The Children's Reading Choices Project.

In the United Kingdom in 1977 a national questionnaire survey was conducted by the University of Sheffield (England) under the direction of Frank Whitehead with children ages 10-14 years old to discover the kind and extent of children's voluntary reading. In 1994/95, Whitehead's study was replicated in the context of the 1990s. This report summarizes the findings of that project the W.H. Smith Children's Reading Choices Project at the University of Nottingham. A national questionnaire postal survey was conducted with 7,976 children 10, 12, and 14 years old in 110 primary (5-11 years) and 59 secondary (11-16/18 years) schools in 1994. To supplement the questionnaire, follow-up interviews were conducted in 1995 with just over 1% of the sample in different schools throughout the country. There were 24 main findings, of which the first six were: (1) over the last two decades book reading has increased for 10 year olds of both sexes, and for 12 year old girls; it has remained at the same level for 12 year old boys and 14 year old girls, but it has declined for 14 year old boys; (2) the average number of books read by children in the four weeks prior to the survey was 2.52; (3) most children read regularly, but there is a tendency towards fewer books read as children get older; (4) more girls than boys read books regularly; (5) there is a clear pattern of decline in the amount of book reading from higher to lower socioeconomic groups; and (6) children have very eclectic reading tastes. (NKA)