Reading Preferences among Adolescent Boys and Girls - Essay Example

Reading Preferences Among Adolescent Boys and Girls in the 20th Century A great deal of the social changes that occurred throughout the 20th century can be traced through the reading choices adolescents made as the century progressed. The books that adolescents choose to read and the judgments they make of them indicates to a great deal the prevalent social attitudes and gender identifications of that given time period. An analysis of the differences or similarities in boys and girls’ reading preferences, particularly as it applies to gender issues, can reveal changing gender-based assumptions that were occurring for both men and women throughout the period. As the century progressed, research regarding the adolescent stage of life began to reveal that the angst of adolescence is not born of a single unavoidable cause, as had been previously thought, but rather is a complex relation between physical changes, social issues and cultural preparedness. These studies revealed the close relationship that could be traced through the adolescent’s development and how this reflected the signs of the times. Beginning with a brief overview of the changing theories regarding this age group in both physical and developmental contexts as they pertain to reading choice, an examination into the reading choices of adolescent girls and boys from the early 20th century, to approximately mid-century to more present times will prove enlightening regarding how changing roles in the greater society has had an effect, perhaps a reciprocal effect, upon the reading choices of adolescents working to define their own identity in a changing world. Concepts of adolescence in the early part of the 20th century seemed to be divided between one of two schools. One group of theorists believed the insanity of adolescence was more or less unavoidable as a natural outcome of the physiological changes that were taking place with the onset of puberty and the subsequent societal role changes expected (Blanchard, 1924: 15). The adolescent became overwhelmed with trying to adjust to physical changes at the same time that they were expected to take on new responsibilities and behaviours. According to this view, adolescence for both boys and girls was a time of great physical change, causing more hormones to be released into the bloodstream by the endocrine glands and throwing the entire physical system into an imbalance to which it requires time to adjust (Zorbaugh & Payne, 1935: 373-374). The mental issues of extreme unhappiness, extreme happiness, rebellion, mood swings and other seeming psychoses are simply the by-product of these adjustments as the brain struggles to adapt and, because of this, is considered an inevitable part of the process. “Just as a mother must fortify herself against the crying of the baby when it cuts its first tooth, so she must prepare herself for and endure as gracefully as possible the unlovely, turbulent manifestations of this awkward age” (Zorbaugh & Payne, 1935: 373). Not as far-fetched as it might seem, this view is supported somewhat by more recent research into the actual physical maturation process that occurs during adolescence. “Contemporary studies indicate that the connections between neurons affecting emotional, physical and mental abilities are incomplete until late in adolescence. Teenager’s brains are not fully developed which explains why many adolescents are inconsistent in effectively controlling their emotions and judgments” (Brownlee, 1999). In addition, adolescents have been shown to gain much of their abstract thinking skills during this phase of life (Huebner, 2000). All of these changes, in addition to the more obvious physical and hormonal changes that are occurring at this time, do indeed present a whirlwind of thoughts and concerns to the young person’s mind, forcing them to try to find a means of incorporating these changes into their daily lives. This is also happening at a time when the more abstract concepts inherent in some of their favorite stories are becoming more apparent to them, encouraging to seek their reading material for the answers to the big questions suddenly circulating. The other school of thought regarding adolescent development in the early part of the 20th century held that the trauma of adolescence experienced in the Western world was the result of our particular culture and not necessarily a requisite function of the biological process. This is a view strongly supported at the time by the studies of Margaret Mead, who studied the adolescent stages of growth in a culture quite different from that of the industrialized West (Mead, 1928) just to answer this question: is adolescent behaviour physiological or cultural? It was found that Samoan children do not suffer the same ills that befall adolescents of the industrialized Western world, primarily because they are better prepared for the changes to take place than are the children of modern societies. Rather than being thrust out into the world suddenly, having to cope with multiple changes all at once, Samoan children are guided from an early age to become active