Reliability and Validity of the Adult Reading History Questionnaire

TLDR

The study examined the reliability and validity of a revised Reading History Questionnaire in adult populations. The authors tested the questionnaire in two samples: 84 adults from a familial dyslexia study and 107 parents of children in a longitudinal reading development study. Results showed strong internal consistency (α .94 and .92), high test‑retest reliability (.87 and .84), and significant validity correlations (.57–.70) with reading measures, discriminant function analysis, and incremental predictive power beyond IQ and SES, confirming the questionnaire’s reliability and validity.

Abstract

The reliability and validity of a revised version of Finucci's (1982) Reading History Questionnaire was examined in two adult samples. One sample included 84 adults from an ongoing study of familial dyslexia, and a second sample was composed of parents of 107 children from a longitudinal study of reading development. Internal consistency was demonstrated by Cronbach's alphas of .94 and .92 in the two samples. Test-retest reliability was demonstrated by significant correlations (.87 and .84 in the two samples) over several years between an earlier and revised form of the questionnaire. Validity was demonstrated via (a) correlations between the questionnaire score and reading measures (rs = .57-.70), (b) the results of a discriminant function analysis that used questionnaire scores to predict reading disability diagnosis, and (c) the finding that the questionnaire had substantial incremental validity in predicting reading skill in a hierarchical regression analysis that first entered IQ and SES. These results indicated that the questionnaire is both reliable and valid.