Understanding children's reading activities: Reading motivation, skill and child characteristics as predictors

Abstract

This study examined the extent to which a range of child characteristics (sex, age, socioeconomic status, reading skill and intrinsic and extrinsic reading motivation) predicted engagement (i.e., time spent) in different reading activities (fiction books, factual books, school textbooks, comics, magazines and digital texts). In total, 791 children (aged 8–11 years) participated. There was considerable variation in the factors predicting engagement in different reading activities. Although intrinsic reading motivation was a good predictor of recreational book reading, age was a stronger predictor of engagement with digital texts. Furthermore, specific dimensions of motivation predicted engagement in different reading activities; being motivated to read challenging texts predicted recreational book reading, whereas being motivated to achieve good grades predicted schoolbook reading. On the other hand, social reasons predicted engagement with magazines and comics. Implications for education and the relationship between child characteristics and choice of reading activities are discussed.

The Effect of Anxiety and Attitudes of Secondary School Students towards Reading on their Reading Habits: A Structural Equation Modeling

“…Bu bağlamda ilgili araştırmada bireyin davranışına etki eden gözle görünmeyen duyuşsal niteliklerden olan tutum ve kaygının alışkanlık şeklinde ortaya çıkışındaki gözlenebilir etkisinin incelenmesi amaçlanmıştır. İlgili alan yazındaki araştırmalar okuma alışkanlığa dönüşmesinde bilişsel becerilerin yanı sıra kaygı, tutum, motivasyon, ilgi, öz yeterlilik gibi duyuşsal değişkenlerinde doğrudan ve dolaylı olarak okuma alışkanlığını etkilediği ortaya konulmuştur (Balcı, 2009;Becker vd., 2010;Lawrence, 2007;McGeown, Osborne, Warhurst, Norgate ve Duncan, 2016). İlgili alan yazında okuma becerisine ilişkin tutum (Hitosugi ve Day, 2004;Alexander ve Fox, 2011), kaygı (Mohammadpur ve Ghafournia, 2015;Mohd.…”

Volitional Strategies Through Metacognitive Development in Fostering Reading Motivation

“…This is in conformity with Thorkildsen and Nichols (1998); according to which the students with high achievement orientation will strive to outperform the others and achieve good assessment in their learning, including in reading. In fact, motivation to read is associated with a desire to excel in reading (Pitcher et al, 2007;De Naeghel, Van Keer, Vansteenkiste & Rosseel, 2012;McGeown et al, 2016;Meniado, 2016;.…”

“…Morgan and Fuchs' (2007) study shows that there is a very close correlation between motivation and the ability to read. It is also stated that as the motivation to read increases the students' reading skill will increase as well (Gottfried, 1985;Kwon & Linderholm, 2014;McGeown, Osborne, Warhurst, Norgate & Duncan, 2016;Gilakjani & Sabouri, 2016).…”

The Effect of Reading Motivations of 6th, 7th and 8th Grade Students on Reading Attitudes: A Structural Equation Modeling

“…Affective dimension, which has an effective role in the variables (Putman and Walker, 2010), includes some variables such as anxiety, attitude, motivation, interest, self-efficacy, and metacognitive reading strategies. (Lawrence, 2007;McGeown, Osborne, Warhurst, Norgate, Duncan, 2016;Boerma, Mol and Jolles, 2016;Kelley, Siwatu, Tost and Martinez, 2015; Huang ve Yang, 2015; Lin, Wong and McBrideChang, 2012;Becker, McElvany and Kortenbruck, 2010;Balcı, 2009). These variables influence each other in various dimensions, as well as interacting with each other.…”

“…The positive experiences of the students who are motivated to read help them to increase their interest in reading and their time for reading. These experiences also enable them to enjoy reading difficult texts (McGeown et al, 2016;Schiefele at al., 2012;Mol and Bus, 2011; Wang ve Guthrie, 2004;Guthrie, Wigfield, Metsala, Cox, 1999). Accordingly, the improvement of reading comprehension skills and influences reading motivation by increasing students' tendency to read (Kurnaz and Yıldız, 2015;Yıldız, 2013a).…”