Sex Differences in Intrinsic Reading Motivation and Emotional Reading Experience

Abstract

This article deals with possible differences between boys and girls in the area of reading involvement. Reading involvement emanates from an intrinsic reading motivation: a need to read for affective gratification. The act of reading can be started intentionally and purposefully in order to attain this form of gratification. Perhaps girls differ from boys concerning the frequency with which they mention motives and reasons for the reading for affective gratification. Children may during reading, in connection with text contact, come in close proximity to emotions of a divergent kind and possibly undergo an emotional experience thereby. Perhaps boys and girls also differ from each other in the extent to which they experience emotions during reading.

In exploratory research into intrinsic reading motivation and emotional reading experience over 3000 pupils aged nine to seventeen completed a questionnaire. Girls and boys were divided approximately fifty-fifty. From statistical analysis of the research material it appeared that girls more frequently referred to motives which led to intentional use of books for affective gratification than did boys. More than boys, girls used books in order to find relief from boredom and loneliness, to reduce disagreeable tension, to achieve distraction etcetera.

During reading, boys as well as girls experienced a great variety of emotions such as fun, anger, and sadness. Both groups were equally caught up by euphoric (pleasant) emotions such as amusement. However, girls were more open to the experience of dysphoric (unpleasant) emotions while reading, such as grief and anger, with the result that they experienced these emotions more frequently than did boys. Also the “neutral” emotions such as interest and curiosity scored higher with girls than with their peers of the other sex.