Factors determining young adults' appreciation of reading poetry

Abstract

Reading appreciation sharply declines when students reach the age of 16-18 years, and this is especially true for the appreciation of reading poetry. Research however is unclear what determines this specific type of appreciation. This paper proposes a structural equation model to examine a number of variables: cognitive ability, knowledge of literary devices, dimensions of reading motivation, gender, age, and type of secondary education. The results indicate that the desire to outperform in reading has a negative impact on the appreciation of poetry, whereas the gratification in receiving recognition for success in reading and the satisfaction of mastering complex ideas in a text are positively related to the enjoyment of reading poetry. Other variables are statistically not significant enough to be integrated in this study's model. In this respect, this study confirms the assumption that the appreciation of poetry reading cannot be immediately changed because it is strongly related to a culture of reading.