Early Grade School Children's Liking of Script and Suspense Story Structures

Abstract

The structural-affect theory of stories was used to predict that young grade school children prefer narratives that involve suspense to those that fail to stimulate a pleasant affective response. Suspense stories, scripts (narratives that described a mundane event sequence), and scripts with added excitement (scripts with nonintegrated exciting events) were read to children of three ages: kindergarten, first grade, and second grade. Children indicated their liking of the stories in three ways: (a) a 7-point rating scale, (b) a ranking of the three types from most liked to least liked, and (c) choosing one of the three as the story they would most prefer to hear read to them at a later date. The prediction that suspense stories would be best liked was confirmed. For the rating scale measure, only second graders reliably liked suspense stories more than plain scripts. For the ranking measure, both first and second graders reliably liked suspense stories best. Finally, for the preference measure, all three age groups reliably liked the suspense stories best. These results support the structural-affect theory's contention that young children's story schemas begin to include the dimension of suspensefulness in story narratives.