214

Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy 52(3) November 2008doi:10.1598/JA AL.52.3.4 © 2008 International Reading Association (pp. 214 –223)

Su-Yen ChenParents and teachers

do make a difference in

children’s reading habits.

Who Is the Avid Adolescent Reader in Taiwan? The Role of Gender, Family, and Teacher

In the last decade, researchers have explored who the resistant, reluctant, alliterate, marginalized, or renegade adolescent reader is and the instruc-tional implications of teaching the struggling adolescent reader (Baker, 2002; Bintz, 1997; Johannessen, 2004; Lenters, 2006; Mackey & Johnston, 1996; McCarthey & Moje, 2002; Worthy, 1998). In contrast, Strommen and Mates (2004) looked at the other side of the story and investigated what 6th- and 9th-grade avid readers, as a comparable group to nonreaders, have in common. They found that family factors play an important role in the development of a love of reading. They also found that school is not the critical factor, but a teacher’s enthusiasm might be. With data from national surveys of secondary school students in Taiwan, this study aims to identify what significant factors are associated with 9th- and 12th-grade avid readers to generate insights for parents and teachers.

Factors Associated With the Adolescent’s Time Spent ReadingIn Western studies, adolescents’ extracurricular reading practices have not received as much attention as those of younger students in survey studies. Many earlier studies have established significant relationships between chil-dren’s time spent reading and their gender, parents’ socioeconomic status, par-ents’ reading habits, reading materials at home, parents reading to the child, and the school literary environment. However, the factors associated with the adolescent’s time spent reading have only been explored in a few studies of gender, mother’s education level, and parental reading habits (Gambell & Hunter, 2000; Moffitt & Wartella, 1992; O’Rourke, 1979).

In the United States, O’Rourke (1979) conducted a study of 300 ninth graders and their parents and reported that parents who scored highly on a measurement of quantitative reading habits did not have ninth-grade children who scored high enough to demonstrate a positive relationship. Also in the United States, based on data collected from 414 students in five high schools

215

Who

Is

the

Avi

d A

dole

scen

t R

eade

r in

Tai

wan

? Th

e R

ole

of G

ende

r, F

amil

y, a

nd T

each

er

in central Illinois, Moffitt and Wartella (1992) found significantly more female avid readers than male avid readers. In addition, this study compared parental level of education to the likelihood of high school students’ reading and reported that there is statistical significance according to the mother’s level of educa-tion but not according to the father’s. In Canada, the first national, large-scale survey of school literacy of 36,000 13- and 16-year-olds found that proportion-ately more females than males read for enjoyment out of school (Gambell & Hunter, 2000).

In Eastern cultures in general, the adolescent’s extracurricular reading practice is pretty much un-explored, but a survey of youth in Hong Kong did report a gender difference (Mok & Cheung, 2004). In Hong Kong, gender difference was also found in a report on book reading habits of youth with data from 531 young people aged 15–39. Significantly more females (87.3%) than males (78.2%) indicated frequently or occasionally reading a whole book (Mok & Cheung, 2004).

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) found that profiles of readers in 43 countries were linked to country, gender, and access to print (Kirsch et al., 2002). Internationally, PISA’s survey of 15-year-olds on “engagement in reading” identified four profiles of readers according to their reading frequency of magazines, newspapers, comics, fiction, and nonfiction: the least diversified readers, moderately diversified readers, diversified readers in short texts, and diversified readers in long and com-plex texts (Kirsch et al., 2002). First of all, researchers found that profiles of readers differ from one country to another. In terms of gender difference, among the least diversified and moderately diversified readers, males and females were more or less equally distrib-uted, but those diversified in short texts comprised a majority of males, while those diversified in long and complex texts comprised a majority of females. In terms of family inf luence, profiles of reading were weakly linked to students’ socioeconomic background but strongly associated with access to books at home.

