A study of formula fiction books was conducted to determine how these books fit into women's lives, what images they bring to mind, and what uses they serve. Seventy-two women from the ages of 18 to 70 read a Harlequin Romance novel by Sue Byfield. Then the group participated in several focus group discussions, a qualitative indepth technique that…

Data from 149 female members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (LDS) were used to construct a composite of the reading habits and their relation to other characterisitics of this group. The typical respondent was a married woman between 26 and 40 years old who had attended college but remained at home to care for children under…

Reports on a study that indicated that men and women generally prefer to read the same types of subject-matter content within newspapers but prefer to use different kinds of newspaper material for getting at this subject matter. (GW)

Following up research by Radway and others on readers of romance novels, a study, employing a reader-response approach, was conducted with 18 female adolescent readers of romances to discover if they perceived and enjoyed the novels in ways appreciably different from other readers. The subjects filled out questionnaires about their romance novel…

Describes observations of recreational reading material selection by kindergarten and first-grade boys and girls. Discussion covers gender-related preferences in choices of recreational library materials, fiction and non-fiction choices, flexibility in reading choices, and gender roles. Observations made in 1983 and 1984 are appended. Five sources…

Investigating the reading habits of adults in Egypt, East Africa, a study examined 294 Egyptians (233 males and 61 females) in post-secondary education in Cairo, and in the industrial cities of Shopra El-Khema, and Impapa, El-Giza. Marital status, sex, and occupation were used to group the subjects. Subjects completed a 29-item questionnaire…

To investigate adolescent reading habits and interests, a reading interest survey was administered to 103 male and 133 female sophomore English students from two high schools with similar socioeconomic backgrounds but different individualized reading programs. In the first school, students read and made book reports on three novels of their own…

A questionnaire was sent to a number of elementary and secondary school English and reading teachers in Connecticut, asking them to survey one or two different classes to determine their students' reading interests. Questions dealt with such topics as favorite type of book, favorite books, more recently read title, favorite authors, sources of…

To determine if purposes in reading differ with sex, grade level, and nationality, a 16-item "Functions of Reading Scale" (developed from content analysis of student essays on why they like to read) was administered to 459 Irish (Dublin, Ireland) and American (Windham, Connecticut) students in grades three, five, and eight. Data…

The reading interests of 300 tenth, eleventh, and twelfth grade students were surveyed and compared to those revealed in previous research. The results indicated that the amount of time students reported reading outside of school per day has decreased slightly since a 1961 study by P. Witty, with females still reading more than males. As in the…

A study of highly successful men and women with reading disabilities used a developmental approach to investigate how, and under what conditions, males and females with reading disabilities develop high literacy levels and resilient self-concepts. The 60 participants in the study included a Nobel laureate, a member of the National Academy of…