Teens’ perspectives 1

Adolescents’ Perspectives on Their Leisure Reading Practices:

Evidence from Two Studies

Lee Shumow

Hayal Kackar

M Cecil Smith

Northern Illinois University

Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, New
York, NY. April 2008.
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Purpose

Despite the explosion of visual media and technologies which have led to research on the

“new adolescent literacies” (Alverman, 2004; Luke, 2000), reading will remain crucial for

personal, educational, vocational, and social development well into the 21st century; thus it is an

essential skill for adolescents (Moore, Bean, Birdyshaw, & Rycik, 1999). Numerous

sources, however, document a decline in the time that adolescents spend reading for pleasure--

which has led to the assumption that reading is not valued by adolescents. We were, therefore,

surprised by the unsolicited and passionate presentations adolescents made about reading

activities in videotapes they made for our project pertaining to adolescents’ daily lives (Authors,

2005). The purpose of this paper is to describe adolescents’ reports about their reading in those

videos and our follow-up investigation of adolescents’ cognitive engagement, motivation, and

affect during leisure reading.

Background

Literacy, as both a goal of schooling and a characteristic of the individual, can be

considered as critical social practice (Alverman, Young, Green, & Wisenbaker, 1999). Literacy

as social practice signifies ways that persons interact with and interpret the world and the “word”

(texts), engage with and respond to text, contemplate differences (e.g., language, race, gender,

sexual orientation), and appropriate and employ texts to position, define and validate individual

identities. Our study examines the ways adolescents interpreted, responded to, engaged with, and

contemplated reading and how they used it to define themselves in documentary videos they

created. We also examined adolescents’ report about their cognitive and affective states as they

were reading for leisure and compared those to their reports when engaged with other leisure

activities.
 Teens’ perspectives 3

Scholars have recognized the importance of student perspective in studying adolescents

(Phelan, Davidson, & Yu, 1998). Several contemporary theories of adolescent development

highlight the critical role adolescents’ interpretation of that experience plays in development.

Furthermore, student perspective is central in contemporary social constructivist approaches to

research and practice (Daniels & Shumow, 2002). Lenters (2006) describes listening to student

voice as “an important research paradigm applied to the study of adolescent resistance to reading

….. [that] has yielded rich information regarding adolescent literacy practices…agency, and…

identity as components of resistance to reading” (p. #). The present study focuses on the voices

of a range of adolescent students about their reading using two unique data sources.

Researchers have most often examined adolescents’ reading habits through surveys and

interviews. Several studies have, for example, investigated why adolescents read for leisure. An

English study (Nestle Family Monitor, 2003) found that approximately 50 % of the 11 – 18 year

old adolescents surveyed described reading as relaxing, 50 % as helping understand others, 40%

as educational, 33% as fun, 25% as supporting learning, and another 25% as boring. Other

surveys have led investigators to describe young adolescents’ attitude toward leisure reading as

indifference (McKenna et al., 1995).

Large nationally representative data sets indicate that only 20 percent of adolescents read

for pleasure each day (Zill, Nord, & Loomis, 1995), although others provide higher estimates

(Roberts, Foehr, & Rideout, 2005). Bradshaw & Nichols (2004) found that reading of literature

has declined precipitously among older adolescents compared to previous decades. An

international comparative case study revealed that U.S. adolescent students rarely mentioned

reading in interviews about leisure time (Hofer, 1999), suggesting it had little meaning to them.

But what adolescents say about reading in reflective videos and what they actually think about
 Teens’ perspectives 4

and feel while reading might reveal more than quick responses to predetermined, retrospective

survey items presented by researchers.

Literacy educators have also posited that literacy plays an important, yet not yet fully

understood role in adolescent identity formation. Identity development is considered an essential

psychosocial task in adolescence (Erikson, 1968; LaVoie, 1994). Achieving an identity entails

experimenting with different roles, beliefs, and perspectives, comparing one’s self with others,

and identifying with salient characteristics of significant others (e.g., parents, mentors). The role

that literacy plays in identity formation for adolescents has garnered considerable attention in

literacy education (Alvermann, 2001; Blackburn, 2002; Fecho, 1998; Finders, 1998/1999; Gee &

Crawford, 1998; McCarthey & Moje, 2002; Nielsen, 1998; Young, Dillon, & Moje, 2004).