In these studies, gender was repeatedly found to be significantly associated with adolescents’ time spent reading. On the other hand, mother’s education

level was found to be significant in a study conducted in the United States (Moffitt & Wartella, 1992), but parental socioeconomic background as a whole was found to be weakly linked in PISA’s study (Kirsch et al., 2002). Similarly, the importance of parental read-ing habits was stressed in studies done with children, but it was found not to have a significant relation-ship with adolescents’ time spent reading (O’Rourke, 1979). Furthermore, none of the studies investigated the role of school or teachers on adolescents’ time spent reading. This is especially interesting consid-ering that the studies of reluctant adolescent readers center their attention on the ineffective instructional strategies of schools and teachers.

Studies on Avid ReadersStrommen and Mates’s (2004) study of older chil-dren and teen avid readers, as opposed to nonreaders, might shed some light on the inf luence of family and teachers on adolescents’ time spent reading. Studies that center on the subject of avid readers, instead of on the general population, can be traced back to a few earlier studies of kindergarten or elementary school students.

Morrow (1983) developed a composite measure-ment to identify 396 American kindergarten children who had a high interest (19%) or low interest (25%) in literature. In addition to the significant relation-ship between gender and interest in literature, the re-searcher found that parents of children with a high interest provide supportive literary environments, as indicated by reading to their children more often, watching less television, and having more children’s books placed in many rooms in the home. Significant differences were reported between parents from the high-interest and the low-interest groups regarding factors of parental education background and their re-gard of reading as a leisure activity. The classroom lit-erature environment was also found to be important. The researcher found that 81% of the high-interest children came from classrooms where literature pro-grams were rated as good or excellent and in which teachers stressed regular, planned literature activities and provided a well-designed reading corner.

Fielding, Wilson, and Anderson (1986) inter-viewed the 8 most avid readers out of 105 fifth-grade

216

Jour

nal

of A

dole

scen

t &

Adu

lt L

iter

acy

52(3

)

N

ovem

ber

2008

students and their parents. They found that avid read-ers were read to from the time they were very young, had parents who modeled the uses of reading, and were given freedom of choice about what to read. Shapiro and Whitney (1997) compared 21 avid readers (i.e., those subjects with a percentage of leisure reading that was at least one-half standard deviation above the mean) and 18 nonreaders, out of 55 fifth and 57 fourth graders. They found four home factors to be signifi-cantly related to leisure reading, including receiving books as gifts, being taken to the library, the age at which parents stopped reading to or with them, and whether someone at home encouraged them to read.

For older children and teens, Strommen and Mates (2004) distinguished “readers,” those for whom reading is an important and recreational activity and a consistent part of everyday life, from “nonreaders,” those who seldom or never choose to read for plea-sure. With interview data from 151 sixth- and ninth-grade readers, researchers found that readers have the following characteristics in common. First, they regu-larly have discussions about books with other readers. Second, they see being an active member of a commu-nity of readers as a meaningful part of their identity. Third, their parents or other family member prioritize reading as a leisure activity. Fourth, they have access to a variety of reading materials. Finally, school plays a minor role, though a teacher’s enthusiasm for books might be significant. In other words, parents play a key role in their children’s developing conception of themselves as readers by establishing a routine of read-ing for their young children, making plentiful and varied books available as the children mature, reading for recreation as a model for the children to emulate, and sustaining ongoing dialogues about books among family members. On the contrary, none of the read-ers mentioned reading instruction or reading skills as something that supported their enjoyment of reading. When asked about teachers, several recalled early-grade teachers, and some readers praised their second-ary school teachers for speaking about books with real passion.

Survey studies on avid readers suggest that for kindergarten children a high interest in literature was found to be linked to a supportive literacy en-vironment at home and at school. For fifth graders

and adolescents, studies found family factors to be sig-nificantly related to the leisure reading of avid readers, but schools’ reading instruction was either not exam-ined or not found to be a critical factor, even though teachers’ passion might be.

