Leisure Reading Habits of High School Students in Mashhad and its Affecting Factors

The purpose of this study is to determine the status of Mashhad secondary school students’ leisure reading habits and its affecting demographic factors (gender, parental socioeconomic status, parental education level, academic achievement and attitudes to the Internet). The method of the current study is descriptive. 384 students (boys and girls) from the first three grades of high school were randomly selected through multistage sampling. The data were collected through a questionnaire. Face validity of the questionnaire was approved by professors and experts and its reliability (0.73) was estimated throughout Cronbach's alpha. Data were analyzed at two levels of descriptive and analytical statistics to answer basic questions and to test the research hypothesis. The results show that: 1 –The rank of “free reading” among the favorite activities of student's leisure time was relatively low. 2 - Students were more interested in reading fiction and fantastic books. 3 - The reading barriers of "listening to music", " school assignments," and "watching TV" was more important than other activities. 4 - Students mostly get their needed resources from "bookstores" and "Friends," and the "School Library" is the least important for them. 5 – The students mainly access their information resources from internet. 6 – There was significant difference between reading habits of boys and girls in some cases like, "reading enjoyment", "buying non-text book materials" and "frequency of reading". Some other factors significantly affect on the student's reading habits, factors such as parents’ education level, family socioeconomic status and academic achievement. Originality/Value: The novelty of the present paper is determining the relationships between variables "attitude to Internet", "parent's education level", "socioeconomic status" and "academic achievement" and "reading habits" of students in Iran.