Relations of Document Literacy and Prose Literacy to Occupational and Societal Characteristics of Young Black and White Adults

A model is proposed for how document literacy and prose literacy are related to young adults' occupational status and their societal participation (membership in groups, political activity, etc.). The authors rescaled and reanalyzed the data from the 1986 National Assessment of Educational Progress in the U. S. for 3,618 adults aged 21-25 years. They examined separately the respondents' literacy achievement (as measured on tests) and literacy activity (time spent reading books, newspapers, and documents). They also included background variables such as parental education, parental occupation, and years of schooling. Separate path models were formulated for literacy for documents (e.g., charts and schedules) and for literacy for prose (e.g., books and newspapers). For document literacy, occupational status and participation in society were significantly associated with document literacy activity, even after document literacy achievement and all background variables were accounted for. One ethnic difference was significant: Document literacy achievement was more highly associated with document literacy activity for blacks than for whites. For prose literacy, again occupational status and participation in society were significantly related to prose literacy activity; ethnic differences were less straightforward than for prose literacy. These results cast doubt on the hypothesis that literacy has less utility for blacks than for whites; rather, the relatively low occupational status of blacks appears to be attributable to their relatively low literacy achievement and literacy activity. /// [French] Les auteurs proposent un modèle qui permet de montrer en quoi deux types de littéracie: habileté à traiter des documents écrits (cartes, horaires, formules d'emplois) et habileté à traiter des textes écrits (livres, journeaux), sont reliés au status de l'emploi occupé par de jeunes adultes et à leur niveau de participation dans des institutions sociales (membres de groupes, d'organisations politiques etc.). L'analyse porte sur les données recueillies auprès de 3,618 jeunes adultes âgés entre 18 et 25 ans par le National Assessment of Educational Progress des Etats-Unis en 1986. Les auteurs ont examiné séparément les résultats aux tests de littéracie et les habitudes de lecture (temps consacrés à lire des livres, des journanux et des documents). Ils ont également inclus des informations sur les antécédents familiaux tels que le niveau d'éducation, l'occupation et le