In Taiwan, since the beginning of the 21st century, the government has initiated several reading promo-tional programs that have increased public awareness of the importance of reading. However, the reading movement is considered to have little impact upon achievement-oriented high school students because of the longstanding competitive senior high school and college entrance exams. Therefore, finding out what significant factors are associated with avid adolescent readers might provide educational implications. Based upon the above Western and international literature and using national survey data on secondary school stu-dents in Taiwan, this study set out to examine the role of gender, family, and teacher on avid adolescent read-ers, with the hope that it would provide suggestions to parents and teachers and at the same time add to the international conversation on adolescent literacy.

MethodThe data sets of secondary school students used in this study are samples of 9th and 12th graders of the Taiwan Education Panel Survey (TEPS; Chang, 2003). These national data were collected in 2003 as follow-ups of the same students as 7th and 11th graders in 2001. Some background information concerning parental education level and cultural level of the home envi-ronment collected in 2001 when the students were surveyed for the first time was also used in this study. By using cluster, multistage, stratified probability sampling, junior high schools in Taiwan were classi-fied according to geographical location, metropolitan or rural area, and public or private school; 333 schools were selected. Then, within each school, four classes were selected and, within each class, 15 students were selected (Yang, Tam, & Huang, 2003). The sample of 9th graders consisted of 18,903 students. Using the same sampling method, the sample of 12th graders consisted of 18,374 students. Because both data from students’ and their parents’ questionnaires were used in this study, valid N for 9th graders was 10,404, and for 12th graders it was 10,651.

217

Who

Is

the

Avi

d A

dole

scen

t R

eade

r in

Tai

wan

? Th

e R

ole

of G

ende

r, F

amil

y, a

nd T

each

er

In the student questionnaires, 9th and 12th grad-ers were asked what kinds of activities they had been involved in during the previous summer vacation. They were allowed to choose more than one activ-ity from a list including working part time, sports, community service, reading a lot of extracurricular books, and spending time on the Internet or com-puter. Those who reported reading a lot of extracur-ricular books were classified as avid readers for the purposes of this study. For the independent variables, factors selected for investigation included gender; father’s education level; mother’s education level; father’s reading frequency; mother’s reading frequency; father’s frequency of bookstore visits; mother’s fre-quency of bookstore visits; number of Chinese maga-zines, English magazines, and encyclopedias at home; number of teachers encouraging reading; and having teachers from various subjects always introducing sci-ence knowledge or teaching about literature and arts appreciation. The last item was selected to examine the factor of teachers’ sharing knowledge and showing appreciation toward great works as a motivation for students to engage in further exploration and learning in general.

The statistical analysis proceeded in two steps. First, I calculated the percentages of avid readers within different levels (or subcategories) of individual factors, and a chi-square analysis was used to test for significant group difference within different levels (or subcategories) of a specific factor. Second, logistic re-gression was employed to examine how various factors were associated with students being avid readers with all factors taken into consideration at the same time, because chi-square analysis only shows how individu-al factors are associated with dependent variables.

ResultsThere were 2,909 out of 10,404 (27%) 9th graders and 2,680 out of 10,651 (25.2%) 12th graders who re-ported reading a lot of extracurricular books and were therefore classified as avid readers. Table 1 presents the percentage of avid readers within different levels (or subcategories) of various factors, and significant group differences were found for all factors using chi-square analysis.

In Table 2, for ninth graders, logistic regression suggested that, all factors taken into consideration at the same time, the factors of English magazines at home and the number of teachers encouraging reading were not significantly associated with being avid read-ers. On the other hand, gender, mother’s frequency of bookstore visits, mother’s reading frequency, father’s reading frequency, and having teachers who were always introducing science knowledge or teaching about literature and arts appreciation were found to be strongly associated with being avid readers when the other factors were controlled. Specifically, odds ratios showed that females were about 1.86 times more likely to be avid readers than males. Students whose mothers frequently or sometimes went to the bookstore were 1.89 and 1.45 times more likely to be avid readers than students whose mothers never went to the bookstore. Students whose mothers read more than eight hours per week, six to eight hours per week, and less than six hours per week were 1.47, 1.66, and 1.31 times, re-spectively, more likely to be avid readers than students whose mothers almost never read. Students whose fa-thers read more than eight hours per week were 1.44 times more likely to be avid readers than students whose fathers almost never read. Finally, students who had both teachers from relevant subjects and nonrel-evant subjects always introducing science knowledge or teaching about literature and arts appreciation were 1.59 times more likely to be avid readers than students who had no teacher who did this.