members of their community, to understand the importance of contributing and to explore their possible future occupational interests. They are also raised within a single well-defined and open set of concepts regarding sex identity and other cultural values (Mead, 1928). Their development occurs within the community, gradually taking on the responsibilities and attitudes of adults in a steady progression until they are ready to float free on their own rather than being pushed out of the nest. Many studies on adolescence refute or reduce the significance of the early ideas physiological ideas proclaiming adolescence is a always accompanied with necessary and unavoidable mental turmoil (Rutter, 1980). These studies lend support to the concept that adolescents’ development is shaped to a large degree upon how well they have been prepared for the numerous transitions they will be expected to make as well as a variety of other social factors. For example, the theories brought forward by Erik Erikson in the 1950s indicated that this stage of development was primarily concerned with the question of identity. In his writings, he illustrated how the young adolescent was most often concerned with acquiring self-certainty and experimentation of (usually) constructive social roles while the older adolescent develops a clear sexual identity, a personally developed set of ideals and a need to find an older role model after whom they can pattern themselves (“Stages”, 2006). In each stage detailed within this theory, adolescents’ choice of reading material illustrates their desire to explore, define, identify with and against various ideas presented to them through the greater society. Their preferences through the decades reflect the changing societal norms and ideals in the greater community as these youngsters sought their highest image of themselves in the characters they encountered on the page. Understanding the ways in which adolescents develop, perhaps it is not surprising to discover that they typically tend to prefer stories that feature a protagonist of their own gender. Girls prefer to have female heroines while boys prefer to read about male heroes. While this finding has been reached time after time throughout the years, the assumptions behind this finding have been quite different. Studies conducted in the late 1950s and early 1960s indicated differences in reading preferences not only between boys and girls, but also between younger and older adolescents. As has been seen in the developmental theory, this is appropriate as cognitive functions begin to expand into the world of abstract thought during the latter half of this period. The study conducted by Smith and Eno (1961) indicated that younger adolescent boys had a wide range of reading interests including mystery, sports, animals, adventures, sea stories and science fiction. Older boys reduced their interests in sports and animal stories and picked up additional interest in comedy and historical works. This same study indicated that as many as 65 percent of the adolescent girls in both age groups preferred to read about romance with a small group also enjoying mystery, comedy and career stories. Older girls added a small interest in adventure stories as well (Smith & Eno, 1961). This reading preference was reflected in the greater society in the early part of the 20th century as women were still expected to remain well-educated housewives coming out of the ideals of the 19th century. “Many [women] accepted the promise of domestic happiness and the circumscribed authority that supposedly inhered in piety, purity and submissiveness” (Roberts, 2002: 150). This unofficial authority became known by historians as the Cult of True Womanhood based upon the writings of Barbara Welter in the 1960s. Hewitt (2002) points out “it was precisely those women with the greatest access to education, economic resources, and public authority who were most constrained by the cult’s precepts, yet it was also these women who most often embraced them.” As they embraced them, so, too, did their daughters growing up in the same sort of industrialised, suburbanised landscape. In the 1960s and 70s, it was determined that this gender-based preference for reading material was deep-seated, discovering many of the same preferences that had been reported on earlier. According to one study, reading material preference was based not only on the gender of the protagonist, but also on the plot, setting and time periods; however, the categories selected by girls had broadened somewhat (Carlsen, 1971: 22). The boys still indicated a strong preference for male protagonists described in primarily physical terms, sweeping adventures, plenty of action, multi-level plot lines and expansive time periods. However, girls indicated they would read stories with either gender as protagonist yet preferred stories that involved only a small number of characters to gain the benefit of emotional descriptions, settings that remained close to a centralised area, straightforward plots and small increments of time periods (Carlsen, 1971: 22). Another study conducted in 1978 (Yoder) indicated that the gender of the