The pleasure of reading: its impact on academic achievement, on TV-watching hours and video games-playing hours

Abstract

This paper relates the pleasure and the fondness for reading to the time students spend watching TV or playing video games in their leisure time, and how these correlate with academic performance, measured by school marks. The sample comprised a total of 510 Spanish Primary School students from public and private schools. Data were obtained through questionnaires administered to parents. The results showed that the pleasure of reading mantained significant and positive relationships with academic marks and correlate negatively with television watching hours.