2020-2024

Reading enjoyment and engagement is associated with a range of rich and diverse benefits, including intellectual, emotional and educational.  For example, our research has found that book reading during adolescence can support wellbeing (Currie et al., 2025) and empathy (Santi et al., 2025). However, teenagers often report low levels of reading enjoyment, motivation and engagement.  The Young People’s Reading Project  aimed to centre teenagers’ perspectives and experiences to better understand ways to increase their reading motivation and engagement.

Project overview – what did we do?

We worked with Scottish Book Trust and a Young People’s Advisory Panel – six secondary school pupils (13-14 years old) from across Scotland – to design, plan and conduct the research.

We interviewed 46 young people (13-15 years old) to understand their perspectives on the motivators and barriers to reading books, and ways to support their reading enjoyment and engagement. 

How we worked with the Young People’s Advisory Panel

Why we adopted a participatory approach

Guide for Teachers and Librarians

Based on the project findings we created a resource for secondary teachers and librarians:

Supporting Teenagers’ Reading Enjoyment and Engagement A Guide for Teachers and Librarians

Blogposts:

Benefits of reading books:

• Why is reading especially important for teens?
• Connecting with fictional characters – what are the unique benefits of reading books?

Promoting reading enjoyment and engagement school:

• What stops teenagers reading for pleasure?

• Motivating teenagers to read – how you can encourage reading for pleasure at school

• How can librarians support teenagers to read for pleasure?

Academic publications:

Understanding and supporting reading for pleasure:

• Motivating book reading during adolescence: Qualitative Insights from Adolescents. 
• Adolescents’ perspectives on the barriers to reading for pleasure.
• Approaches for supporting adolescents’ reading motivation: existing research and future priorities.

Using participatory research approaches to research young people’s reading:

• Using Participatory Approaches with Children and Young People to Research Volitional Reading.
• Working with a young people’s advisory panel to conduct educational research: Young people’s perspectives and researcher reflections. 

Other outputs

Based on the project findings, Scottish Book Trust and the research team created StoryDeck, a set of cards designed to start conversations with teenagers about their interests and preferences, to scaffold support with book choice.

Project Team:

PhD Researcher: Charlotte Webber, University of Edinburgh

Young People’s Advisory Panel*: Teagan, Harry, Hannah, Sofia, Emily and Ava

First Supervisor: Professor Sarah McGeown, University of Edinburgh
Second Supervisor: Dr Lynne Duncan, University of Dundee
External Partner Supervisor: Katherine Wilkinson (Scottish Book Trust)

*some names may be pseudonyms, as requested by panel members

This project was preregistered – information can be found here:

The Young People’s Reading Project

This project has three phases, details provided below:

Phase 1: Young People’s Advisory Panel: https://osf.io/3jg9c

Aims:

1) To explore how adolescents perceive and talk about their own book reading experiences.

2) To develop themes for subsequent interviews with adolescents (Phase 2) and to co-design an interview schedule for the purpose of understanding and describing the breadth and diversity of adolescents’ book reading experiences.

3) To contribute towards methodological knowledge regarding ways in which researchers can work alongside adolescents to understand their authentic experiences, specifically evaluating youth advisory panels of a means of doing this.

Phase 2: Qualitative Study: https://osf.io/xrk6e

Aims:

1) Exploring how adolescents perceive and talk about their own book reading experiences

2) Exploring the motivators and barriers to reading as perceived by adolescents themselves

3) Contributing towards methodological knowledge regarding peer interviewing

This project is funded by the Scottish Graduate School of Social Sciences and Scottish Book Trust. To learn more you can visit the project website or contact Professor Sarah McGeown on s.mcgeown@ed.ac.uk