"What Works": Research You Can Use

Volume 30, Number 3, February 2003

Support Libraries to Improve Teen Reading

Research Finding:

Most adolescents like to read, read quite a bit, and value reading.

Comment

Studies of teenage reading conducted by individuals and groups as diverse as independent researchers, teen magazines and professional polling firms have found that teenagers like to read and read quite a lot.

Consider these results:

In a California study, 64 percent of teenagers rated reading as a 7 or better on a “fun” scale; 91 percent agreed it is “really cool” or “kind of cool”; 85 percent read outside of school; 58 percent said they read four days a week or more; 88 percent believed that reading was “really important” for success; 66 percent got their books at the library;
In a North Carolina study, 82 percent said they read in their spare time; 90 percent got books from their school library;
In a national SmartGirl study, 72 percent either “read constantly for my own personal satisfaction” or “I don't have much time to read for pleasure but I like to when I get the chance”; over 90 percent said they read a book a month or more; 62 percent got their books from the school library.

In fact, teens may read even more than that. Some responded that they do not read, “except for comic books or magazines” or “romance, mystery, and scary books.”

Remarkable – especially considering the school, work and social pressures teens face, and the fact that not all teenagers have easy access to reading materials.

Public library circulation and high school library quality are also good predictors of verbal SAT scores, even when controlling for per pupil spending, classroom size and the amount of computer software available.

"Most teenagers like to read and know it is good for them. Therefore, the first priority of reading promotion campaigns should be to help make reading possible by providing access to books. Once access to reading is taken care of, we can then deal with the small minority of potential readers who have access to reading material but do not read."

Source