks 1972) and for girls (Gates 1969). In addition, vocabulary, intelligence, and level of decoding skills appear to be important determinants of reading comprehension (Aamoutse and Van Leeuwe 1988). In the present study we examine whether children’s media use makes an additional contribution to the prediction of decoding skills and reading comprehension when the background factors mentioned above are held constant. ’
2. Method 2.1. Sample The study was carried out with children from Grades 2 (N = 505) and 4 (N = 515) of primary school. These two age groups were chosen because of the different reading phases they represent (Chall 1983). At the second grade level, children are still engaged in internalizing the process of word decoding. and have barely begun to read with comprehension on their own. At the fourth grade level, on the other hand, decoding technique has already been intemalized to a large extent, and reading is primarily concerned with acquiring new information (reading comprehension). As reading skills are taking definite shape during this age span, it seems especially appropriate for investigating external influences on reading development. If media use does influence ’ However, inseparable vocabulary which is an
we have not controlled for vocabulary. Knowing the meaning of words is an part of reading comprehension; hence, most reading comprehension tests include items. The use of vocabulary as a control variable would result in removing variance essential part of reading comprehension.
108
C. hf. Koolsrra et al. / Media ure and reading perfotmance
reading skills, it will presumably affect decoding skills among second-graders and reading comprehension among fourth-graders. The study was conducted with a purposive sample of sixteen primary schools in the province of South Holland. These schools were chosen so that children from lower, middle and higher socioeconomic backgrounds were more or less equally represented. 2.2. Procedure Testing was carried out in the period from October to December 1989. The questionnaires were administered in the children’s own classroom by trained examiners. To help poor readers, the examiner read each question aloud, following which all the children filled in an answer. Of course, with the reading comprehension tests children were required to do the reading independently. Measurements of decoding skills were carried out with individual children in a separate room. In order to avoid missing data, each questionnaire was checked. Children who failed to answer some of the questions were requested again to answer them. In addition, examiners returned to the schools to administer tests to children who had missed the scheduled testing. As a result, sample attrition was limited to only 3%. 2.3. itfeasures The measurement instruments to scaling procedures, reported here a short characterization measurement scales.
used in the present study have been subjected extensively in Koolstra (1990). Suffice it to give of the content and the reliabilities of the
Reading comprehension The ‘Read and Comprehend 2’ test (Verhoeven 1980) was used for secondgraders, whereas ‘Comprehensive reading 4’ (CITO 1981) was administered to fourth-graders. Both tests consisted of texts and corresponding multiple-choice questions which asked the children to find the main theme, to interpret the context and to draw conclusions. Decoding skills The ‘One Minute Test’ (Brus and Voeten 1973) was used to assess decoding skills for both age groups. The test measures the ability to decode a list of increasingly more difficult single words. A child’s score was the total number of words read correctly in one minute.
CM.
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Intelligence Raven’s Standard Progressive Matrices Test (Raven et al. 1988) was used to measure intelligence. Raven’s test, in which for sixty patterns the child had to select the missing part from six or eight alternatives. gives an indication of nonverbal intelligence. ’ Reading frequency Separate scales were used to measure the frequencies with which books and comic books were read. Each scale consisted of nine items used to elicit estimates of the quantity of books or comic books read (for example. ‘How many books have you read this week?‘) as well as of the reading frequencies in specified time periods (for example, ‘During vacations, do you often, sometimes, or never read a book?). Viewing frequency To measure viewing frequency we used a list of 76 television series that were broadcast weekly during the research period. The children were asked to indicate whether they ‘always’, ‘often’, ‘sometimes’, or ‘never’ watched each program. Reading frequency for subtitles The children were asked whether they ‘always’, ‘often’, ‘sometimes’, or ‘never’ read the subtitles for a subset of 24 foreign programs out of the list mentioned above. In order to determine the reading frequency score for subtitles. the viewing frequency score per child for each television program was multiplied by the corresponding reading frequency score for subtitles, after which the resulting products were totaled. Thus, we obtained an indication of the reading frequency for subtitles which took into account the number of times each television program was watched. Socioeconomic status Children’s socioeconomic status was established via the participating schools. Using the parents’ levels of educational attainment. each principal classified his or her school as a low-, middle- or high-SES school. This global measure was used because a questionnaire sent to parents produced only a 58% response. All the children in a particular school were then assigned the same score. This rough score correlated 0.56 with the individual indications of socioeconomic status obtained from parents’ questionnaires. As further analyses will show, the global SES measure only marginally affected the results of the study. * We have chosen a nonverbal measure for intelligence because measures of verbal intelligence almost identical to measures of reading comprehension (Aamoutse and Van Leeuwe 1988).
