International Journal of Education and Development using ICT

International Journal of Education and Development using ICT > Vol. 10, No. 1 (2014)

Prevalence of online reading among high school students in Qatar: Evidence from the Programme for International Student Assessment 2009

Jehanzeb R. Cheema, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA

Abstract
Recent research has suggested presence of a significant relationship between prevalence of online reading and reading literacy. In this study we examined the prevalence of online reading among 15-year old students in Qatar using a nationally representative sample of 8,089 students. Bivariate and multivariate analyses were conducted at the item and scale levels in order to understand the relationship of online reading activities with computer use for schoolwork and entertainment, and demographic differences such as gender, grade and socioeconomic status. Our results suggest small but significant differences in mean online reading between boys and girls. Online reading was found to be strongly associated with both entertainment- and schoolwork-related use of computers at home but weakly associated with computer use at school. Implications were discussed.

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