Reading Between the Lines: Motives, Beliefs, and Achievement in Adolescent Boys

This study of adolescent boys’ literacy builds on motivation theory and uses the Motivations for Reading Questionnaire (Wigfield, Guthrie, & McGough, 1996) as a foundation. Survey and achievement data were collected from 330 students and eight teachers at a Catholic, all-boys high-school. Results suggest that the motivational constructs identified by Wigfield and colleagues for elementary students remain relatively intact with this sample, but that some motives for reading may change over time. For teachers, believing a student was a good reader was related to beliefs that the student read the assignments; believing that a student should try harder was related to beliefs about knowing what that student struggles with in class. Several modest relationships between questionnaire responses and student achievement scores were also found.