For 12th graders, the logistic regression suggested that, all factors taken into consideration at the same time, the factors of mother’s education level, mother’s reading frequency, and Chinese magazines at home were not significantly associated with being avid read-ers. On the other hand, gender, mother’s frequency of bookstore visits, number of teachers encouraging reading, and having teachers who were always in-troducing science knowledge or teaching about lit-erature and arts appreciation were strongly associated with being avid readers when the other factors were controlled for. Specifically, odds ratios showed that females were about 1.58 times more likely to be avid readers than males. Students whose mothers frequent-ly or sometimes went to the bookstore were 1.60 and 1.32 times, respectively, more likely to be avid readers

218

Jour

nal

of A

dole

scen

t &

Adu

lt L

iter

acy

52(3

)

N

ovem

ber

2008

Table 1 Percentages of Avid Readers for 9th and 12th Graders in Taiwan

Independent variables 9th graders 12th graders

Sample size Percentage of avid readers within the sample (%) Sample size Percentage of avid readers

within the sample (%)

GenderMale 5,225 22.1*** 5,078 20.7***

Female 5,179 33.8 5,573 29.2Father’s education level

Junior high or lower 3,557 20.8*** 3,633 20.8***

Senior high 5,563 29.3 5,728 26.1College or higher 1,284 41.9 1,290 33.2

Mother’s education levelJunior high or lower 3,898 20.9*** 4,591 22.1***

Senior high 5,713 30.7 5,366 26.4College or higher 793 43.1 694 35.6

Father’s reading frequencyAlmost never 2,867 19.0*** 3,194 19.7***

Less than 6 hours per week 5,351 28.4 5,409 26.06–8 hours per week 684 36.4 607 30.1More than 8 hours per week 1,502 39.6 1,441 31.9

Mother’s reading frequencyAlmost never 2,112 16.5*** 2,668 19.6***

Less than 6 hours per week 5,989 27.9 5,978 25.86–8 hours per week 732 39.2 654 26.1More than 8 hours per week 1,571 38.3 1,351 33.1

Father’s frequency of bookstore visitsNever 3,559 20.7*** 4,396 20.4***

Occasionally 2,996 27.4 2,835 25.2Sometimes 2,917 33.1 2,640 29.9Frequently 932 41.5 780 35.6

Mother’s frequency of bookstore visitsNever 1,956 16.3*** 3,389 19.1***

Occasionally 3,063 24.8 3,103 24.9Sometimes 4,064 31.2 3,326 28.8Frequently 1,321 42.6 833 36.1

Chinese magazines at homeNo 5,390 22.8*** 5,650 22.4***

Yes 5,014 33.5 5,001 28.3English magazines at home

No 7,893 25.9*** 7,957 23.3***

Yes 2,511 34.4 2,694 30.6Encyclopedia at home

No 4,473 22.7*** 4,999 21.6***

Yes 5,931 32.0 5,652 28.3Number of teachers encouraging reading

None 1,321 26.6* 1,700 20.6***

1–2 teachers 6,102 27.2 7,160 25.13–4 teachers 2,252 30.1 1,423 28.9More than 5 teachers 729 30.0 368 32.6

Teachers always introduce science knowledge or teach about literature and arts appreciation

None 828 22.6*** 1,437 17.7***

Only teachers who teach nonrelevant subjects 486 23.0 329 17.9Only teachers who teach relevant subjects 5,605 25.7 6,698 25.0Both teachers who teach relevant subjects and nonrelevant subjects 3,485 33.6 2,187 31.6

Total 10,404 27.0 10,651 25.2

*p < .05. ** p < .01. ***p < .001.

