Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research Vol.54 1546-1561 December 2011. doi:10.1044/1092-4388(2011/10-0079)
© American Speech-Language-Hearing Association
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Article

The Effects of Race and Maternal Education Level on Children's Retells of the Renfrew Bus Story—North American Edition

Anne van Kleecka
Alissa Langeb
Amy Louise Schwarza
a University of Texas at Dallas
b University at Buffalo, State University of New York

Correspondence to Anne van Kleeck: annevk{at}utdallas.edu

Purpose: The Renfrew Bus Story—North American Edition (RBS–NA; C. Glasgow & J. Cowley, 1994) is widely used in clinical and research settings to determine children's language abilities, although possible influences of race and maternal education on RBS–NA performance are unknown. The current study compared RBS–NA retells of 4 groups of children: African American (AA) children and European American (EA) children whose mothers had an education level of high school or less (≤ HS) and those whose mothers had an education level higher than high school (> HS).

Method: Statistical tests were used to examine 172 kindergartners' story retells using raw scores for all 4 RBS–NA measures: (a) Information, (b) Sentence Length, (c) Complexity, and (d) Independence.

Results: A 2 x 2 analysis of variance (ANOVA) revealed main effects of maternal education and race for the Information score, with ≤ HS and AA children scoring lower. For measures not meeting ANOVA assumptions, 2 x 2 ANOVAs using ranked data indicated significant main effects of maternal education for Sentence Length, Complexity, and Independence measure, with ≤ HS children scoring lower within the AA group.

Conclusion: There are systematic effects of maternal education and race on children's RBS–NA performance, which is important for both researchers and clinicians to take into account when using this instrument.

KEY WORDS: children, narratives, African American, socioeconomic status


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