are
The reliability of each instrument ties were satisfactory. varying from measures for viewing and reading tion research (Vooijs et al. 1987). discussed in Koolstra (1990).
is given in table 1. In general, the reliabili0.81 to 0.99. The concurrent validity of the frequency was established in earlier validaThe construct validity of the measures is
d
3. Results
3.1. Prediction
of decoding skills
For the prediction of decoding skills, separate hierarchical multiple regression analyses were carried out for each of the two age groups. Socioeconomic status, sex and intelligence were used as predictors in the first step. In the second step, the variables pertaining to the children’s media use were added to the first set of predictors. In this way, it could be determined whether children’s exposure to the media made an independent contribution to the prediction of decoding skills. In the first step. the background variables accounted for 5% of the variance in decoding skills for Grade 2 (F = 8.47, p < 0.001) and 1% of the variance in decoding skills for Grade 4 (F = 1.51, n.s.). For both groups. the addition of the media variables to the first set of predictors resulted in a significant increase in the variance explained. Media variables added 7% to the explained variance for second-graders ( F = 9.86. p < 0.001) and 10% for fourth-graders (F = 14.18, p -C 0.001).
Table
1
Reliability
of the measures.
Variable
Reliability
coefficient
Grade 2
Grade 4
Reading comprehension
0.91 *
0.85 =
Decoding
0.98 ’
0.99 h
0.88 A
0.86 =
skills
Intelligence Reading
frequency
for comic books
0.88 ’
0.90 E
Reading
frequency
for books
0.81 =
0.86 E
Reading
frequency
for subtitles
0.91 c
0.87 c
Viewing
frequency
0.96 =
0.95 c
hiore: Calculated a KR20
according
method
’ split-half F Cronbach’s
method alpha
to:
C. M
Table 2 Multiple regression
Koolstra
prediction
et al. /
Medio use and readrng
of decoding
skills in Grades
Raw correlation with decoding skills
performonce
111
2 and 4.
/3
Subgroups
f2
Grade 2
Background characteristics: Socioeconomic status Sex Intelligence Media use: Reading frequency comics Reading frequency books Reading frequency subtitles Viewing frequency
0.06 0.15 c 0.14 = 0.06 0.12 b 0.00 -0.15 =
R R (with weights of the other subgroup) Correlation between predicted scores from both regression solutions used for the whole group
-0.04 0.08 0.14 =
-0.01 0.07 0.14 =
- 0.04
0.11 0.10 0.32 - 0.46
0.13 0.12 0.22 - 0.34
0.09 0.09 0.40 c -0.55 c
a = ’ =
0.09 0.13 a
il = b b
0.31 0.29
0.34
0.38 0.35 0.93
Grade 4
Background characteristics: Socioeconomic status Sex Intelligence Media use: Reading frequency comics Reading frequency books Reading frequency subtitles Viewing frequency
-0.03 0.08 a 0.02
- 0.08 -0.00 0.00
0.10 h 0.16 = 0.13b - 0.05
0.11 0.14 0.40 - 0.42
R R (with weights of the other subgroup) Correlation between predicted scores from both regression solutions used for the whole group Note: The final beta weights -z 0.05 ip p -c0.01
0.33
- 0.07 0.04 0.00 a h = ’
0.14 0.14 0.27 -0.37
- 0.08 - 0.02 0.01 a = ’ E
0.08 0.15 = 0.51 = - 0.47 c
0.30 0.27
0.37 0.33 0.90
are shown;
Table 2 gives the final beta weights that were found after the media variables had been added to the background variables. Besides the beta weights for the total populations in both age groups. the table also shows weights obtained for two subgroups that were formed to conduct a cross validation to which we will return later. The relatively low multiple correlations found for both Grade 2 (R = 0.34) and 4 (R = 0.33) indicate that
decoding ability was poorly predicted by the variables used. The background variables in particular contributed little to the prediction of decoding skills. In the final multiple regression solution obtained, only intelligence made a significant contribution to the prediction for Grade 2. None of the background characteristics made a significant contribution to the prediction for Grade 4. For both age groups. each media variable made an independent contribution to the prediction of decoding skills. The reading frequency for comic books, books and subtitles contributed positively, whereas viewing frequency contributed negatively to the prediction of decoding skills. It is striking that the reading of subtitles obtained a positive weight in the regression solution for Grade 4, although this variable did not directly correlate with decoding skills (r = 0.00). This paradoxical result was caused by the fact that viewing frequency also was used as a predictor in the analysis. Viewing frequency and the reading frequency for subtitles were strongly interrelated because the measure of the reading of subtitles included the viewing frequency of the subtitled television programs. The interdependence between these two components is canceled out in the multiple regression analysis, which gives the independent contribution for each predictor. As the viewing frequency component is removed in the analysis, the measure for reading subtitles thus clarified can make a positive contribution to the prediction of decoding skills. Technically speaking, the viewing frequency functions as a suppressor variable, which has the effect of suppressing the viewing frequency component in the variance of the reading measure for subtitles (Tabachnick and Fidel1 1989). 