Adolescents' use of reading comprehension strategies: Differences related to reading proficiency, grade level, and gender

The goals of this study were to examine individual differences in adolescents' reading comprehension strategy use related to reading proficiency, grade level, and gender and to investigate the factor structure and psychometric properties of a newly-developed scenario-based self-report survey. Participants were 1134 students in grades 7-12. The instrument measures four theoretically-consistent constructs related to strategies for (a) the Evaluation and Integration of current text information with previous text information and prior knowledge, (b) Note-Taking, (c) Regulation, and (d) Help-Seeking. The scales demonstrated adequate reliability and validity. Adequate comprehenders reported higher use of Evaluation/Integration and Regulation strategies than struggling comprehenders, while the use of Help-Seeking and Note-Taking did not differ between these groups. Students at higher grade levels reported greater use of Evaluation/Integration and Regulation strategies than those in lower grades. Females reported higher use of all strategy types than males. Implications for theory, research, and practice are discussed.