Background: Considering (1) that reading proficiency is fundamental for educational success, (2) the reciprocal relationship between affective aspects of reading (e.g., reading attitude and motivation) and reading behaviour and ability, (3) the alarming decline in students' reading attitude throughout primary and secondary education and (4) the…

Background: We Love Reading (WLR) is a community-based reading intervention aimed at cultivating an interest in reading for pleasure among children through mobilising local community members to establish informal libraries and organise read-aloud sessions in public spaces. The programme targets primarily children between the ages 4-10 but is also…

Background: While many researchers studying reading motivation and attitudes have taken a variable-centred approach, few have employed a person-centred analysis to examine profiles of reading attitudes and how they relate to reading outcomes. Methods: As a person-centred approach, cluster analysis was used to examine the multiple reading attitude…

Background: There has been an increasing interest in negative or 'undermining' motivations for reading. In this study, we aimed to strengthen knowledge on the validity of the distinction between affirming and undermining motivations. First, we examined whether the structure of a questionnaire based on this distinction could be confirmed. Second,…

The present study examined gender gap in Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) Reading and mediators of the gender gap in a Finnish sample (n = 1,309). We examined whether the gender gap in PISA Reading performance can be understood via the effects of reading fluency, achievement behaviour (mastery orientation and task-avoidant…

Background: In the present paper, we investigated the association between time spent reading and reading comprehension throughout the lifespan. According to the Matthew effect (or rich-get-richer and poor-get-poorer) model, interindividual differences in reading-related skills between poor and average readers become wider as individuals grow…

Reading skills and social-emotional competencies are two important skills for both academic achievement and long-term quality of life. The present study evaluated the effects of a school-based intervention to promote reading skills and social-emotional competencies in young adolescents from urban, low socioeconomic status (SES) communities in…

This study examined the extent to which a range of child characteristics (sex, age, socioeconomic status, reading skill and intrinsic and extrinsic reading motivation) predicted engagement (i.e., time spent) in different reading activities (fiction books, factual books, school textbooks, comics, magazines and digital texts). In total, 791 children…

Investigates the applicability to upper primary school children of a multidimensional conceptualization of attitude toward reading that previous research has shown to be useful for characterizing the reading attitudes of secondary school students. (FL)

This study investigated the prospective relationships between reading performance and reading habits among Finnish children during the first and second grades of primary school. One hundred and ninety-five children were examined twice during their first primary school year and once during the spring term of Grade 2. The results showed, first, that…

Examines the relationship between leisure-time reading and home environment, reading attitude, and reading motivation. Suggests, from the perspective of developing the leisure reading habit, that (1) what parents "do" is more important than what they "are" and (2) the emphasis placed on reading in the home and on academic and intellectual…