DIFFERENCES IN ADULTS READING PRACTICES AND LITERACY PROFICIENCIES

THERE IS a long history of concern in the study of literacy with reade rship. Readership refers to the use of reading as a form of communicat ion and is assumed to be important to individual development (Guthrie & Seifert, 1984). Readership involves adults' uses of a variety of pri nt contents to serve different purposes which are assumed to result in distinct outcomes for individuals, including improved literacy profic iency. This study examined readership in terms of adults' reading prac tices and the association of these practices with prose, document, and quantitative (PDQ) literacy proficiencies, as assessed by the Nationa l Adult Literacy Survey (NALS). A nationally representative sample of adults, ages 16 and older, participated in the NALS, which was conduct ed in 1992. Five age cohorts were compared in the study reported here: 19-24, 25-39, 40-54, 55-64, and 65 years of age and older. The purpos e was to make cross-age comparisons in reading practices involving fiv e print contents: newspapers, magazines, books, and six types of perso nal and work documents. Respondents were categorized as high or low ac tivity readers based upon their frequency of use of these contents. Re ading practices involving books and work documents were shown to bear strong relationships to literacy proficiencies on three scales measuri ng somewhat different literacy abilities: prose, document, and quantit ative literacy. Age group differences in reading the five print conten ts were also found, consistent with previous readership surveys. Young er adults were more likely to read brief documents for work, while old er adults were more avid newspaper readers. Additional analyses of the reading practices data suggest that extensive reading practice may be beneficial to older adults' literacy abilities. Older adults who read multiple print contents performed comparably to younger adults who re ad only a single content. Although age is confounded with educational attainment, a series of regression analyses determined that reading pr actices contribute significantly to PDQ proficiencies even after educa tion is controlled. Engaging in a diversify of reading practices is in dicative of reading maturity and appears to have important consequence s in terms of literacy abilities, regardless of age.