Reading interest in a digital age

Abstract

The era of “digital literacy” raises the question of whether the meaning of reading interest may have changed. This study examined psycho-behavioral dimensions of reading interest as these relate to different reading modes and different purposes of reading. Findings show that reading interest is best represented by its subcomponents of psycho-behavioral dimensions. Higher-order factor structures indicate a general factor of reading interest at the third-order level and five second-order factors representing reading in print settings, online reading, social media reading, academic reading, and recreational reading. We conclude with implications for future research on the psychological meaning of reading.

Funding

Nur Hidayanto Pancoro Setyo Putro's PhD project is sponsored by the Directorate General of Resources for Science, Technology and Higher Education of the Indonesian Government.

Notes

¹ In the present study “reading” is operationally defined as activities of reading involving texts of sentences or more than two words that carry a sentence-level meaning. It excludes reading a string of words that can be treated as one word (e.g., the name of a food).

² The sample had a substantially larger number of females than the Indonesian national average for the undergraduate student population (48% males and 52% females in 2015) (DIKTI, 2015).

³ The disproportionately large representation of students in Languages and Arts, Social Sciences, and Education was not considered a limitation because the inquiry focused on reading in general rather than disciplinary specific topics.