Abstract of

Differences in Adults' Reading Practices and Literacy Proficiencies

M Cecil Smith

There is a long history of concern in the study of literacy with readership. Readership refers to the use of reading as a form of communication and is assumed to be important to individual development (Guthrie & Seifert, 1984). Readership involves adults' uses of a variety of print contents to serve different purposes which are assumed to result in distinct outcomes for individuals, including improved literacy proficiency. This study examined readership in terms of adults' reading practices and the association of these practices with prose, document, and quantitative (PDQ) literacy proficiencies, as assessed by the National Adult Literacy Survey (NALS). A nationally representative sample of adults, ages 16 and older, participated in the NALS, which was conducted in 1992. Five age cohorts were compared in the study reported here: 19–24, 25–39, 40–54, 55–64, and 65 years of age and older. The purpose was to make cross-age comparisons in reading practices involving five print contents: newspapers, magazines, books, and six types of personal and work documents. Respondents frequency of use of these contents. Reading practices involving books and work documents were shown to bear strong relationships to literacy proficiencies on three scales measuring somewhat different literacy abilities: prose, document, and quantitative literacy. Age group differences in reading the five print contents were also found, consistent with previous readership surveys. Younger adults were more likely to read brief documents for work, while older adults were more avid newspaper readers. Additional analyses of the reading practices data suggest that extensive reading practice may be beneficial to older adults' literacy abilities. Older adults who read multiple print contents performed comparably to younger adults who read only a single content. Although age is confounded with educational attainment, a series of regression analyses determined that reading practices contribute significantly to PDQ proficiencies even after education is controlled. Engaging in a diversity of reading practices is indicative of reading maturity and appears to have important consequences in terms of literacy abilities, regardless of age.

Abstract from Smith, M. (1996). Differences in Adults' Reading Practices and Literacy Proficiencies. Reading Research Quarterly, 31(2), 196–219. doi: 10.1598/RRQ.31.2.5