Development of attitude toward reading adolescent literature and literary reading behavior

• Published in: Poetics (Amsterdam) 2004-10, Vol.32 (5), p.343-386
• Main Authors: van Schooten, E., de Glopper, K., Stoel, R.D.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0304-422X; 1872-7514
• DOI: 10.1016/j.poetic.2004.07.001

In a longitudinal research the development of attitude toward reading adolescent literature and reading behavior is studied. Participants are students in higher general and pre-academic secondary education. The attitude model used is the Model of Planned Behavior [Ajzen, I., 1991. The theory of planned behavior. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes 50, 179–211]. The best predictors of reading behavior are cognitions, affect, intentions and subjective norm. When students grow older, affect and control become more important as predictors of reading behavior and the subjective norm becomes less important. All attitude scores and reading behavior diminish with age, but less so for girls, for students having parents with a higher level of education, for students coming from a culturally more sophisticated home environment and for students receiving more support for school work. Students showing less decline in attitude scores and reading behavior have larger vocabularies and receive more lessons in literary education per week. Structural analysis, literary history and most of all text experiencing appear to be beneficial for the attitude towards reading adolescent literature and for reading adolescent literature.