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Tackling the Drop-off: Understanding the Teenage Reading Experience

'Tackling the Drop-off' is a PhD project led by Charlotte Webber. It seeks to understand the reasons for the drop-off in reading motivation that occurs during the teenage years

Teenagers legs dangling over graffitied wall

About the research project

'Tackling the Drop-off: Understanding the Teenage Reading Experience' seeks to understand why many young people feel less motivated to read for pleasure during their teenage years.

The research project will help guide our programmes and resources for teenagers. It will also inform our approach to tackling the teenage reading motivation drop-off and help us encourage young people to continue reading throughout their teenage years and beyond.

We have a panel of young people from three schools in Scotland working with us on the project, and they are helping us understand the best ways of working directly with young people. Together we'll be conducting interviews which will help us gain more rounded understanding of young people's reading experiences and how these affect their reding habits, attitudes and motivation. This study of teenage reading motivation is one of the first of its kind to use insights from teenagers themselves and will significantly impact this area of academic research.

Partners

The project is a collaboration between Scottish Book Trust, the University of Edinburgh(this will open in a new window) and the University of Dundee(this will open in a new window), funded by SGSSS(this will open in a new window).

Research contacts

Charlotte Webber's headshot'
Charlotte Webber
PhD researcher in teenage reading
Katherine Wilkinson's headshot'
Katherine Wilkinson
Head of Research and Evaluation

For more details, please visit the LALco website(this will open in a new window). You can also read more about the methods for Phase 1 of this project(this will open in a new window).