Keeping Kids Hooked on Books
The Kids and Family Reading Report™ unveiled some surprising findings about why kids read — and why they don't.
Sparking their child's lifelong love of reading is an important goal for most parents. To better understand parents' success in fostering this love affair, Scholastic recently partnered with Yankelovich, a consumer trends research group, to get to the bottom of how much, how often, and why children read for fun. The result is the Kids and Family Reading Report™, which uncovers a number of interesting behaviors when it comes to kids and reading.
One of the most significant findings is the rate at which children's pleasure reading drops off. The study reports that the number of children who are considered high frequency readers (reading for fun each day) drops from 40% to 29% after they reach age 8. In addition, the study reveals the significant role parents play in their children's reading practice. Children of high frequency reading parents are much more likely to love reading than children of low frequency readers.
Public opinion expert Hal Quinley worked with Scholastic to conduct this study. Here he explains some of the significant findings, and how parents and children can get on the same page when it comes to reading.
Parent & Child: Could you briefly explain the study including how and why it was conducted?
Dr. Hal Quinley: The study had several objectives, but the main one was to understand how kids relate to reading, how they feel about reading and how their parents feel about it. In particular, we were interested in the dynamics within the family over reading. The real issue here was to figure out what kids do, and what influences them to do what they are doing. We also asked what could be done to help them read more in the future.
The study was conducted through mall intercepts in 25 different locations in the country, creating a national sample of sorts. Conducting the study this way allowed us to interview both the kids in these age groups and their parents, making for a very rich study. Each parent and child answered the questions on a computer and wasn't able to see how the other responded.
P&C: One of the findings of the study was that reading has a positive effect on children's attitudes. What are some of these specifics?
Quinley: We can't say in a causal sense that reading causes A, but certainly, people who read more display all sorts of positive characteristics. High frequency readers report themselves as smarter, better students, more creative, more popular, and on down the line. There's certainly a relationship between reading more and having a positive attitude. We can't really say from the study that reading is the cause of this. A child might be smart to begin with and that's why he wants to read more.
P&C: The report notes that 92% percent of children say that they enjoy reading for fun, yet only 3 out of 10 are high frequency readers. The number one reason children select as to why they don't read more is because they aren't finding books they like to read. Does this conflict with the fact that 92% say they enjoy reading for fun?
Quinley: No, the question asks why they're not reading more than they already do. There are obstacles to most things we do. We could have asked: "Why don't we go out and play more?" and so forth. The important part of this finding is that the reason children aren't reading more is a curable thing. Also, this reason for not reading is one that was different than what parents perceived. The discovery that kids need help getting better books that they like to read is one of the important conclusions of the findings.
P&C: What reasons do parents offer as to why children don't read more?
Quinley: The participants were given a list of potential responses as to why they were not reading more. The parents' list was a little bit different, but they were given the same options as the children. Parents think their children have too much homework, and that they like to do other things over reading. Having trouble finding books they like to read came in a distant third on the parents' list. This was an important finding in that parents don't realize what reason their kids give as to why they aren't reading more.
P&C: Could children's response that they are unable to find books they like to read mean that they are having trouble knowing how to select appropriate, interesting books or is it that these books might not be available in the market?
Quinley: We can't really answer this from the study. I would interpret the response to mean that it is the first one — having trouble selecting the appropriate books. However, that's me saying this, not the kids. I can't imagine that there aren't enough books from which children can select. The second part of this study shows the impact of a book like Harry Potter on actually increasing children's interest in reading. More than half of the kids we surveyed (even more boys than girls) report that they are more interested in reading after having read the Harry Potter books.
P&C: Is there any historical data on this subject? Is this rate getting progressively worse or is the drop-off age getting younger?
Quinley: In the Yankelovich Youth Monitor Study that we conducted in 2005 we found a drop-off from age 8 to sometimes 10. However, the questions in that study were a little bit different. There is certainly a drop in reading rates going into children's teenage years that has shown up recently. The rate could be getting worse, but we would need to be careful saying this because there is not enough longitude and data to make a comparison. However, we have seen some drop-offs before.
P&C: The data in the study indicated that there is a difference between boys' and girls' interests in reading. How big is this difference and why does it exist?
Quinley: The differences between boys' and girls' interests are fairly decent sized, depending on what we're asking. One thing to note is that this difference occurs at all ages in our study. This difference is not just in young people or teenagers. On almost any measure you take today on boys' and girls' differences, girls are shown to be better students and more attentive. Our finding that girls enjoy reading more really fits in with an overall pattern. Girls show greater involvement in school and academics, it is just more in their nature. Lots of people have found these differences to exist.
P&C: Parental reading frequency and offering good book suggestions are two factors that influence children's reading. Does one factor have a stronger impact on children than the other?
Quinley: I think the pretty strong answer is that parents being role models in reading has a bigger impact. The relationship between parental reading frequency and child reading frequency is very strong. These factors actually go together. Part of being a good role model is knowing which books kids want to read. Also, parents who read more think it's more important for their kids to read as well. These parents just play a much greater role in their child's reading. The parental role model is what's most important in terms of influencing children's reading.
P&C: Parents place great emphasis on their child having strong reading skills. Why?
Quinley: One of the important findings from some of the work we have done at Yankelovich has to do with reading and the more pragmatic sense of getting ahead and doing better in school. Over the last 10 years we've seen an increase in kids placing a great deal of importance on future success. They are much more anxious about getting a job when they get out of school. Everybody says they are going to go to college whether they will or not. Children also think good grades are the key to success and so forth. We have seen an increase in this concern in both parents and kids over the last 10 years or so. I think that is clearly a link to reading. You see that both kids and parents say that reading for fun will help them get better grades and help them find a better job when they get out of school. I think that's a key factor in all of this.
When kids are asked why they like to read they respond with the most important reason being because it's fun. The next most frequent response is that it helps them in school, then that it helps develop their imaginations, and finally that it helps them learn about new things. So in addition to pragmatic reasons for reading, fostering imagination and learning about new things are important as well. Parents respond somewhat the same way. Parents place pretty great emphasis on various things that get kids to bring out their imaginations. However, this is still second to the pragmatic purposes of getting ahead in school because parents place an awful lot of emphasis on that.
P&C: Parents of older children are less likely to put a lot of pressure on their child to read for fun. Why do you think this is?
Quinley: There can be a lot of reasons for this. Of course, our conclusion is that parents of older children should be placing more emphasis on reading. Some of the reasons parents do not do this are that kids are out of the home more and are doing different types of things than they were when they were younger. Today we have overly scheduled kids who take lessons on this, that, and the other. Kids are into sports. Boys are very much into computer games, especially right about the age that we see the decline in reading. Additionally, parents are somewhat less involved with their kids as they get into their teenage years. There are a variety of factors that come together and are responsible for this downturn in reading after age eight. Parents play one role, and are a factor that we believe can be changed. Parents can help combat this drop-off by staying more involved with their kids' reading than they are today.