Literacy researchers have argued that the ways in which adolescents approach and participate in

literacy activities reflects, in large part, their emerging identities. As McCarthey (2001) points

out, adolescent learners come to understand themselves in particular ways as a result of their

literate engagements.

Method

Data Sources

The present study identified and analyzed instances pertaining to reading from two data

sources. Each source gathered adolescents’ subjective experiences using unique methods.

Study One: TeenScene. The TeenScene project recruited 19 high school students who

each created a 60-minute video documentary about themselves. Educators in four high schools

referred students who were (a) representative of adolescents, (b) expressive enough to

communicate with others, and (c) trustworthy enough to be loaned a digital video camera. The

purpose and rules (e.g., don’t film illegal activities), digital video camera operation, and
 Teens’ perspectives 5

guidelines for capturing images and sound were explained to each participant. Students were

asked to address three questions while creating their documentaries: What is important to you?,

What do you want others to know about you?, and, What did you do this week?

Each adolescent had a digital video camera for one week. The completed videos were

content analyzed. As a validity check, educators from the participating schools viewed excerpts

and corroborated that these represented typical adolescent viewpoints.

Study Two: Sloan. Extant data from the University of Chicago Sloan Center 500 Family

Study (Schneider & Waite, 2005), collected from participants who resided in eight middle- and

upper middle-class communities that varied geographically and demographically, were used for

secondary analysis. Our study focuses on 165 adolescent student participants (59 % female, 80 %

White). Data collection included the Experience Sampling Method (ESM; Csikzentmihalyi &

Larson, 1984), a week-long data collection process with good validity and reliability (Hektner,

Schmidt, & Csikszentmihalyi, 2007; Schneider & Waite, 2005), during which participants wore

programmed wristwatches that emitted 8 signals each day. Watches beeped randomly during

participants’ waking hours. When signaled, participants recorded their location, activities,

companions, and psychological states at that time. Participants’ activity descriptions were coded

using detailed schemes. This data set contains 11,721 responses from adolescent students; 3,506

responses pertaining to leisure and media activities.

Leisure reading was defined as those instances when adolescents were not in class and

reported reading a newspaper, popular culture magazines, news/idea magazine, teen fiction,

literature, unspecified fiction, nonfiction or other general “reading.” Students reported 329
 Teens’ perspectives 6

instances of leisure reading. Seven percent of adolescents’ responses occurred while they were

reading, which indicated that they spent about 28 minutes per day reading.1

Adolescents read at (a) home (81%), (b) school, not in class (3%), and (c) public places

(16 %). They were (a) alone (60%), (b) with friends/peers (6%), (c) with parents (24%), and (d)

with others (9 %). In addition, students provided responses to Likert and semantic differential

scale items reporting on their cognitive, affective, and motivational states, as well as their views

about themselves and their abilities at the time. This paper focuses on those states while reading

compared to other leisure or media activities.

Results

Study One. Approximately 1/3 of the adolescents spontaneously discussed what they

were reading or talked about books in their documentaries. They indicated deep interest,

involvement, and engagement in reading (quotations from videos will appear in the full paper).

Reading appeared to support identity exploration through considerations of “possible selves”

(Markus & Nurius, 1986). Adolescents identified with protagonists and explored their personal

beliefs while describing their reading in the videos. For example, Emily noted that she reads “a

lot,” partly because she lived far away from friends in her exurban home, and wondered openly

about her reactions to the works of Chuck Palahniuk (Fight Club, Choke) and Ann Rice and what

her identification with the characters in those books means about herself. She also discussed

Brave New World and how it led her to think more critically about her philosophical beliefs and

the perspective of others.

