DEVELOPMENT OF YOUNG CHILDRENS READING SELF-CONCEPTS - AN EXAMINATIONOF EMERGING SUBCOMPONENTS AND THEIR RELATIONSHIP WITH READING-ACHIEVEMENT

Development of reading self-concept in young children was examined in 4 experiments. Experiment 1 revealed a negative item response phenomen on similar to that reported by H. W. Marsh (1986), who found that chil dren's responses to negative items on a self-concept scale were noncon sistent with their responses to positive items. In Experiment 2, devel opmental psycholinguistic factors were considered in an effort to elim inate the negative item response phenomenon by changing the wording an d presentation of the items. Experiment 3 suggested that reading self- concept may be defined as comprising three subcomponents: perceptions of competence in reading, perceptions of difficulty with reading, and attitudes toward reading. Experiment 4 showed how the relations among these subcomponents change with increasing age and how they relate to the development of reading and reading-related skills.