3 A double cross validation was carried out in order to check the stability of the regression solutions. 4 The results of this double cross validation are also given in table 2. The regression solutions for the two age groups were fairly stable. In both cases, the multiple correlation coefficients (R) which were found per subgroup using the weights from the other subgroup were only a few points lower than the original multiple correlations found per subgroup. The correlations between the predicted scores obtained from both regression 3 The suppressor effect can also be seen when the correlation between decoding skills and the reading frequency for subtitles is calculated with viewing frequency held constant. This results in a partial correlation of 0.24. ’ The two age groups were each randomly divided into halves, and new regression analyses were carried out for each subgroup. The regression weights found for subgroup 1 were then assigned to subgroup 2 and vice versa, and the correlation between the predicted and observed values of the dependent variable were once again calculated for each subgroup. The extent to which these cross-correlations differed from the earlier multiple correlations found for each subgroup gave a first indication of the stability of the prediction. Two regression analyses were then carried out in which the regression weights from each subgroup were used to predict the scores for the dependent variable for the whole group. The correlation between the resulting two sets of predicted scores provided a second indication of the stability of the prediction (Kerlinger and Pedhazur 1973).
C. M. Koolstra et al. / Media uw and reading performance
113
equations when applied to the whole group were 0.93 and 0.90 for Grades 2 and 4 respectively. The regression weights of the predictors found per subgroup fluctuated very little. For Grade 2 the weights of the reading frequency for comic books and books for one subgroup were a little too low to be significant. American research gives reason to assume that reading performance is relatively poor for frequent viewers among children from higher socioeconomic backgrounds and for frequent viewers among children with higher intelligence. To test this hypothesis, multiple regression analyses were carried out in which an interaction block was added to the two original blocks of predictors. This interaction block was composed of the product terms of socioeconomic status and intelligence with viewing frequency. In this way it was possible to establish whether the interactions made a significant contribution to the prediction in addition to the previously introduced predictors (Jaccard et al. 1990). This appeared not to be the case: the negative relationship between viewing frequency and decoding skills was not stronger for high-IQ or high-SES children than for the other children. To assess whether the results of the multiple regression analyses were distorted by the global measure used for socioeconomic status, we repeated the regression analyses for those children for whom we had available an individual SES score (N = 592). This resulted in a relative increase of the importance of socioeconomic level for the prediction (at the cost of the importance of the predictor intelligence). The change occurring in the regression weights for the media variables is negligible. Hence, the relations found between the media variables and reading performance have not been distorted by the global measure used for the control variable socioeconomic level. 3.2. Prediction of reading comprehension To predict reading comprehension, a hierarchical multiple regression analysis was carried out with each of the two age groups. In addition to socioeconomic status, sex and intelligence, decoding ability was entered as a control variable. Decoding ability is considered to be a necessary but insufficient condition for reading comprehension (LaBerge and Samuels 1974; Lesgold and Perfetti 1978). The introduction of decoding skills as a control variable made it more difficult to find a significant effect for the media variables. In the first step, the background characteristics accounted for 18% of the variance in reading comprehension for both Grade 2 (F = 37.83, p -C 0.001) and Grade 4 (F = 35.82, p < 0.001). The introduction of decoding skills in the set of predictors resulted in a significant additional contribution to the prediction. The amount of explained variance increased by 24% for Grade 2 (F = 198.95, p -C0.001) and by 12% for Grade 4 (F = 81.63, p -C0.001). In the third step, the addition of the set of media variables did not contribute
significantly to the prediction of reading comprehension for Grade 2 ( F = 2.16, n.s.). For Grade 4. however, the media variables did make a significant additional contribution to the prediction of reading comprehension, adding 5% to the explained variance (F = 11.48, p -C 0.001).