219

Who

Is

the

Avi

d A

dole

scen

t R

eade

r in

Tai

wan

? Th

e R

ole

of G

ende

r, F

amil

y, a

nd T

each

er

Table 2 Logistic Regression on Avid Readers for 9th and 12th Graders in Taiwan

Independent variables 9th graders odds ratio 12th graders odds ratio

Gender[Male] – –Female 1.86*** 1.58***

Father’s education level[Junior high or lower] – –Senior high 1.10 1.13*

College or higher 1.29** 1.19

Mother’s education level[Junior high or lower] – –Senior high 1.10 0.93College or higher 1.26* 1.08

Father’s reading frequency[Almost never] – –Less than 6 hours per week 1.22** 1.15*

6–8 hours per week 1.41** 1.26*

More than 8 hours per week 1.44*** 1.17

Mother’s reading frequency[Almost never] – –Less than 6 hours per week 1.31*** 1.046–8 hours per week 1.66*** 0.85More than 8 hours per week 1.47*** 1.15

Father’s frequency of bookstore visits[Never] – –Occasionally 1.03 1.07Sometimes 1.16* 1.21**

Frequently 1.23* 1.38**

Mother’s frequency of bookstore visits[Never] – –Occasionally 1.26** 1.20**

Sometimes 1.45*** 1.32***

Frequently 1.89*** 1.60***

Chinese magazines at home[No] – –Yes 1.16** 1.04

English magazines at home[No] – –Yes 1.11 1.17**

Encyclopedia at home[No] – –Yes 1.13* 1.14**

Number of teachers encouraging reading[None] – –1–2 teachers 0.94 1.083–4 teachers 1.06 1.24*

More than 5 teachers 1.13 1.44***

Teachers always share science knowledge or teach about literature and arts appreciation[None] – –Only teachers who teach nonrelevant subjects 1.07 0.92Only teachers who teach relevant subjects 1.13 1.40***

Both teachers who teach relevant subjects and nonrelevant subjects 1.59*** 1.76***

Model X 2 811.543*** 443.005***

Hosmer & Lemeshow Test X 2 12.349 6.899

N 10,404 10,651

Note. The comparison groups of independent variables are in brackets. *p < .05. ** p < .01. ***p < .001.

220

Jour

nal

of A

dole

scen

t &

Adu

lt L

iter

acy

52(3

)

N

ovem

ber

2008

than students whose mothers never went to the book-store. Regarding teacher factors, students who had both teachers from relevant subjects and nonrelevant subjects and had only teachers from relevant subjects always introducing science knowledge or teaching about literature and arts appreciation were 1.76 and 1.40 times, respectively, more likely to be avid readers than students who had no teacher doing this. Also, students who had more than five teachers always in-troducing good books and encouraging reading were 1.44 times more likely to be avid readers than students who had no teacher who did this.

DiscussionWith data from national surveys in Taiwan, this study focused on the subject of avid adolescent readers. About one fourth of the students were categorized as avid readers because they reported reading a lot of extracurricular books during their previous summer vacation. In Taiwan, secondary school students are encouraged to spend their time focused on textbooks during the school term because of the high-stakes ex-amination culture. Therefore, to elicit self-reported reading behavior during a vacation as the independent variable seems reasonable for this study.

In general, this study found gender to be strongly associated with the likelihood of being an avid reader for both 9th and 12th graders in Taiwan. Family fac-tors and teachers play important roles, too. For 9th graders, the family factors, which range from being weakly to strongly linked to the likelihood of being an avid reader, were reading materials at home, pa-rental education level, the frequency of parents going to the bookstore, and parental reading frequency, re-spectively. For 12th graders, the family factors rang-ing from weakly to strongly linked to the likelihood of being an avid reader were parental education level, reading materials at home, parental reading frequency, and the frequency of parents going to the bookstore, respectively. Having teachers from various subjects al-ways sharing science knowledge or literature and arts appreciation significantly raised the odds of being an avid reader for both 9th and 12th graders, especially for the latter. Having several teachers always intro-ducing good books and encouraging reading also sig-

nificantly raised the odds of being an avid reader for 12th graders.

