Gender differences in reading medium, time, and text types: Patterns of student reading habits and the relation to reading performance

Reading habits play an active role in promoting students' reading skills and making them prepared to participate in modern society. Gender differences regarding students' habits in the use of reading medium, amount of time spent on leisure reading, and the frequency of school-related reading and of leisure reading were examined. The relation between these habits and the level of student reading performance was further explored. Data on 439,847 15-year-old students in 61 countries/regions were extracted from the most recent database of the Programme for International Student Assessment. Descriptive statistics showed that female students preferred print reading and multiformat use, that they spent more time on leisure reading, and that they read fiction and magazines more often than male students. Then, 3-level hierarchical linear modeling was conducted. The results indicated that the use of a paper format, the school-related reading of texts with tables or graphs and of fiction, and the leisure reading of fiction and nonfiction positively influenced reading performance among members of both gender groups and that a small amount of leisure reading of magazines and newspapers only showed a significant, albeit small, positive impact among members of the female group. Additionally, more than 2 h of leisure reading a day brought greater benefits for female students, while 1 to 2 h a day seemed to be more effective for male students. The practical implications for the cultivation of reading habits by students as well as those for the implementation of educational interventions were further discussed.