IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v253y2020ics0277953620301908.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Longitudinal associations between reading for pleasure and child maladjustment: Results from a propensity score matching analysis

Author

Listed:
  • Mak, Hei Wan
  • Fancourt, Daisy

Abstract

Reading for pleasure has been shown to have benefits for academic attainment and the development of empathy. Yet, whether reading for pleasure is linked with other aspects of children's development remains unclear. Objective. This study examines the association between reading for pleasure and children's psychological and behavioural adjustment at the onset of adolescence. Method. We analysed data from 8936 participants in the Millennium Cohort Study, Sweeps 4 (age 7) and 5 (age 11), and used propensity score matching methods to match children who read frequently with children with similar individual, social, familial, and behavioural characteristics who read less often. Results. Daily reading for pleasure at age 7 was associated with lower levels of hyperactivity/inattention and better prosocial behaviour at age 11. These results for hyperactivity/inattention were replicated when analysing data specifically from children with a history of hyperactivity/inattention at age 7. Results also show that daily reading for pleasure was associated with lower levels of emotional problems. Results were robust to a range of sensitivity analyses. Conclusions. Daily reading for pleasure in childhood is independently associated with better behavioural adjustment at the onset of adolescence. Future studies could explore the potential benefit of interventions to encourage reading.

Suggested Citation

  • Mak, Hei Wan & Fancourt, Daisy, 2020. "Longitudinal associations between reading for pleasure and child maladjustment: Results from a propensity score matching analysis," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 253(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:253:y:2020:i:c:s0277953620301908
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2020.112971
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953620301908
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.socscimed.2020.112971?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gary Solon & Steven J. Haider & Jeffrey M. Wooldridge, 2015. "What Are We Weighting For?," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 50(2), pages 301-316.
    2. Janet Currie & Mark Stabile, 2002. "Socioeconomic Status and Health: Why is the Relationship Stronger for Older Children?," NBER Working Papers 9098, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Marco Caliendo & Sabine Kopeinig, 2008. "Some Practical Guidance For The Implementation Of Propensity Score Matching," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(1), pages 31-72, February.
    4. P Matthijs Bal & Martijn Veltkamp, 2013. "How Does Fiction Reading Influence Empathy? An Experimental Investigation on the Role of Emotional Transportation," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(1), pages 1-12, January.
    5. Egan, Mark & Daly, Michael & Delaney, Liam, 2015. "Childhood psychological distress and youth unemployment: Evidence from two British cohort studies," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 124(C), pages 11-17.
    6. Case, Anne & Fertig, Angela & Paxson, Christina, 2005. "The lasting impact of childhood health and circumstance," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 24(2), pages 365-389, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Hongyun Zheng & Wanglin Ma, 2022. "Scan the QR Code of Happiness: Can Mobile Payment Adoption Make People Happier?," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 17(4), pages 2299-2310, August.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Hamid R. Oskorouchi & Alfonso Sousa-Poza & David E. Bloom, 2020. "The Long-Term Cognitive and Schooling Effects of Childhood Vaccinations in China," NBER Working Papers 27217, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Candon, David, 2018. "The effect of cancer on the labor supply of employed men over the age of 65," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 184-199.
    3. Dawid Gondek & Ke Ning & George B Ploubidis & Bilal Nasim & Alissa Goodman, 2018. "The impact of health on economic and social outcomes in the United Kingdom: A scoping literature review," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(12), pages 1-21, December.
    4. Gonzalo Nunez-Chaim & Henry G. Overman & Capucine Riom, 2024. "Does subsidising business advice improve firm performance? Evidence from a large RCT," CEP Discussion Papers dp1977, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    5. Soullier, Guillaume & Moustier, Paule, 2018. "Impacts of contract farming in domestic grain chains on farmer income and food insecurity. Contrasted evidence from Senegal," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 179-198.
    6. Bijwaard, Govert, 2021. "Educational Differences in Mortality and Hospitalisation for Cardiovascular Diseases for Males," IZA Discussion Papers 14507, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    7. Millemaci, Emanuele & Sciulli, Dario, 2011. "The causal effect of family difficulties during childhood on adult labour market outcomes," MPRA Paper 29026, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. Emanuele Millemaci & Dario Sciulli, 2014. "The long-term impact of family difficulties during childhood on labor market outcomes," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 12(4), pages 663-687, December.
    9. Kwok Chan & Ka Fung & Ender Demir, 2015. "The health and behavioral outcomes of out-of-wedlock children from families of social fathers," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 13(2), pages 385-411, June.
    10. Pedro Rosa Dias, 2009. "Inequality of opportunity in health: evidence from a UK cohort study," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 18(9), pages 1057-1074, September.
    11. Agar Brugiavini & Raluca Elena Buia & Matija Kovacic & Cristina Elisa Orso, 2020. "Adverse childhood experiences and risk behaviours later in life: Evidence from SHARE countries," Working Papers 2020:08, Department of Economics, University of Venice "Ca' Foscari".
    12. Govert E. Bijwaard & Andrew M. Jones, 2019. "An IPW estimator for mediation effects in hazard models: with an application to schooling, cognitive ability and mortality," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 57(1), pages 129-175, July.
    13. Abrahamsen, Signe A. & Ginja, Rita & Riise, Julie, 2021. "School Health Programs: Education, Health, and Welfare Dependency of Young Adults," IZA Discussion Papers 14546, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    14. A. Brugiavini & R. E. Buia & M. Kovacic & C. E. Orso, 2023. "Adverse childhood experiences and unhealthy lifestyles later in life: evidence from SHARE countries," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 21(1), pages 1-18, March.
    15. Le, Kien & Nguyen, My, 2020. "The Impacts of Armed Conflict on Child Health: Evidence from 56 Developing Countries," MPRA Paper 109896, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    16. Vikram, Kriti & Chindarkar, Namrata, 2020. "Bridging the gaps in cognitive achievement in India: The crucial role of the integrated child development services in early childhood," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 127(C).
    17. Roddy, Áine, 2022. "Income and conversion handicaps: estimating the impact of child chronic illness/disability on family income and the extra cost of child chronic illness/child disability in Ireland using a standard of ," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 111833, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    18. Maoyong Fan & Yanhong Jin, 2014. "Do Neighborhood Parks and Playgrounds Reduce Childhood Obesity?," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 96(1), pages 26-42.
    19. Meng, Xin & Qian, Nancy, 2006. "The Long Run Health and Economic Consequences of Famine on Survivors: Evidence from China’s Great Famine," IZA Discussion Papers 2471, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    20. Ludovica Gambaro & Jan Marcus & Frauke Peter, 2019. "School entry, afternoon care, and mothers’ labour supply," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 57(3), pages 769-803, September.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:253:y:2020:i:c:s0277953620301908. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.