Gender and the Avid ReaderGender has long been found to be one of the most pronounced factors associated with time spent reading for children and adolescents alike in Western stud-ies. Female students have been reported to read more than male students at every age. The findings of this study are consistent with this well-recognized con-sensus. When other factors are held equivalent, female adolescents are about 1.5 times more likely to be avid readers of books than males.

However, it is important to note that in two pre-vious studies conducted by the author, both using na-tional survey data in Taiwan, female college students were found not to spend more time on extracurricu-lar reading than male college students (Chen, 2007) and, similarly, older female adults (aged 60 and over) were found to read less than older male adults (Chen, 2008). I proposed that although reading in Western society is considered a feminine activity, this image is not necessarily accurate in Chinese society, at least not in Taiwan. Cultural differences may be the cause for findings that differ between Chinese and Western studies, where Western belief is that women are more avid readers.

Here, I speculate that the reason for the disparate results between findings from Taiwanese secondary school students of this present study and my two prior studies on college students and older adults most like-ly lies in how the survey questions were posed: Was the focus on leisure reading of books, as is the case in this study and with the study on youths from Hong Kong (Mok & Cheung, 2004), or was it on the lei-sure reading in general across newspapers, magazines, books, and other kinds of material, as was the case in two of my previous studies (Chen, 2007, 2008)? This speculation is supported by the findings of PISA’s 2000 study of 15-year-olds that found that, among the four reading profiles, the third profile (readers more oriented toward comics and short texts) comprises a majority of males, whereas the fourth profile (readers more oriented toward longer books, especially fiction) comprises a majority of females (Kirsch et al., 2002).

221

Who

Is

the

Avi

d A

dole

scen

t R

eade

r in

Tai

wan

? Th

e R

ole

of G

ende

r, F

amil

y, a

nd T

each

er

of the home environment (van Schooten, Oostdam, & de Glopper, 2001) was used instead by asking whether there were Chinese magazines, English magazines, or encyclopedias at home. Although access to print at home was found to be strongly associated with read-ing profiles in the PISA study (Kirsch et al., 2002), the cultural level of the home environment was found to be weakly linked with the likelihood of being an avid reader in this study.

Overall, this study provides evidence to support the findings of Strommen and Mates (2004) on the strong relationship between parents’ inf luence and ad-olescents’ love of reading. By being role models who read and go to the bookstore frequently, a lot of par-ents inevitably affect their children’s view of reading as something enjoyable and worthwhile so that they choose to become avid readers themselves, even when they reach adolescence.

Teachers and the Avid ReaderThis study also provides evidence to support another finding of Strommen and Mates’s (2004) on the signif-icant relationship between teachers’ enthusiasm about books and adolescents’ love of reading. In this pres-ent study, for 12th graders, students who have more than five teachers always introducing good books and encouraging reading were also about 1.4 times more likely to be avid readers than students without such a teacher, with other factors held equivalent. Moreover, 9th- and 12th-grade students with teachers who teach relevant subjects and nonrelevant subjects and who always share their passion and appreciation of knowl-edge and beauty were about 1.6 and 1.75 times more likely, respectively, to be avid readers than students who have no teacher doing the same thing, with other factors held equivalent. Based on the findings of a series of studies on inf luential teachers from the primary grades through to university, Ruddell (1995) proposed that one of the characteristics of inf luential teachers was that they “create a feeling of excitement about the subject matter, content or skill that they teach” (p. 455). This study confirmed Ruddell’s im-portant findings with more empirical evidence. The impact of teachers is undeniable in this study, and it is more obvious for 12th graders than for 9th graders—a curious finding that deserves further investigation.

Of course, speculation calls for further empirical examination.

