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Girls read differently – and so do boys

Do we need to worry about boys’ reading skills?

The ability to read is essential for learning any subject. And even beyond school, it is of enormous importance for taking part in the life of society. Studies have repeatedly shown that boys have weaker reading skills than girls. Is this a cause for concern?

As early as fourth grade, girls significantly outperform boys in reading. In nearly every country, the Progress in Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) shows a distinct gender gap of 19 points on average in favor of girls. During puberty, the gap widens. According to the 2015 PISA study, 15-year-old girls outperform boys of the same age by an average of 27 points in the OECD countries.

Girls and boys – and later on, women and men – also differ with respect to other aspects of reading. Research has revealed substantial gender differences in how often individuals read during their leisure time, their preferences for reading materials and styles, and how motivated they are to read. For example in Germany, fourth Grade girls have more intrinsic motivation to read and higher reading-related self-concepts, and read more often in their leisure time compared to boys.

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Adult women are more likely to read novels for pleasure, whereas men tend to choose books for practical reasons, such as professional development or to expand their knowledge. Male readers make systematic efforts to improve their reading skills, focusing on specific fields and media. Perhaps this is one of many reasons why no gender gap in reading competence has been observed among adults in Germany.

Interestingly, the gender gap shifts not only with age, but also with the types of materials people read. Girls have a particular advantage when it comes to literary texts; that advantage is much smaller for nonfiction. A relatively new factor to consider is the expansion of the range of media used for reading, including digital devices. In this context, the definition of “reading” is the subject of some disagreement. One question is whether the ability to navigate through hypertexts is a part of literacy in the digital sphere. It is also becoming more and more important to be able to evaluate sources of information.

“Interestingly, the gender gap shifts not only with age, but also with the types of materials people read.”

Large-scale assessments such as PISA and PIRLS are gradually abandoning paper-and-pencil tests of reading skills in favor of digital assessments. In Germany, researchers have found a more pronounced advantage for 15-year-old girls over their male peers when a paper-and-pencil test was administered rather than a digital test.

It is hard to say just how concerned we should be about boys’ reading skills. It is clear, however, that more research is needed on the gender gap, with a special focus on different media and different age groups.





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AUTHORS

Many established and emerging researchers, practitioners, and journalists have contributed to this blog. There are currently more than 220 BOLD authors based in over 20 countries around the globe. Are you interested in writing a blog post for BOLD? Contact us.

All authors in alphabetical order

  • A-C

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Eva Aeschlimann

Psychologist and PhD candidate, Department of Developmental Psychology, University of Bern

Orhan Agirdag

Assistant Professor of Education and Society, KU Leuven and University of Amsterdam

Noa Albelda

Developmental neuroscientist, The Sagol Center for Brain and Mind, IDC Herzliya

Geneviève Allaire-Duquette

Postdoctoral researcher, the Constantiner School of Education, Tel Aviv University

Nina Alonso

Educational researcher and host of Teachers' Voices

Eva Amsen

Science Writer

Jake Anders

Senior Research Fellow, Department of Learning and Leadership, UCL Institute of Education

Daniel Ansari

Professor in Psychology and Education, Western University

Christina Areizaga Barbieri

Research Scientist at Temple University, United States

Jodi Asbell-Clarke

Senior research scientist, TERC

Thibault Asselborn

Doctoral student, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne

Manja Attig

Post-doctoral researcher, Leibniz Institute for Educational Trajectories

Elisabetta Aurino

Development economist, Imperial College London

Kathryn Bates

PhD student in Developmental Science, University College London

Joe Bathelt

Postdoctoral Fellow, MRC Cognition & Brain Sciences Unit, University of Cambridge

Juanita Bawagan

Science writer

Gülseli Baysu

Lecturer, School of Psychology, Queen's University Belfast, UK

Daniel W. Belsky

Assistant Professor, Duke University School of Medicine; Assistant Research Professor, Social Science Research Institute, Duke University

Valentin Benzing

Researcher, psychologist, Institute of Sport Science, University of Bern

Peter Bergman

Assistant Professor of Economics and Education at Teachers College, Columbia University

Lise Birikundavyi

TRECC Impact Finance Investment Manager

Friederike Blume

Post-Doctoral Researcher, DIPF | Leibniz Institute for Research and Information in Education

Marc Bodmer

Journalist, game expert

Elizabeth Bonawitz

Director of the Computational Cognitive Development Lab, Rutgers University, Newark

James R. Booth

Professor, Department of Psychology and Human Development, Vanderbilt University

Alina Botezat

Senior Researcher, Gh. Zane Institute for Economic and Social Research, Romanian Academy

Adam H. Boyette

Lecturing Fellow, Duke University, and Senior Scientist, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology

Zoe Bozzolan-Kenworthy

Program Manager at Jacobs Foundation

Andreas M. Brandmaier

Senior research scientist, Center for Lifespan Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Human Development

Daniel Briley

Assistant Professor of Psychology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Garvin Brod

Assistant Professor at DIPF and Goethe University

Annie Brookman-Byrne

Deputy Editor BOLD

Karen Brown

Science Writer

Roman Bruegger

Managing Director, Swiss EdTech Collider

Jessica Carolyn Bühler

Postdoctoral researcher, University of Basel

Boris Bulayev

Executive Director and Co-Founder of Educate!

Silvia Bunge

Professor, Department of Psychology, Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, University of California, Berkeley

Kaspar Burger

Senior research and teaching assistant, Center for Children’s Rights Studies, University of Geneva

Andres Bustamante

Assistant Professor, University of California Irvine’s School of Education

Bridget Callaghan

Postdoctoral fellow, Columbia University

Melissa Callaghan

Doctoral student, UC Irvine’s School of Education

Sandra L. Calvert

Expert on children’s digital media, Professor of Psychology at Georgetown University and Director of the Children’s Digital Media Center

Holly Cave

Freelance science writer and author

Eleanor Chestnut

Postdoctoral researcher at New York University

Ami Citri

Senior Lecturer at the Hebrew University, and Canadian Institute for Advanced Research

Alexandra Cohen

Postdoctoral fellow, Department of Psychology and Center for Neural Science, New York University

Roisin P. Corcoran

Associate Professor of Education and Director of Graduate Studies, School of Education, UCD

Lyn Corno

Professor of Education and Psychology (retired), Teachers College, Columbia University

Elizabeth Covay Minor

Associate Professor in Educational Leadership, National College of Education, National Louis University