ResearchersLeonie Rutherford, Andrew Singleton, Bronwyn Reddan, Katya Johanson and Michael Dezuanni delve deeper and look how a parent can help.
We know teenagers have busy and complex lives. School makes increasing demands on them, as do their social and extracurricular activities. We also know video games, social media and TV and movies are very popular when they have down time.
So where do books come into this picture? Our new research looks at how much Australian teenagers are reading for leisure, and how we can help them read more.
Our study looked mainly at book reading
We surveyed more than 13,000 Australian high school students about their reading habits in their free time, away from school and homework. The survey was done between March 2022 and June 2023.
At first, we specifically looked at book reading. These could be fiction, non-fiction or graphic novels. It also included printed books or e-books.
Our survey showed showed 15% of students read daily, while 10% read four to six times a week. About 16% read two to three times a week and 12% once a week. However, a concerning 17% engage in reading less than once a week. The rest – 29% – don’t read at all.
This last figure is broadly similar to our smaller 2016 survey which found 29% don’t read on a weekly basis and 21% don’t read any books in a month.
We also looked at other kinds of reading, such as blogs, magazines, comics, news media and other articles. Most of those surveyed read these materials weekly or less, with only 10% reading these daily. More than one-third don’t engage with these materials at all in their free time.
Audiobooks were not popular either, with only 13% listening to audiobooks in their free time.