protagonist played a large role in an adolescent’s decision whether to read a book or not, but that the importance of selecting a story with a female protagonist weakened as the female adolescent grew older. While the expansion of subjects and gender preferences among girls seem to indicate a very small interest in growing beyond the borders of the socially prescribed roles assigned prior to the 1950s, studies conducted in the 1970s emphasised the concept that “preferences are determined not only by age, but also by cultural factors. Perhaps the type of story preferred simply reflects the kinds of books boys and girls are encouraged to read. In many instances, the type of story preferred by either sex reflects society’s view of male-female roles” (Mertz, 1975: 183). Thus, although the tendency for older adolescent girls to reduce their preference for books with female protagonists as they age may not necessarily be an indicator that this is less important, but rather that there are fewer books available at the reading and complexity levels at which they wish to read. Supporting this assumption, although it was discovered that older girls would as quickly read books with a male protagonist as a female protagonist, it was also found within this age group that gender of the protagonist was a much better predictor of girls’ preferences in reading material than in boys (Yoder, 1978). Another possible explanation has been offered for the decrease in female preference for female protagonists with increasing ages. “As children grow older, their environment typically becomes less female-oriented and more male-oriented. They may infer that males often play a more important role in society and/or that many of society’s privileges and prerogatives are accorded to males. As a consequence, they may learn to value the male role to a greater degree than the female role” (Beyard-Tyler & Sullivan, 1980: 118). This realization in the 1980s led to a surge of feminine writing that presented girls with stronger role models, more intelligent text and an expansion into other realms of subject matter and treatment. This is identified not only in the books titles themselves, but also in alternative media of television and magazines as well as in the emerging media of the computerized world. By 1995, studies investigating adolescent reading trends revealed a growing preference among young adolescent boys and girls for American horror fiction (Benton: 460). This was a trend also reported in the older adolescent age group, extending into the realm of adult horror. While girls also indicated a preference for books written by authors such as the American writer Judy Blume, this was reportedly in response to this author’s ability to deal with real teenage problems, particularly as they apply to teenage girls (Benton, 1995: 460). Preparing the way for the 21st century, adolescents’ preferences in reading materials are becoming more and more reflective of the modern society in which they live. “It is clear that the sheer range of reading readily available to adolescents now is very much wider than formerly: tastes are more catholic and often more adult and … the interaction between film, television and printed word is more complex than previously” (Benton, 1995: 462). In addition to an increase in available topics, approaches, gender issues, plot lines and other aspects of reading, the reading material is reportedly becoming more sophisticated, often reaching the level of adult texts. However, even when the reading material becoming available to the adolescent is more varied and more representative of a wide variety of reading levels and interests, there remain significant differences between the choices made by girls versus the choices made by boys. In identifying the periodical titles most often read by adolescent girls, Benton (1995) indicated they were typically concerning the pop scene, fashion, romance, personal advice or television soaps. There was a small contingent of adolescent girls who also took an interest in football magazines, but this was reportedly a great minority as compared with the boys. While several of these magazines remain focused more upon pictures rather than text, Benton (1995) indicates that the content provided particularly for girls as compared with the material that was available in 1971 is characterised by a much more ‘adult’ flavor. In place of magazines designed simply to entertain the female readership are “magazines designed to appeal to and to flatter a much more independent, aspirational and worldly-wise adolescent” (Benton, 1995: 463). Likewise, these magazines have branched out to boldly explore topics that had most often remained cloaked in secrecy. This is both in response to reader demands as well as the result of further research that demonstrated the need for girls to find the information and identity they were seeking within the material that was available to them. “The girls’ teen magazines are much more carefully targeted at their audience, must more conscious of, and outspoken about matters such as sexual relations and drugs both in their story lines and their advice columns; inevitably, and probably