Table 3 Multiple regression
prediction
of reading
comprehension
Raw correlation with reading comprehension
Background characteristics: Socioeconomic status Sex Intelligence Decoding skills Media use: Reading frequency comics Reading frequency books Reading frequency subtitles Viewing frequency
0.22 0.17 0.36 0.56
in Grades p
Subgroups 1 Pl
c c ’ ’
0.11 b 0.07 0.26 b 0.47 c
- 0.03 0.09 a -0.10 h - 0.24 ’
- 0.02 0.06 0.08 -0.16 a
R
2 and 4.
0.65
0.12 = 0.10 0.21 = 0.50 c
0.11 a 0.03 0.32 ’ 0.44 c
- 0.01 0.05 0.03 - 0.09
- 0.04 0.07 0.14 - 0.24 =
0.64 0.62
R (with weights of the other subgroup) Correlation between predicted scores from both regression solutions for the whole group
0.67 0.65 0.97
Grade 4 Background characteristics: Socioeconomic status Sex Intelligence Decoding skills Media use: Reading frequency comics Reading frequency books Reading frequency subtitles Viewing frequency
0.27 0.14 0.37 0.34
= c = c
0.10 0.21 -0.10 - 0.28
a c = =
R R (with weights of the other subgroup) Correlation between predicted scores from regression solutions for the whole group NOW: The final beta weights c 0.05 LP p < 0.01 = p
are shown;
0.15 c 0.02 0.27 = 0.27 ’ 0.11 0.14 0.14 - 0.32 0.60
b c a ’
0.18 b - 0.03 0.22 = 0.27 =
0.12 * 0.07 0.31 c 0.27 =
0.07 0.09 0.16 = - 0.37 c
0.13 0.17 0.13 - 0.29
0.59 0.57
0.62 0.59 0.96
= b p b
C. M. Koolsrru er al. / Media USCand readiq
per/ormancr
115
The multiple correlation was 0.65 for Grade 2 and 0.60 for Grade 4. Reading comprehension therefore was considerably more predictable than decoding skills. An inspection of table 3, in which the final regression weights are given, shows that for both age groups socioeconomic status. intelligence and decoding skills made a significant positive contribution to the prediction of reading comprehension. Decoding skills produced a considerably higher contribution to the prediction in Grade 2 than in Grade 4. Although for Grade 2 the block of media variables taken together did not contribute significantly to the prediction, viewing frequency stood out with a significant negative weight in the final regression solution. By contrast, each of the media variables made a significant contribution to the prediction of reading comprehension for Grade 4. Reading frequencies for books, comic books and subtitles contributed positively to the prediction; viewing frequency was once again a negative predictor. Viewing frequency, again, functioned as a suppressor variable for the reading frequency of subtitles. For both grades. reading subtitles had a positive beta weight even though the raw correlations with reading comprehension were negative. The multiple regression analyses held up well to the double cross-validation procedure (see table 3). The multiple correlations for each subgroup differed little from those obtained by using the weights from the other subgroup. The correlations between the predicted scores obtained from both regression equations applied to the whole group were high. both for Grade 2 (r = 0.97) and for Grade 4 (r = 0.96). The regression weights found for both subgroups all pointed in the same direction and showed slight fluctuations. Viewing frequency was significant for only one of the subgroups in Grade 2; the same applied to the regression weights found for reading books and comics in Grade 4. To investigate whether the regression solutions were sensitive to the global measure of socioeconomic status, we repeated the original analyses with the group of children whose individual scores were known (N = 592). For both age groups, the regression solutions were almost identical to the solutions found in the original analyses, with one exception for Grade 2. For this grade the viewing frequency, already an unstable predictor in the original solution, made no significant contribution to the prediction of reading comprehension. Once again, there was no indication of the expected differential influence of intelligence and socioeconomic status on the relationship between television and reading skills. In further analyses, the interaction terms of socioeconomic status and intelligence with viewing frequency made no significant contribution to the prediction of reading comprehension.
