Reading Preferences of American Indian and Anglo Children for Ethnicity, Gender, and Story Setting.

This study investigated the reading preferences of American Indian and Anglo children with respect to ethnicity of main character, gender of main character, and setting in children's stories. The 160 subjects consisted of 80 American Indians and 80 Anglos from Grades 2 and 3, divided evenly by gender and grade level. The study yielded significant preference differences for ethnicity of main characters, gender of characters, and type of setting. Both Indian children and Anglo children preferred to read about Indian characters over Anglo characters. A majority of all subjects indicated a preference to read stories with both an American Indian and an Anglo as main characters, rather than stories with two Indians or two Anglos as main characters. Males preferred to read stories with at least one male character over stories with only females; girls preferred to read about two boys instead of a boy and a girl. Both Indian and Anglo subjects preferred stories set in a suburban-type setting over reservation-like settings. Three statistical tables and sample illustrations used in the stories for ethnicity, gender, and story setting are appended. (Contains 14 references.) (Author/KRN)