Karl also used literature to examine his beliefs. He reported reading The DaVinci Code

twice shortly before making his video. Holding the book up to the camera, he said, “Some of it

1
Figure computed by multiplying 2.918 (percent of reading responses) by 960 (the estimated number of
adolescents’ waking minutes a day) and dividing the product by 100.
 Teens’ perspectives 7

really caught my attention and I was pretty interested in it.” In fact, it led him to question the

accuracy of what he had been taught as a Roman Catholic: “It brings up questions. I went online

and researched it. Most of the gospels were written much later than his (Jesus’) death. Things

got taken out and filled in…” He connected these concerns to questions he had just begun

considering about the church.

Miguel talked about his explorations of different philosophies and counter-cultural

perspectives through his reading. He discussed his introduction to books--at a university

coffeehouse he frequents—such as A People’s History of the United States. He also mentioned

that reading helped him regulate his emotions.

Lauren defined herself as a “reader,” and mentioned reading “teen” books. Eunice also

saw herself as a reader but took a critical stance toward “teen” books that “tell you what to do”

compared to “really good novels” in which there is a “relationship between the book and

yourself -- you’re giving it meaning.”

These and other high school students indicated that reading was important to them; they

were interested, engaged, and enjoyed reading. This led us to wonder about documented declines

in time and attitude toward reading and whether adolescents’ motivation to read or not could be

at least partly explained by how they feel when reading compared to when involved in

competing leisure activities.

Study Two. We then examined adolescents’ reports while they were reading to determine

how they rated their cognitive, affective and motivational states. Their reports of negative affect

(i.e., anger, anxiety, stress) while reading were very low, as were effort and productivity ratings.

While reading, adolescents reported moderate levels of concentration, interest, involvement,

perceived importance of activity, and wish to be doing the present activity, but higher ratings of
 Teens’ perspectives 8

positive affect (enjoyment, happiness, feeling good about self), and cognitive engagement

(control, ability).

Adolescents reported higher levels of concentration, interest, and control while reading

than when engaging in leisure activities. Alternately, they were less involved in reading,

perceived reading as less important, and felt less happy while they were reading than doing other

leisure activities (Table 1).

Table 1. Reading versus leisure activity responses.

Reading Leisure
M SD M SD t
Concentration 1.85 .85 1.59 .61 -3.192**
Interest 2.08 .79 1.83 .64 -3.199**
Control 2.32 .82 2.15 .62 -2.212*
Involvement 1.51 1.10 1.97 .75 4.817***

Importance 1.69 .93 1.91 .63 2.435*

Happy 5.15 1.23 5.47 .92 2.538*

Adolescents also felt less angry and less hardworking while they were reading than engaging in

other types of media (e.g. music). They reported higher levels of ability and enjoyment while

reading than engaging in other media types (Table 2). (Associations with self/identity measures

to be reported in full paper.)

Table 2. Reading vs. using other media.

Reading Other media

M SD M SD t
Anger .34 .52 .42 .41 2.161*
Enjoyment 2.10 .71 1.97 .50 -2.063*
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Ability 2.42 .81 2.31 .64 -2.559*

Effort .68 .85 .82 .67 2.301*

Implications

Our findings shed some light on adolescents’ participation, engagement and views on

reading. In contrast to surveys depicting disaffection, we find that high school students view

reading as engaging, enjoyable, and beneficial —in part to confront identity formation tasks.

Comparisons between their perspectives on reading and other leisure activities suggest that

adolescents’ views about reading are complex and nuanced. Surveys asking adolescents if, what,

and how much they read are likely not capturing a sufficiently complete view of adolescents’

reading interests and activities. Note that adolescents’ reports about reading activities were

unsolicited in these two projects, in contrast to surveys that explicitly query students about their

reading activities and other pursuits.

Educators should take note of adolescents’ expressed reading interests (which may be at

odds with official classroom reading) and their reading of unsanctioned texts (e.g., adult novels).

Connections between in-school and out-of-school reading should be made wherever possible.
 Teens’ perspectives 10

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