Page 158 - JOURNAL OF LIBRARY SCIENCE IN CHINA 2015 Vol. 41

Wu LI / The motivation of adolescents’ social reading：A case study of middle school students’ reading via WeChat in Shanghai 157

motivation (Cai, 2013). The respondents of this survey were not adolescents, but the research topic
focused on online reading, to which social reading belongs, so the result could be helpful for us to
understand what the present study had found. Therefore, the issue of gender differences of reading
motivation needs to be further explored in the future.
Researchers have repeatedly reported a general decline in students’ reading motivation as they
progress through upper grades (Chapman & Tunmer, 1995; Kush & Watkins, 1996; Lai, 2010;
C. Y. Liu, 2007; F.N. Song et al., 2000; Wigfield, Eccles, & Rodriguez, 1998; J. Zhang & Guo,
2003), and it was re-confirmed by this study. Students from junior middle schools have stronger
overall motivation, Personal Interests, Self Development and Social Interaction than those from
senior middle schools. This phenomenon may be partly due to the more school-based reading tasks
that senior students must finish. Relatively speaking, junior students have more free time to pursue
recreational reading instead of required reading, and to interact with others offline and online when
they read. Additionally, the difference between urban and rural area is remarkable and common in
China today (J. H. Zhang, 2010), and several studies also explored the group differences of reading
interests and motivation from this perspective (S. Z. Li, 1998; Tang, 2012; Yu, 2007). The present
study found that there were living area differences on the overall motivation and some dimensions.
Specifically speaking, students living in suburb area have stronger overall motivation, Killing
Time, Self Development, Social Interaction and Peer Recognition than those who living in urban
area. Compared to the students living in urban area, those living in suburb area possibly hope to
attain a better self-development, and to be recognized by others to a greater extent. Perhaps this
could partly explain the phenomenon that there are students’ motivation differences with regard to
their living areas.

5 Implications and limitations

According to the statistical analysis of 1 039 student samples in Shanghai, this study identified
the dimensions of the social reading motivation. It demonstrated that social reading motivation
was multidimensional and contained three categories and six dimensions, which were Intrinsic
Motivation (including Information Acquisition, Killing Time and Personal Interests), Socializing
Motivation (including Social Interaction and Peer Recognition), and Goals in Achievement
(referring to Self Development). This finding not only confirmed the multidimensionality of
reading motivation as a construct, but also explicated the particularity of social reading motivation.
Additionally, the Social Interaction dimension identified in this study not only refers to facilitating
the students’ socialization in the offline world, but also means promoting the students’ socialization
within the virtual community. That is, the present study extended the meaning of Social Interaction
dimension beyond the traditional reading world into the virtual reading community.
Besides, the results of the study have important implications for practice. Reading promotion
is an essential strategy to build our learning-oriented society (S. L. Wu, 2009), and adolescents