An examination of the reading cultures of secondary school students in terms of various variables

In order for the act of reading to evolve from an individual behavior to a habit, from a habit to a culture and to transform into a life style as a necessity of being a democratic and civilized society, the middle school years of the individual, which is the period in which habits are acquired, are important. In this context, the purpose of this study is to examine the variables that affect the processes of secondary school students' acquisition of reading culture. The population of the research consists of a total of 641 students studying in 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th grades of X secondary school in Sur district of Diyarbakır province in the academic year of 2020-2021. Within the scope of the research, sampling was not used and the whole population was tried to be reached. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, taking into account the attendance of students to school, a face-to-face scale was applied to the students who came to the school, and the scales were delivered to the students who could not attend school due to the pandemic via an online questionnaire method. Scales were delivered to all 641 students studying at this secondary school, both face-to-face and online, and answers to 602 scales were obtained. In the research, "Attitude Scale Regarding Reading Habits" was used as a data collection tool. This scale consists of 6 factors and 30 items. The Cronbach-Alpha reliability coefficient of the scale was calculated as .90. SPSS statistical package program was used in the analysis of the data. Descriptive statistics (frequency, percentage, arithmetic mean, standard deviation, etc.) as well as Independent Samples t Test for Unrelated Samples, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), Kruskal Wallis-H test and Mann-Whitney U test was used to reveal students' views on reading habits. The findings obtained from the study showed that while middle school students' attitudes towards the "benefit" dimension of their reading habits were at the highest level, their attitudes towards the "love" dimension were at a low level compared to the other dimensions. It has been determined that the attitude levels towards reading habits are generally at a "high" level. In addition, as a result of the analysis, it was determined that there were significant differences according to students 'reading habits and gender, grade levels, parents' education status, library usage, and pre-school education status. When the results of the study are evaluated as a whole, in order for reading to become a culture in children, it is necessary to have a high level of attitudes towards the dimension of love and desire in reading habits. The process in the denominator of reading habits in which teachers, administrators and parents are stakeholders; It must be emotion-based as well as progmatic and pragmatic. For this purpose, it should not be overlooked that parents and teachers have great responsibilities and that the child's family environment, affected persons, exposure to books and library are among the important variables of the reading habits process.