Correlates of leisure‐time reading

Abstract

Pupils from middle-class homes devoted an average of 7.2 per cent of leisure time to reading. The relationship between home environment, attitude to reading and motivations for reading on the one hand and leisure-time reading on the other, was examined. The addition of these sets of variables to previously established correlates of leisure-time reading, achievement, sex, and library membership increased the proportion of variance accounted for in leisure-time reading by a significant amount (10.1 per cent). Correlations tended to be low, since leisure reading is a relatively sporadic type activity. From the perspective of developing the reading habit, the results suggest that what parents do is more important than what they are; the emphasis placed on reading in the home, on academic development and on intellectuality was related to leisure-time reading. Attitude to reading correlated more highly with leisure-time reading than any of the other variables included in the study; the correlation between attitude and time was significant even after controlling for sex, reading achievement and library membership. Among the motivational variables, reading for enjoyment was related to leisure-time reading whereas reading for utilitarian or escapist reasons was not. RESUME Corrklats d la lecture en temps de loisirLes tentatives visant A expliquer le comportement des enfants vis-&+is de la lecture en temps de loisir, ont ett jusqu'g present relativement sans succks. Parmi les ISSN 0141-0423 52.00 @ 1987 Journal of Research in Reading (UKRA) 4 VINCENT GREANEY and MARY HEGARTY corrklats A la lecture de loisir identifies, on distingue le performance, le sexe, le statut socio-kconomique, la taille de la famille, et l'appartenance a une bibliothtque. Les corrklations entre ces parambres ont tendance a Ctre peu importantes.De rtcentes recherches ont mis en lumitre un certain nombre d'klements ou variables en plus qui pourrait fort bien augmenter l'importance de la variance en matitre de lecture de loisir, variance ttablie grice aux corrtlats prtctdemment citks.Ces variables sont: l'attitude par rapport A la lecture et des facteurs de motivation tels que la lecture pour le plaisir, pour des raisons utilitaires et pour s'kvader. De plus, des recherches au niveau des ktudes suivies dans la famille ont mis en lumitre une strie de variables concernant l'influence familiale et likes A la compttence et aux connaissances de l'enfant. Ces variables ont tendance Ctre assez spkcifiques et converger vers un ensemble de dispositions nkcessaires A l'instruction gknkrale a la maison, en rapport avec l'instruction et l'kxkcution du travail, ainsi que l'insistance sur le dtveloppement du langage et l'interaction sociale au milieu familial. Ces variables additionnelles ainsi que les corrklats prkckdemment ttablis furent inclus dans cette etude. Les informations sur les habitudes de lecture en temps de loisir d'enfants appartenant A des classes de 2de ('fifth grade') (N:138) furent obtenues grPce A des agendas individuels completes par les eltves ...

Students’ Reading Practices and Environments

“…Examining the relationship between parents and children's reading backgrounds and habits, the parental factors such as the reading materials, parental reading behaviours, the frequency of reading to the child and parental beliefs will contribute to their children's more positive reading habits and outcomes (Greaney and Hegarty, 1987). Subsequently, Mullis et al (2004) suggested that the earlier the parents become involved in their children's literacy practices; the more profound will be the results and more longer-lasting the effects.…”

Rewards of reading: Toward the development of possible selves and identities

“…Not surprisingly, qualitative and quantitative research studies have shown that children who engage in voluntary reading develop positive attitudes towards reading as an activity (Barbieri, 1995;Greaney, 1980;Greaney & Hegarty, 1987;Hepler & Hickman, 1982;Long & Henderson, 1973;Mathewson, 1994;Reutzel & Hollingsworth, 1991;Shapiro & White, 1991;Short, 1995). This type of reading has also been shown to relate positively to growth in vocabulary, reading comprehension, verbal fluency, and general information (Anderson et al, 1988;Greaney, 1980;Guthrie & Greaney, 1991;Taylor, Frye, & Maruyama, 1990), and to positively correlate with school grades (Anderson et al, 1988;Fielding, Wilson, & Anderson, 1986;Greaney, 1980).…”

Relations of Perceived Parent and Friend Support for Recreational Reading With Children’s Reading Motivations

“…In contrast, Pagan and Sénéchal (2009) found not even a significant zero-order correlation between parents' reports of how they currently support literacy at home and third to fifth-grade children's reading motivation (intrinsic, self-concept, and attitude); there was, however, a weak positive correlation (r = .19) between the parent support composite and children's reading activity (measured by frequency of reading for pleasure and author or book title recognition tests). Two other studies involving fifth graders and their parents indicated weak to moderate zero-order correlations of parent support composites with children's amount of leisure reading (Neuman, 1986) and with children's reading attitudes and purpose of reading for enjoyment (Greaney & Hegarty, 1987).…”

“…The partial correlations employed WJ III Fluency scores as controls. These partial correlations were of interest given that much research indicates that reading achievement and motivation are positively related (e.g., Cunningham & Stanovich, 1997;Guthrie et al, 1999) and some research has shown that reading achievement is related to parent support of older children's reading (e.g., Greaney & Hegarty, 1987;Hansen, 1969). As shown in Table 8, the partial correlations differed very little from the zeroorder correlations.…”