Decreasing Teenage Readership Rates in Lithuania: Exploring Causes and Suggesting Solutions
Summary
Over the past years, Lithuania has faced a dramatic decrease in teenage readership
rates, urging a circumstantial investigation of the causes. Previous research has explored the
issue only by interviewing teenagers themselves and has thus overlooked the potential of an
objective evaluation of the situation from a professional vantage, for example, that of
teachers. This thesis conducts both quantitative and qualitative research. It examines the main
causes of such high lack of interest in reading amongst Lithuanian teenagers through a
questionnaire distributed amongst students and a set of open-ended questions for teachers. In
contrast to what has been assumed in the hypothesis, the stringent curriculum is not the main
cause of the decline in readership numbers. The main causes of the decline in teenage
readership rates, this thesis shows, depend on other factors, such as poor concentration, low
text comprehension skills, and the severe impact of modern technologies.