Measuring Interest in Reading Social Studies Materials

The development of the Social Studies Interest Inventory–Interest in Reading Materials is described in this study. Two hundred sixty-three middle school students and 320 high school students enrolled in an urban school district in a New England state participated in the study. The 15-item inventory used a 5-point Likert scale to assess student interest in reading materials related to the discipline of social studies. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) of student scores yielded three dimensions of interest for social studies reading materials: (a) Textbook Materials, (b) Creative Materials, and (c) News Materials. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) supported the derived factor structure. By comparing the three factor scores, it is determined that students reported significantly more interest in reading Creative Materials than they did Textbook or News Materials. Based on these results, suggestions are offered for future research and practice.