Profiles of Reading Motivation among African American and Caucasian Students

Previous research has investigated motivations for reading by examining positive or affirming motivations, including intrinsic motivation and self-efficacy. Related to them, we examined two negative, or undermining, motivations consisting of avoidance and perceived difficulty. We proposed that the motivations of intrinsic motivation and avoidance are relatively independent and thus can be combined to form meaningful profiles consisting of avid, ambivalent, apathetic, and averse readers. With Grade 5 students we found that these motivations were relatively independent for both Caucasian and African American students. The two motivations uniquely explained a significant proportion of variance in reading comprehension and other cognitive reading variables. Although intrinsic motivation correlated higher with achievement than avoidance for Caucasians, avoidance correlated higher with achievement than intrinsic motivation for African Americans. For both groups, the profile of avid readers showed higher reading achievement than the other profiles.

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