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By Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief | @Porter_Anderson
Previous reports:
2017: Scholastic’s Kids & Family Reading Report: Insights From the US, UK, India, and Australia
2019: Scholastic’s ‘Kids & Family’ Report Sees Summer Youth Reading Lagging
2019: Scholastic’s New ‘Kids & Family Reading’ Report: Reading Aloud Is Up
An Eighth-Edition Survey
Our regular readers will recall that in 2017 and 2019, we had coverage of Scholastic‘s series of then-biennial Kids & Family Reading Reports. As with many things, the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic intervened, and the regularity of the reports’ new editions’ appearances seems to have been affected. The seventh edition was released in 2019 and this week, the company has released the eighth edition.
With a game spirit, however, the company in the opening of its consumer-facing piece based on the latest research says that it “regularly surveys families about reading habits and behaviors,” and perhaps current affairs and social conditions will allow a consistent pace from here.
The eighth edition—with some of its points represented in this “Family Guide” and (we recommend) a more complete rundown in this longer Kids & Family Reading Report—may be aimed a bit more at an upbeat “reading is great” message than was the case in previous editions, but it includes trends that are not necessarily headed in the direction that reading and book enthusiasts would like, particularly in an era when children’s book sales in Scholastic’s home market of the United States have been in a protracted decline.
Related article: Circana BookScan: US Print’s January-June Print Market. Image – Getty: Mykhaylo Palinchak
In our report on the Circana BookScan analysis of the US print market’s January-to-June performance this year, children’s book sales were reported down 3.5 million units over the same time last year, with middle-grade sales showing the steepest declines in the American market.
And in 2019, Scholastic’s Kids & Family Reading Report itself placed quite of bit of emphasis on the “summer slide’ in reading, which saw “a rising number of children reporting reading no books at all during their summer break.” What’s more, there was a look at some parents’ issues in finding appropriate reads for their children—and other parents’ lack of awareness of difficulties in such searches for kids’ books.
The 2024 Edition: Books in Parenting Support
The newly released edition, which officially appeared on Tuesday (August 20), is forthrightly described as “designed to support families and make books part of growing up for every child.” And it puts an interesting level of emphasis on books as being tools that parents can and do deploy to explain issues to their children, sometimes to stimulate discussion about friction a child might be encountering—such as bullying—and overall to help start parent-child conversations.
In fact, media messaging ties the arrival of the research to the fact that in the United States there’s a great deal of discussion about young people’s mental health. Not surprisingly, Scholastic reports that the research shows that, “More frequent readers report having better mental health than infrequent readers, with infrequent readers reporting higher levels of nervousness and anxiety (50 percent vs. 39 percent); sadness and depression (37 percent vs. 25 percent); and loneliness (30 percent vs. 19 percent).
“Additionally,” media messaging reads, “data from the National Center for Health Statistics shows a significant gap between the level of social and emotional support that young adults feel and the amount that parents think they have.” That point comes from Deidre McPhillips’ report for CNN on July 16, relaying data from the US National Center for Health Statistics.
Related article: Quarto Schedules Richard V. Reeves’ ‘Yes, Boys Can!’ for Frankfurt. Images: Quarto/Quarry Books
That report included the finding that “Teenage girls were less likely than boys to say they always or usually had the support they need, and there was a larger gap in perception between teen girls and their parents.”
Those who have followed the broadening influence of researcher Richard V. Reeves, founder of the American Institute for Boys and Men, won’t be surprised at that gender distinction in the National Center’s study, but the Scholastic research did not look at gender distinctions, according to a spokesperson. At Publishing Perspectives‘ request, Scholastic provided one line about male and female reading trends in the home: “Children ages 6-to-17 are more likely to say their moms enjoy reading (71 percent) than their dads (43 percent).”
Perhaps the growing emphasis around the American presidential election of 2024 on gender distinctions in political and social trends may encourage Scholastic to ask its researchers to put more emphasis on gender factors in coming editions of the Kids & Family Reading Report.
Meanwhile, the methodology in the Scholastic study is always interesting. The Kids & Family Reading Report, the company says, is nationally representative as a survey, producing survey responses from both children and their parents to various questions. This edition of the survey was conducted by Fluent Research between December 13, 2022, and January 6, 2023, with a total sample size of 1,724 parents and children including 637 parents with children ages five and younger; 1,087 parents with children aged 6 to 17 years, plus one child aged 6 to 17 from the same household.
“Parents of children ages 6 to 17,” Scholastic tells the news media, “completed their survey questions first before passing the survey on to one randomly selected child in the target age range. The survey sample was sourced and recruited by Ipsos using its nationally representative ‘Knowledge Panel.’”
Key Findings Chosen by Scholastic
Scholastic—which our international readership base of publishing professionals knows is the largest children’s publisher in the world, with most of its programs and reports focused on the United States market—helpfully selects the following points as key findings from the 8th edition of the Kids & Family Reading Report.
At every age surveyed (17 and younger):
- An overwhelming majority of parents (90 percent) report that they agree that books can create opportunities for conversation.
The early years (5 and younger):
- The majority of parents with infants, toddlers and preschoolers 5 and younger (79 percent) say they have used children’s books to support their parenting efforts.
- The top ways that parents say books have proved to be useful helping children understand feelings and emotions (54 percent) and helping children explore their interests (47 percent).
- A reported 51 percent of preschoolers 5 and younger are said to be read aloud to at home five to seven days a week, compared to only 37 percent of 6-to-8-year-olds and 16 percent of 9-to-11-year-olds.
Elementary school years (6 to 11 years):
- Many parents of elementary-aged children have sought specific books that can help broach discussions about different or new experiences that their children may be facing, including navigating bullying (20 percent) and discussing difficult topics (32 percent).
- Eighty percent of parents with 6-to-11-year-olds say it would be helpful to have resources to support their children’s reading, such as questions or conversation-starters about what they are reading (40 percent) or a summary of the books or stories (38 percent).
Middle and high-school years (ages 12-to-17):
- Two-thirds of parents with teens (63 percent) say they believe it’s important for their children to read books with characters who are similar to them and their experiences.
- The majority of parents of teens (86 percent) say they believe that books can create opportunities for them to have conversations with their children.
- Most parents of teens (69 percent) say they have used books to help their children with something they are experiencing.
- Teens report to survey takers that they see books as offering opportunities for introspection, with half of teens surveyed (54 percent) saying that books have helped them with their feelings, including confidence (28 percent), happiness (24 percent), and feeling thankful (21 percent).
Deimosa Webber-Bey
In a comment included in the release of this material to the press, Scholastic’s director of information services and cultural insight, Deimosa Webber-Bey, is quoted, saying, “This new research demonstrates just how invaluable books are for supporting communication with children from birth through adolescence to graduation and beyond.
“Books can provide comfort, portals to faraway places, introductions to new concepts, and helping hands when broaching tough topics. With this new compilation of research, our hope is that families will feel empowered to incorporate books into all aspects of their parenting efforts, and that books can serve parents in building an everlasting bond with their children.”
More from Publishing Perspectives on children’s books is here, more from us on Scholastic is here, more on the United States market is here, and more on industry statistics is here.
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