Attitudes toward Reading, Reading Self-Confidence, Family Involvement and Reading Comprehension in the Second Grade.

EnglishIntroduccion. En la lectura, instrumento cultural clave que hay que aprender a dominar en las sociedades letradas, confluyen aspectos cognitivos, afectivo-motivacionales y contextuales. Pero en el ambito internacional hay escasez de investigaciones sobre la relacion entre com- prension lectora, actitudes hacia la lectura, sentimiento de competencia e implicacion familiar en los dos primeros cursos de Educacion Primaria. Ademas, no hay estudios en Espana que aborden esas variables al mismo tiempo. Metodo. Nuestro estudio investiga la relacion entre estas cuatro variables en alumnado espa- nol de segundo curso de Educacion Primaria mediante un estudio de corte cuantitativo (des- criptivo y correlacional) en el que han participado 181 ninos y 167 ninas. Resultados. Se hallaron actitudes muy positivas hacia la lectoescritura asi como un elevado sentimiento de competencia. Las ninas obtuvieron puntuaciones mas altas que los ninos. Esta ultima variable y la implicacion familiar exhibieron correlaciones significativas con la com- prension lectora. Discusion y conclusiones. Se resalta la importancia de trabajar en la implicacion de las fami- lias, de mantener un positivo sentimiento de competencia y de conocer las tempranas diferen- cias en actitudes y preferencias de ninos y ninas por parte del profesorado. EnglishIntroduction: Reading is a key cultural instrument which needs to be mastered in literate societies. It brings together cognitive, affective-motivational and contextual aspects. But there is a lack of research about the relationship between reading comprehension, attitudes towards reading, feeling of competence and parental involvement in the two first grades of Primary Education. Furthermore, there are no studies in Spain that adress these variables at the same time. Method: This study examines the relationship between these four variables with Spanish stu- dents at the 2nd grade of Primary Education through a quantitative study (descriptive and cor- relational) in which 181 boys and 167 girls participated. Results: Very positive attitudes towards reading and writing, as well as a high feeling of competence were found. Girls obtain higher scores than boys. Feeling of competence and family involvement exhibited significant correlations with reading comprehension. Discussion and Conclusions: The relevance of fostering the involvement of families in their childrens' acquisition of reading and writing, of maintaining a positive feeling of competence is highlighted and of teachers’ knowledge of differences in attitudes and preferences of girls and boys are discussed.