rightly, raising awareness of areas such as AIDS, contraception and sexual abuse as well as peddling much of the same formula romance and pop entertainment of the past” (Benton, 1995: 463). While it is acknowledged that the primary interests of girls remain significantly similar to the interests of their counterparts in earlier generations, it is also acknowledged that the level of information disseminated as well as the level of writing contained within that text has taken on new depth and complexity. According to Benton (1995), a great deal of the material selected by boys has gravitated toward more non-fiction selections, particularly as they relate to computers, video games or sports. Demonstrating the developmental identification that is occurring in this stage, the magazines most often selected by boys tend to be the same titles that are selected by adult men. Unlike the girls, the formats and text has remained relatively at the same level as it was in earlier decades, forsaking the human interest angles and personal relationship information in favor of action coverage and the description of things. “Boys have stayed remarkably faithful to the kind of comic or magazine they used to read in 1971 with several titles staying the same. Their top five still include three football publications and two traditional comics” (Benton, 1995: 464). The primary interests of boys remains in physical things and how they work, competitive sport and its heroes, stories of control and power and in the technical descriptions of how to make things work. Looking through the development of adolescents’ reading choices through the years comprising the 20th century, it is observed that the preferences of boys remained fairly constant throughout much of that time. While boys have decreased the amount of material they are reading overall as compared to earlier years, thanks largely to the advent and wide distribution of the television, glossy magazines and the internet, girls levels of reading remain comparatively high and have taken on new depths of sophistication and variety. This changing preference pattern among adolescent girls echoes or is echoed by changes in the mainstream culture as the women’s feminist movement gained prestige and recognition. In the early days of the century, girls were restricted to selections of romance unless they opted to read about boys. However, studies continue to show that adolescents of either gender strongly tend to favor reading about their own gender as a means of gaining identity and definition. As the century progressed and women gained greater freedoms, this oversight began to be recognised and more and more girls were willing to cross the gender boundary to access the greater variety available in books designed for boys. Approaching the 21st century, women have gained many rights and responsibilities and this is reflected both in the type of content girls choose to read as well as the reading level of the content offered. Through this development, girls have been able to gain a greater sense of self as well as find answers to gnawing questions of development that had previously been unaddressed in the greater culture. References Benton, Peter. (December 1995). “Conflicting Cultures: Reflections on the Reading and Viewing of Secondary-School Pupils.” Oxford Review of Education. Vol. 21, N. 4, pp. 457-470. Beyard-Tyler, Karen C. & Sullivan, Howard J. (1980). “Adolescent Reading Preferences for Type of Theme and Sex of Character.” Reading Research Quarterly. Vol. 16, N. 1, pp. 104-120. Blanchard, Phyllis. (1924). The Adolescent Girl. New York: Dodd, Mead and Company. Brownlee, B. (9 August 1999). “Inside the Teen Brain.” U.S. News & World Report. Carlsen, G. Robert. (1971). Books and the Teen-Age Reader. New York: Bantam Books. Hewitt, Nancy. (2002). “Taking the True Woman Hostage.” Journal of Women’s History. Vol. 14, N. 1. 2002, pp. 156-62. Huebner, Angela. (March 2000). “Adolescent Growth and Development.” Family and Child Development. Virginia: Virginia Tech. Mead, Margaret. (1928; reprinted 1971). Coming of Age in Samoa. New York: Harper Perennial. Mertz, Maia Pank. (June 1975). “Understanding the Adolescent Reader.” Theory into Practice. Vol. 14, N. 3, pp. 179-185. Roberts, Mary Louise. (Spring 2002). “True Woman Revisited.” Journal of Women’s History. Vol. 14, N. 1, pp. 150-55. Rutter, M. (1980). Changing Youth in a Changing Society: Patterns of Adolescent Development and Disorder. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press. Smith, Mary L. & Eno, Isabell V. (May 1961). “What Do They Really Want to Read?” The English Journal. “Stages of Social-Emotional Development in Children and Teenagers.” (2006). Child Development Institute. Available 22 February 2007 from Yoder, J.M. (1978). “The relative importance of four narrative factors in the reading interests of male and female adolescents in grades 10 through 12.” (Doctoral Dissertation). Dissertation Abstracts International. Vol. 39, N. 217-A. Zorbaugh, Harvey W. & Payne, L. Virgil. (February 1935). “Adolescence: Psychosis or Social Adjustment?” Journal of Educational Sociology. 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