This study examined whether word-reading processes operate similarly in adult literacy (AL) students and elementary school students matched for reading level. Comparison of mean performances revealed that adults were severely deficient on phonologically complex tasks (segmentation, deletion, and nonword reading). In contrast, on orthographically complex tasks, adults revealed both strengths (sight-word reading) and weaknesses (spelling). Regression analyses revealed that individual differences in word and nonword reading abilities were explained by the same orthographic and phonological processes in AL students and children, despite differences in their levels of performance. Correlations between word reading and spelling measures were weaker among AL students than among children. Inadequate integration of these skills may explain adults' phonological deficits as well as their reading acquisition difficulties.

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This paper presents data from the Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies with a focus on the interrelationships among health information seeking behavior (HISB), and health status or use of preventive health measures for U.S. adults both with and without a high school diploma. Key results of ordinal and binary logistic regression analyses indicated that, after controlling for demographic factors, (1) adults with a high school diploma use more text-based health information sources while adults without a high school diploma use more oral sources, (2) using the Internet as a source of health information is more strongly related to reporting excellent/very good health status than having a high school diploma, (3) those without a high school diploma who use the Internet report the largest increase in health status over any other health information source, and (4) for those with learning disability or vision problem, a high facility in reading English is an important predictor of whether the Internet is used as a health information source. The Internet appears to play a key role in both enhancing health status and enabling use of preventive measures for those with and without a high school diploma; although, individuals without a high school diploma who use the Internet for health information derive substantial benefit in health status.

This study examined whether measurement constructs behind reading-related tests for struggling adult readers are similar to what is known about measurement constructs for children. The sample included 371 adults reading between the third and fifth grade levels, including 127 males and 153 English Speakers of Other Languages. Using measures of skills and subskills, confirmatory factor analyses were conducted to test child-based theoretical measurement models of reading: an achievement model of reading skills, a core deficit model of reading subskills, and an integrated model containing achievement and deficit variables. Although the findings present the best measurement models, the contribution of this paper is the description of the difficulties encountered when applying child-based assumptions to developing measurement models for struggling adult readers. As indicated by the 2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy, 43% of adults in the UnitedStates have difficulty reading materials encountered in their houses, neighborhoods and workplaces (Kutner et al., 2007). There is a paucity of research on struggling adult readers, and therefore researchers interested in investigating the reading skills and processes of struggling adult readers rely on the extensive literature describing children's reading development (e.g., Greenberg, Ehri, & Perin, 1997;Kruidenier, 2002). The appropriateness of this reliance has not been tested, and therefore, the purpose of this study is to evaluate childbased measurement models of reading constructs with struggling adult readers. Such an evaluation will help elucidate reading skills and subskills, their interrelationships, and their measures for this specific group of struggling readers. Three measurement models are investigated: a reading achievement skill model, a reading subskill based model referred to as the core deficit model, and an integrated model of both reading achievement skills and reading subskills. Reading achievement skills including word reading, nonword reading, reading fluency, and reading comprehension are important areas of reading performance. Reading subskills, or underlying processes, including phonological awareness, rapid automatic naming (RAN), and oral vocabulary are subskills that impact overall reading performance but do not involve actual reading.This study used confirmatory factor analysis to test child-based theoretical measurement models of reading constructs with struggling adult readers. Measurement models, as tested with confirmatory factor analysis, specify the number of factors (or constructs), reveal how the factors correlate, and show how the indicators (or observed variables) relate to the factors. Based on theory, these models are specified apriori and then tested for fit. When a tested model meets fit criteria, it is an indication that the observed variables are measuring constructs as specified in the model. Measurement model assessment is a crucial data analysis step prior to developing causal models, especially for populations f...

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