What and how do Hungarian children read?.

Abstract

The first representative survey about reading habits in Hungary was conducted in 1964. Among others it gauged the number of people reading and what they read. Since then only four researches were pursued of the kind, thus it was time we carried out a new analysis at the end of 2017. While compiling the questionnaire and analyzing the result I had the possibility to work with data that could be interesting for researchers beyond the borders of Hungary. In my study I focus on children in the 3–18 age range divided to age groups, and I present the types of books they read. I also examine other components of their behavior related to their reading habits (What they read apart from books, which part of the week/day they dedicate to reading, which genres they prefer etc.). Talking about digital natives, I pay special heed to the correspondence between reading aptitude and the time they invest in using the internet and their smart phones. Last but not least I make an attempt to sketch a general picture of Hungarian reading habits (laying special emphasis on the youth), and the changes we can notice compared to the previous surveys.