Adolescent reading habits and perceptions

Abstract

It is said that adolescents do not read, but this is not true. Teachers and educators of adolescents need to become aware of adolescent reading habits. They are reading, it is the materials that are being read and adolescents' perceptions of those materials that has led to the widely held opinion that adolescents do not read. The goal of this research was to examine what adolescents perceive reading to be, what types of materials they read, and to understand if students are not reading anything at all, what they are doing in their leisure time. The major questions driving this research are what are adolescents' perceptions and attitudes of reading and what are their reading habits? The research for this study was conducted with six high school student participants (grades 9-12) who were recruited from a local library's homework help program. The participants completed two surveys, one on paper and one online. The data collected through the surveys was analyzed quantitatively through a survey generating program (Freeonlinesurveys.com, 2018) and qualitatively using descriptive coding and pattern coding (Saldaña, 2016). The main findings from the data were that the participants were either avid readers or non avid readers. Also, there were many differences between avid readers and non avid readers including: enjoyment levels, when reading occurs, the types of reading done, and motivations to read. [ from author's abstract]