4. Discussion
The study suggests that the use children make of the media at home is important for the development of both decoding skills and reading comprehension. Even after controlling for background variables which have been shown to be important determinants of readin g skills in previous research, children’s use of the media makes a significant contribution to the prediction of reading achievement. The study indicates that in particular decoding skills are influenced by media use. For both age groups, the frequency of use of the media accounts for a larger proportion of the variance in decoding skills than the background characteristics. For second-graders, media use appears to be of minor importance for reading comprehension. This outcome was anticipated. as the second-graders are still involved in mastering the decoding of words and have barely entered the stage of true comprehension. Among fourth-graders, who have already internalized decoding skills and are primarily concerned with comprehending what they read, media use does affect reading comprehension. As expected, and in agreement with earlier research, the reading of books at home makes a positive contribution to the prediction of decoding skills. Book reading also influences reading comprehension, although this is only evident at the fourth-grade level. Although there was no previous research to which we could refer, we hypothesized that the reading of comic books will specifically stimulate decoding skills. The reading of comic books does indeed contribute positively to the prediction of decoding skills. However, contrary to expectations, reading comic books also appears to be important for reading comprehension, at least for fourth-graders. We expected the positive effects of reading comic books to be limited to decoding skills; we did not think comic books would provide practice in the reading of coherent texts. We may have underrated comic books in this respect. It is true that, objectively speaking, the texts in individual balloons are not directly connected to one another. This does not necessarily mean, however, that children do not experience balloon texts as forming a coherent text. Each new balloon text and accompanying drawing can be interpreted on the basis of the preceding texts and drawings. Notice however that reading comic books makes only a small contribution to the prediction; for the subgroups in the cross validation the contribution is not always significant. But even if comic books do not make a large contribution to reading performance, the present study at least casts doubt on the pessimistic notion that comic books have a negative effect on children’s reading performance. American research suggests that television viewing hinders children’s development of reading skills. Children’s viewing frequency indeed is negatively related to reading performance. We assumed that in the Dutch situation the
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reading of subtitles would actually further reading performance, particularly decoding skills. This hypothesis is supported by the present study. After a statistical removal of viewing frequency, the reading frequency of subtitles is positively related to reading skills. It would appear, then, that television viewing can simultaneously have a positive and a negative influence on reading performance. On the one hand, television offers the opportunity to practice reading skills with the many subtitles which can be seen on the screen, thereby promoting the development of reading skills. On the other hand, television viewing seems to hinder the development of reading skills in other ways. The present study does not disclose which mechanisms are at work here. The time children spend watching television may take time from reading and other activities which stimulate cognitive development; it may also be that television viewing encourages passive information-processing habits which are then generalized to include reading. It is important to note the exploratory nature of the study. The investigation provides insight into the correlative relations between the use of the media at home and reading performance, without indicating how those relations should be causally interpreted. For example, the finding that reading books and comics contributes positively to the prediction of reading skills does not necessarily imply that reading at home facilitates reading performance. The reverse explanation, namely that good readers are more inclined to read at home, may also be valid. The results presented here are drawn from the first data wave of a three-year panel study, in which the same group of children will be resurveyed in two consecutive years. As soon as the data from the second and third waves have been collected, causal relations can be established. The causal arrows need not point in only one direction. It is quite possible that the relation between media use and reading performance is circular, so that on the one hand media influences reading performance and, on the other, reading ability affects children’s media habits.
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