Abstract

Children’s books support children’s development, but many factors influence interest in engaging with books, including book physical features. Additionally, the lack of diverse children’s books makes it difficult to determine whether racial characters influence children's book preferences. This study utilized a forced-choice selection task to investigate book preference of 56 five-, six-, and seven-year-old Hispanic/Latino (n = 23) and Asian (n = 33) children. The children were shown identical book covers with either an object or a Black or White character. Participant preferences and rationales were collected and analyzed. While the ANOVA showed no significant differences, a Chi-square test did reveal significance in preference differences, and five qualitative preference rationale categories emerged, including a race-related rationale. Study implications provide evidence for the necessity of publishing more diverse books and including them as required materials within curriculum.

摘要

儿童读物支持儿童的成长，但是许多因素影响着与书互动的兴趣，包括书籍的物理特征。此外，由于缺乏多样化的儿童读物，很难确定种族特征是否会影响儿童的读物偏好。这项研究利用强制选择选择任务来调查56名五岁，六岁和七岁的西班牙裔/拉丁美洲裔（n = 23）和亚洲裔（n = 33）儿童的书本偏好。向孩子们展示了相同的书皮，上面有一个物体或一个黑色或白色字符。收集并分析了参与者的偏好和理由。尽管方差分析显示无显着差异，但卡方检验确实揭示了偏好差异的显着性，并且出现了五个定性偏好理论依据类别，包括与种族相关的理论依据。