A study of formula fiction books was conducted to determine how these books fit into women's lives, what images they bring to mind, and what uses they serve. Seventy-two women from the ages of 18 to 70 read a Harlequin Romance novel by Sue Byfield. Then the group participated in several focus group discussions, a qualitative indepth technique that…

Reviews the censorship debate in light of three underlying assumptions: (1) reading influences the opinions and beliefs of the reader; (2) the effect of a book, article, or passage is universal, implying there is one correct meaning for a particular work; and (3) the effects of reading are context independent. (SRT)

Third through ninth-grade students were asked to write an essay on the subject, "Why I like to read," to determine children's language in describing their purposes for reading, to gain some impressions of what functions and purposes might emerge, and to analyze whether particular functions appear at various developmental levels. (HOD)

The relatively few empirical studies that have concentrated on the relationship between television and children's interest and achievement in reading reflect two schools of thought. One group assumes a negative relationship, hypothesizing that time previously devoted to reading has been replaced by increased television viewing. Research in this…

A study was conducted to determine whether students' preferences for reading or for viewing television were related to the quality of their leisure reading choices. The families of 198 fourth, fifth, and sixth grade students were asked to complete television and reading logs for four weeks. Sixty-six students were identified from this sample as…

To determine how television viewing affected the quality of recreational reading, logs were completed on the amount of time fourth-, fifth-, and sixth-grade students spent on reading and on watching television. Results indicated that students who watched a lot of television and who did little reading tended to choose books of lower quality.…

A study used a Functions of Reading Scale to explore the reading activities of students in grades three, five, and eight in Ireland and the United States. Results showed the patterns of relationships between the variables in the Scale to be consistent across cultures and grade levels. (FL)

To determine if purposes in reading differ with sex, grade level, and nationality, a 16-item "Functions of Reading Scale" (developed from content analysis of student essays on why they like to read) was administered to 459 Irish (Dublin, Ireland) and American (Windham, Connecticut) students in grades three, five, and eight. Data…