The Social Psychology of Children's Reading

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

Forty-four documents were secured from interviews and life histories dealing with the effects of reading in childhood. Four types appeared, ranging from an extreme degree of isolation to a complete socialization, with two intermediate groups. The effect of the reading of stories was closely related to a prior condition of adjustment or frustration. While reading provided no new imagery there was evidence of a marked effect in the integration of existing images into new forms of organization through reading. Whether reading is interesting or not depends on active or suppressed desires and cannot be otherwise created. Attitudes are formed through reading but depend on a social world where they can function if they are to continue. The causes of the isolating influence of reading as well as of the socializing effects are to be sought in the social background of the reader, the type of literature, and the conditions under which the reading is done. Reading is, for children, a highly important social experience.