Adolescents’ social reading: motivation, behaviour, and their relationship
| Published date | 03 April 2017 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/EL-12-2015-0239 |
| Pages | 246-262 |
| Date | 03 April 2017 |
| Author | Wu Li,Yuehua Wu |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Information & communications technology,Internet |
Adolescents’ social reading:
motivation, behaviour, and
their relationship
Wu Li and Yuehua Wu
School of Media and Design, Shanghai Jiao Tong University,
Shanghai, China
Abstract
Purpose –Using the case of social reading via WeChat in China, this paper aims to explore adolescents’
social reading motivation and behaviour. It also examines how the specic dimensions of reading motivation
contribute to the different aspects of social reading behaviour.
Design/methodology/approach –This study used survey approach, which gathered 1,039 valid
responses from a cluster sampling in 14 middle and high schools in Shanghai, China.
Findings –The results indicated that social reading motivation was a multidimensional construct,
which included the dimensions of social interaction, self-development, peer recognition, information
acquisition, personal interests and time killing. The research also found that different motivational
dimensions exerted different inuences on adolescents’ social reading activities. Specically, the
motivations of time killing and self-development are signicant predictors of both the reading act and
socializing act. However, information acquisition and personal interests were signicant predictors only
of the reading act, while social interaction and peer recognition signicantly predicted the socializing act.
Research limitations/implications –The ndings would be valuable for those who develop reading
programs or administer adolescents’ reading practice. This study can help them understand the complexity of
adolescents’ social reading motivation and distinguish between its different dimensions.
Originality/value –The study provides important insights into the nature of adolescents’ social reading
motivation and how it relates to their social reading behaviour. It not only conrmed the multidimensionality
of social reading motivation as a construct but also expanded the exploration of reading motivation and
behaviour to the social media arena.
Keywords Reading, Adolescents, Digital reading, Reading behaviours, Reading motivation,
Social reading
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
As is known, reading wears two masks: on the one hand, reading can be an intensely
personal and private experience; on the other hand, it can be a tool enabling readers to
connect with others, share ideas and form social bonds (Hartnett, 2013). Looking back at the
history of reading, although group reading exists, such as reading clubs, reading activities
have been mostly undertaken by individual persons (Manguel, 1997). The information and
communication technologies, particularly social media, however, facilitate the development
of digital social reading practice (iResearch, 2012;Pinto et al., 2014). Over the course of the
past few years, a good number of social reading apps have been launched, such as Flipboard
and Zaker (the latter being one of the most popular social reading apps in China). These apps
This work was supported by grants from the China National Planning Ofce of Philosophy and Social
Science (13CTQ015). The authors also thank the support of SMC-Chenxing Scholars Funding and the
Interdisplinary Project (14JCY08) from Shanghai Jiao Tong University.
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0264-0473.htm
EL
35,2
246
Received 7 December 2015
Revised 26 May 2016
Accepted 29 June 2016
TheElectronic Library
Vol.35 No. 2, 2017
pp.246-262
©Emerald Publishing Limited
0264-0473
DOI 10.1108/EL-12-2015-0239
allow readers to participate in discussion groups and to make comments and annotations on
the works (Antonio et al., 2013). Consequently, with the use of digital apps, reading now goes
beyond mere words on pages and there opens up a myriad of options for readers: not only
reading but also sharing their thoughts, favourite quotes and opinions on what have been
read.
The term “social reading” refers to reading activities carried out in digital environments
where readers can interact and share what they have read (BookGlutton, 2011). The rapid
development of social reading greatly alters readers’ consumption of texts. In a survey of
over 2,000 readers, 45 per cent of the respondents agreed that “because of social media I read
more than I used to”, while one half agreed that “social media has changed the way I read”
(Tod, 2015). Despite increasing research attention to social reading, published literature on
this topic is scarce. The extant literature on social reading primarily focuses on concepts or
classications (Bi et al., 2013;Stein, 2013), the development of reading applications (Antonio
et al., 2013;Xu, 2014), or library reading promotion (Liu, 2014;Mennella, 2011). The current
literature, however, does not fully specify the social psychological mechanisms of social
reading behaviour. Given the profound impact reading motivation has on reading activity
(Zhang, 1992), motivation for social reading is an important topic for research. Meanwhile,
many studies have indicated that adolescents are more likely to be inuenced by new media
as compared to other groups (Buckingham and Willett, 2006;Gross, 2004). The aims of the
present study, therefore, are to:
• explore the motivation of adolescents’ social reading behaviour; and
• provide an in-depth understanding of its relationship with social reading behaviour.
2. Literature review
2.1 Motivations for reading and social media use
2.1.1 Motivation for reading. Reading research has traditionally “focused on cognitive
aspects such as word recognition and comprehension” (Baker and Wigeld, 1999, p. 452). By
mid-last century, researchers had begun to explore discrete motivation-related constructs,
such as reading attitudes and reading interests (Butler, 1940;Holmes, 1955). Due to the
dominance of behaviourism, however, these ideas failed to be fully developed for a fairly long
period (Conradi et al., 2014). It was not until the 1990s that research on reading motivation
burgeoned and the affective aspects of reading were again recognized as important factors
driving reading activity.
Understanding that motivation is crucial to effortful reading activity and often based
on reader choice, researchers started to develop instruments to measure reading
motivation. To date, the motivation for reading questionnaire (MRQ) developed by
Wigeld and Guthrie (1995) is probably the most comprehensive and well-established
motivation instrument in the reading eld. MRQ was grounded in two theoretical
positions, the engagement perspective and the achievement motivation theory. The
engagement perspective integrates cognitive, motivational and social aspects of reading
(Baker et al., 1996;Guthrie and Alvermann, 1999). Specically, it views readers as
motivated to read for different purposes, uses existing knowledge to generate new
understandings and participates in meaningful social interactions around reading
(Baker and Wigeld, 1999). This is also the primary theoretical framework adopted in
the current study to approach social reading motivation. To conceptualize reading
motivation, Wigeld and his colleagues (Baker and Wigeld, 1999;Wigeld and
Guthrie, 1995) adapted constructs dened and developed by researchers in the
achievement motivation eld, which proposed that individuals’ competence and efcacy
beliefs, intrinsic and extrinsic motivation and purposes for achievement play a crucial
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Adolescents’
social reading
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