Family Factors and the Avid ReaderParental education level was found to be insignificant-ly or weakly linked to secondary school students’ like-lihood of being avid readers in this study. This result is inconsistent with Moffitt and Wartella’s (1992) study done in Illinois, which found mother’s education level to have statistical significance, but it is consistent with the international PISA study that found socioeco-nomic status to be weakly linked (Kirsch et al., 2002). Actually, in a study of fifth graders, Neuman (1986) emphasized the importance of the “process variables” of the home environment for leisure reading over the “static variables,” such as parental education level.

Parental reading frequency is considered to be one of the process variables of the home environment. While it was found to be insignificantly associated with 9th graders’ reading habits in the United States (O’Rourke, 1979), it was found to be strongly associ-ated with 9th graders’ odds of being avid readers but weakly or insignificantly linked for 12th graders in Taiwan. For example, with other factors held equiva-lent, for parents who are avid readers themselves (de-fined as reading more than eight hours per week) their 9th graders are about 1.4 times more likely to be avid readers than those students whose parents almost never read.

Another common process variable identified in the Western studies is reading to children when they are young, but instead, the factor of the frequency of parents’ bookstore visits is investigated in this study for the first time in the literature. It turns out to be an important indicator for Taiwanese students’ odds of being avid readers, especially the frequency of the mother’s visits. For example, for 9th and 12th grad-ers, those students who have a mother who goes to the bookstore frequently are about 1.9 and 1.6 times more likely, respectively, to be avid readers than stu-dents whose mothers never do, with other factors held equivalent.

Finally, a third common process variable in the Western studies is access to print at home. It is often investigated by asking how many books are available in the home. In this study, the concept of the cultural level

222

Jour

nal

of A

dole

scen

t &

Adu

lt L

iter

acy

52(3

)

N

ovem

ber

2008

to inf luence students to become avid readers is not so much by encouraging reading directly but rather through creating feelings of excitement, passion, and appreciation for the subject matter content or knowl-edge in the classroom. The teacher’s inf luence is as important as the parents’, at least for 12th graders.

Finally, this study is a secondary analysis using large-scale, self-reported survey data, but its specific implications could be explored at a local school level as well. One area on which to focus might be how teachers inf luence avid adolescent readers with other data sources (interviews, observations, and so on) to describe the richness and complexities of factors with-in local contexts.

NoteThe author would like to thank the National Science Council of the Republic of China for f inancially supporting this research under Contract No. NSC 95-2413-H-007-004.

ReferencesBaker, M.I. (2002). Reading resistance in middle school: What

can be done? Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 45(5), 364–366.

Bintz, W.P. (1997). Exploring reading nightmares of middle and secondary school teachers. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 41(1), 12–24.

Chang, L.Y. (2003). Taiwan Education Panel survey: Base year, 2001, student data and parent data. Taipei: Center for Survey Research, Academia Sinica.

Chen, S.-Y. (2007). Extracurricular reading habits of college stu-dents in Taiwan: Findings from two national surveys. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 50(8), 642–653. doi:10.1598/JAAL.50.8.3

Chen, S.-Y. (2008). Reading practices and profiles of older adults in Taiwan. Educational Gerontology, 34(5), 427–441.

Fielding, L.G., Wilson, P.T., & Anderson, R.C. (1986). A new focus on free reading: The role of trade books in reading in-struction. In T. Raphael (Ed.), The contexts of school-based lit-eracy (pp. 149–160). New York: Random House.

Gambell, T., & Hunter, D. (2000). Surveying gender differenc-es in Canadian school literacy. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 32(5), 689–719. doi:10.1080/00220270050116941

Johannessen, L.R. (2004). Helping “struggling” students achieve success. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 47(8), 638–647.

