The Dutch government has called for a “reading offensive” to ensure a drastic change in the reading development of Dutch high school students. This urgent call is a response to the significant drop...Show moreThe Dutch government has called for a “reading offensive” to ensure a drastic change in the reading development of Dutch high school students. This urgent call is a response to the significant drop of students’ reading ability over the past years. The “reading offensive” focuses primarily on making sure that students will read more. However, previous research suggests that reading selfconcept is a crucial aspect of reading ability, next to reading behavior and gender. This research study therefore examined reading behavior and gender in the relationship between reading self-concept and reading ability. Students from the first two grades in high school (N = 158; Mage = 13.11 years; SD = .69) completed online questionnaires and read two maze-texts. To analyze the data several correlations, a Pearsons chi-square test and hierarchical multiple regressions were performed. The correlations showed a relationship between reading self-concept and reading ability, but no gender differences within these two variables. Girls did read more than boys, although this was a small effect. There was no moderating effect of gender on the relationship between reading self-concept and reading ability. However, the relationship between reading self-concept and reading ability was moderated by reading behavior. Students with a low self-concept who considered themselves as ‘leisure readers’ had lower reading ability scores than students with a low self-concept who considered themselves as ‘non-leisure readers’. The difference between leisure and non-readers in regard to their reading abilities corresponds with a Matthew-effect and the “bad is stronger than good”-hypothesis, implying that negative experiences in reading have worse consequences than positive experiences, with self-concept being considered as a crucial counterpart of interventions improving reading ability, before improving reading ability and thereby improving reading behavior. Implications and suggestions for interventions and follow-up research are discussed.Show less
