A study examined what factors made content area literacy learners have positive or negative attitudes toward reading at various stages and what sociocultural dimensions influenced positive or negative attitudes toward reading. Subjects, 35 Hawaii students and 18 mainland students, completed an autobiography assignment as part of a required content area reading class. Subjects were asked to consider their reading experiences from the earliest memory of being read to through elementary school years, middle, high school, and the present. In the Hawaii sample, 23% of participants revealed a consistently positive attitude toward reading and 77% exhibited periods of time where both positive and negative attitudes emerged. The mainland participants showed a similar pattern with 17% in the consistently positive category and 83% with mixed attitudes. Sociocultural factors also played a role in the subjects' attitudes toward reading, particularly for the Hawaiian students. Results also indicated that most of the negative attitudes toward reading occurred in the middle stage; most of the participants moved back to a more positive attitude in the later stage. Those students who found that their early interest in reading was rekindled at the later stage usually forged a connection between an early autobiographical interest and their chosen profession. Future research should explore the impact of courses, workshops, and seminars aimed at changing the middle stage decline in students' attitudes toward reading. (Contains eight references.) (RS)