Kirsch, I., de Jong, J., Lafontaine, D., McQueen, J., Mendelovits, J., & Monseur, C. (2002). Reading for change: Performance and engagement across countries. Paris: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

Lenters, K. (2006). Resistance, struggle, and the adolescent reader. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 50(2), 136–146. doi:10.1598/JAAL.50.2.6

Implications and SuggestionsWhile studies of reluctant adolescent readers gener-ally focus on what is not working and suggest having instructional practices that are more responsive to stu-dents’ needs, this study on avid secondary school read-ers centered its attention on what might have been working and provides empirical support for the prop-osition that parents and teachers do make a difference. Consistent with Strommen and Mates’s (2004) find-ings about 6th- and 9th-grade readers in the United States, this study found that 9th and 12th graders in Taiwan who see reading as an activity that plays an important role in the lives of their parents have greater chances of being avid readers themselves. Many par-ents might speculate that as the children grow into adolescence and peer group pressure increases, their inf luence over their children will decrease accord-ingly. The findings of this study suggest otherwise; just as earlier researchers have clearly demonstrated through studies of children, this study found that it is also true for adolescents. Furthermore, this study found that factors such as parental reading frequency and frequency of parental bookstore visits have a rela-tively greater effect on children’s being avid readers than factors such as parental education level and the cultural level of the home environment. These results suggest that what parents do is more important than who they are.

More important, consistent with Ruddell’s (1995) and Strommen and Mates’s (2004) findings in the United States, this study found that 9th and 12th graders in Taiwan whose teachers from various sub-jects share their enthusiasm not only for books but also for knowledge in general have greater chances of being avid readers. The disengagement and with-drawal from reading by many adolescents might worry teachers, but the results of this study provide evidence on the bright side: The teacher as an explicit role model is indeed one of the key factors in motivat-ing students to read. Specifically, this study found that having teachers from various subjects always sharing science knowledge or literature and arts appreciation has a relatively greater effect on students’ being avid readers than having teachers always introducing good books and encouraging reading. This interesting re-sult implies that a more powerful way for teachers

223

Who

Is

the

Avi

d A

dole

scen

t R

eade

r in

Tai

wan

? Th

e R

ole

of G

ende

r, F

amil

y, a

nd T

each

er

Mackey, M., & Johnston, I. (1996). The book resisters: Ways of approaching reluctant teenage readers. School Libraries Worldwide, 2(1), 25–38.

McCarthey, S.J., & Moje, E.B. (2002). Identity matters. Reading Research Quarterly, 37(2), 228–238. doi:10.1598/RRQ.37.2.6

Moff itt, M.A.S., & Wartella, E. (1992). Youth and reading: A survey of leisure reading pursuits of female and male adoles-cents. Reading Research and Instruction, 31(2), 1–17.

Mok, J., & Cheung, S. (2004). Book reading culture of youth in Hong Kong. Hong Kong: The Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups.

Morrow, L.M. (1983). Home and school correlates of early interest in literature. Journal of Educational Research, 76(4), 221–230.

Neuman, S.B. (1986). The home environment and f ifth-grade students’ leisure reading. The Elementary School Journal, 86(3), 334–343. doi:10.1086/461454

O’Rourke, W.J. (1979). Are parents an inf luence on adolescent reading habits? Journal of Reading, 22(4), 340–343.

Ruddell, R.B. (1995). Those inf luential literacy teachers: Meaning negotiators and motivation builders. The Reading Teacher, 48(6), 454–463.

Shapiro, J., & Whitney, P. (1997). Factors involved in the lei-sure reading of upper elementary school students. Reading Psychology, 18(4), 343–370. doi:10.1080/0270271970180402

Strommen, L.T., & Mates, B.F. (2004). Learning to love reading: Interviews with older children and teens. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 48(3), 188–200. doi:10.1598/JAAL.48.3.1

van Schooten, E., Oostdam, R., & de Glopper, K. (2001). Dimensions and predictors of literary response. Journal of Literacy Research, 33(1), 1–31.

Worthy, J. (1998). “On every page someone gets killed!” Book conversations you don’t hear in school. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 41(7), 508–517.

Yang, M.L., Tam, T., & Huang, M.H. (2003). Psychometric report: TEPS 2001 analytical ability test. Taipei: Academia Sinica.

Chen teaches at National Tsing Hua University, Taiwan,

ROC; e-mail suychen@mx.nthu.edu.tw.