2023 – 2027

Children and young people write for different reasons: to express their ideas, thoughts and feelings, feel empowered, be creative, create fictional worlds for others, support personally important causes/issues, develop and share their imagination, and/or support their wellbeing.  However, these benefits only accrue when children and young people feel motivated to write and engage in writing practices that are personally enjoyable, engaging, empowering and/or enriching to them.

Despite these benefits, there is growing concern in the UK in relation to children’s writing motivation and engagement, based on evidence of continued declines.  Indeed, in 2025, the National Literacy Trust (Bonafede et al., 2025) reported that writing enjoyment among children and young people is at an all-time low. This provides a strong rationale for improving our understanding of why children and young people do, and do not, choose to write, and how we can support children and young people’s writing motivation and practices.

The Writing Lives of Children and Young People project centres children and young people’s perspectives and experiences of their motivational needs and practices to support these.  It is framed around self-determination theory, which posits three motivational needs which need to be supported: autonomy, competency and relatedness, defined as:

Autonomy: The need to feel ownership and control over one’s writing.

Competency: The need to feel effective, skilled and successful as a writer.

Relatedness: The need to feel connected – to one’s writing, readers and fellow writers.

Academic papers focused on understanding and supporting children’s writing motivation in primary schools: 

Young, R., Ramdarshan Bold, M., Clark, C., & McGeown, S. (2025). ‘It’s healthy. It’s good for you’: Children’s perspectives on utilising their autonomy in the writing classroom.  Literacy, https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/lit.70011

Young, R., Ramdarshan Bold, M., Clark, C., & McGeown, S. (2026). Children’s perspectives on writing competency: academic, personal and social influences.  Educational Research, https://doi.org/10.1080/00131881.2025.2609300

Young, R., Ramdarshan Bold, M., Clark, C., & McGeown, S. (2026). ‘The more connections I can make with it, the more I enjoy it’: children’s relationship with writing at school.  Education 3-13, https://doi.org/10.1080/03004279.2026.2620045

Research summaries for primary school teachers, aligned with each academic paper:

Experiences of autonomy and practices to support: What children want teachers to know: Autonomy Summary for Teachers

Experiences of competency and practices to support: What children want teachers to know: Competency Summary for Teachers

Experiences of relatedness and practices to support: What children want teachers to know: Relationships Summary for Teachers

Contribution to research reports: 

Bonafede, F., Clark, C., Picton, I., Cole, A., & Young, R. (2025). Children and Young People’s Writing in 2025.  Available from: https://nlt.cdn.ngo/media/documents/Children_and_young_peoples_writing_in_2025_nCYHDaM.pdf

This project is funded by the Scottish Graduate School of Social Sciences/ESRC, University of Edinburgh and National Literacy Trust.  For more information about the project, please contact Ross Young: r.young-15@sms.ed.ac.uk 

Project Team:

PhD Researcher: Ross Young, University of Edinburgh

First Supervisor: Professor Sarah McGeown, University of Edinburgh

Second Supervisor: Professor Melanie Ramdarshan Bold, University of Glasgow

In collaboration with: Dr Christina Clark, National Literacy Trust