Abstract:

The present study is part of a larger research project, which aims to identify and analyze patterns of mediation related with improvements observed in reading achievement and personal-social adjustment of students in the situation of socio-cultural disadvantages. These teaching patterns act as deciding factors in the improvements obtained even in the context of socio-cultural deprivation (Raczynski & Muñoz, 2005; Resing, Tunteler, de Jong & Bosma, 2009). As part of that study, the use of a test to assess aspects of motivation, attitudes, own expectations, self-concept or self-efficacy, is considered crucial. Also, their justification is tightly connected to the relevance underpinned by the recent research on these processes in relation to the explanation of learning difficulties, and the possibilities of optimization of the processes involved in reading (Guthrie, Hoa, Wigfield, Tonks, Humenick & Littles, 2007; Meltzer, Katzir, Miller, Roditi & Reddy, 2004; Taboada, Tonks, Wigfield & Guthrie, 2009). The objective of this study is provide for the implementation of the APSL scale (Navarro & Mora, 2012) to a sample of students from the school in a depressed area of the city of Santiago de Chile, 155 3rd-4th Grade students (8-9 years old), and 289 9th-10th students of Secundary Education (15-16 years). The APSL scale was designed to operationalize the socio-emotional variable in relation to the reading processes and learning difficulties. It consists of eighty items presented in a structure of short sentences to which the student must show their degree of agreement or disagreement. The sentences are related to reading with the special interest in how each faces different tasks and reading situations. Moreover, the APSL scale includes different dimensions on various processes that have structured the personal-social adjustment. These dimensions have been considered within a theoretical framework that includes metacognition as a key element in the construction process and social-personal adaptation (Mora-Merchán & Mora, 2000; Mateos, 2001). This in its turn allows and facilitates the spread to the others better self-awareness and coping strategies of social situations and relationships. In this sense, knowledge of self and own processes -cognitive and personal-social adjustment- would impact positively on improving social and personal adjustment of the students. We have also considered two dimensions on the scale regarding the strategic metaknowledge related to reading. Thus, it is possible to establish a relationship between the score on the other dimensions of the scale and the score in strategic metaknowledge, as long as whether this relationship is similar in both age groups. In this sense, both groups were expected to have higher scores on personal-social adjustment with their correspondence in obtaining higher scores on the dimensions on the strategic metaknowledge. On top of that, the groups were expected to have the lowest in personal-social adjustment scores related to significantly lower scores in the dimensions related to strategic metaknowledge. In general, it is assumed that the situation of sociocultural disadvantage plays a key role in the personal-social adjustment related to reading for both age groups, which would result in low overall ratings.

Keywords:

Personal-social adjustment, socio-cultural disadvantages, reading difficulties, metacognitve comprehension.