Page 1 of 20
Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal – Vol. 10, No. 7
Publication Date: July 25, 2023
DOI:10.14738/assrj.107.15027.
Dragan, I. M., Isaic-Maniu, A., & Grigore, A. M. (2023). Reading Among Students: A Study Using a Modified Version of the Snowball
Method. Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal, 10(7). 56-75.
Services for Science and Education – United Kingdom
Reading Among Students:
A Study Using a Modified Version of the Snowball Method
Irina-Maria Dragan
Department of Statistics and Econometrics,
The Bucharest University of Economic Studies, Romania
Alexandru Isaic-Maniu
Centre for Industry and Services Economics,
National Institute of Economic Research,
The Romanian Academy, Bucharest, Romania
Ana-Maria Grigore
University of Bucharest, Bucharest, Romania
ABSTRACT
The reading crisis is a real phenomenon of the last few years, the fondness for
reading is free falling, and the lack of interest is reflected in the increasingly poor
results in the national evaluations of schoolchildren. In the long term, the effects of
the lack of reading reflect on the quality of human resources, including the area of
cultural intelligence. The Romanian authorities have initiated measures to
stimulate reading, but the results are still modest. The research undertaken by us
aimed at evaluating the duration of time allocated to reading by students of the 5th- 8th grades from a college in Bucharest, for which purpose the snowball method was
used after having applied our original development that allows the completion of
the research under conditions of quantitative criteria and the evaluation of decision
errors. The snowball procedure in its classic version not only has advantages but
also numerous inconveniences, of which the most important is the ambiguity
regarding the volume of the investigated sample, because the number of
interviewees cannot be predetermined, since it is dependent on the researcher's
decision to stop the investigation at a given moment or not. The solution proposed
by the authors was to develop the sequential Wald test for the case of measurable
characteristics, and the results obtained have a deeply original nature and can
contribute to a great extent to the improvement of sociological research methods.
Keywords: snowball sampling, sequential sampling, decision risks, network sampling,
sequential survey, statistical risks and errors, cultural intelligence
INTRODUCTION
The problem of reading among the youth in Romania is a serious one, because the country ranks
last in the EU when it comes to reading: Romanians spend only 5 minutes a day reading; only
16% read books monthly; 35% have never read a book; only 5% go to the library to borrow a
book, less than 10% of citizens buy a book a year. Moreover, 16% of students leave school
Page 2 of 20
57
Dragan, I. M., Isaic-Maniu, A., & Grigore, A. M. (2023). Reading Among Students: A Study Using a Modified Version of the Snowball Method.
Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal, 10(7). 56-75.
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/assrj.107.15027
prematurely, 30-40% of high school graduates do not pass the baccalaureate (high school exit)
exam, and about 40% of the population is functionally illiterate (Danileț, 2022).
To encourage reading, the authorities spared no expense in establishing book festivals, such as:
• 14 February, in addition to the International Book Giving Day, is it also the Library
Lovers’ Day. In the United States, the entire month of February is National Library
Month;
• 15 February, National Reading Day, the motto of 2022 in Romania was “Reading
together”, (Law no. 21/2022);
• 2 April, International Children's Book Day, established in 1967, 2 April is the anniversary
of the birth of the writer Hans Christian Andersen, and as from 2012 it is also celebrated
in Romania, (IBBY, 2012);
• 23 April, Book Day (Law no. 81/2014), an opportunity to align with the celebration
established by UNESCO, 23 April is marking the birth and death of William Shakespeare,
the birth of Vladimir Nabokov, Manuel Mejía Vallejo, but also the day Miguel de
Cervantes died.
• Starting with the year 2018, the reading Olympiad READING AS A LIFE SKILL-LAV takes
place for students from the 5th to the 12th grades (MEN, 2018).
In today’s globalized world of artificial intelligence, machine learning, and innovation, cultural
intelligence is a critical part of setting yourself apart.
The reading crisis is a real phenomenon of recent years and worries everyone who works in
the area of written culture, from authors to publishers. The appetite for reading is free falling,
and the lack of interest in books is worryingly observed in the increasingly poor results in the
national exams, or PISA tests (Noveanu, 2006). The concept of reading literacy designates the
ability to understand and use the forms of written language required by society and valued by
the individual and is considered one of the fundamental processes in schooling, as it constitutes
the basis of learning all other subjects of study, and the stage is evaluated every five years by
PIRLS. The work “Trends of cultural consumption during the pandemic” shows the level of
cultural consumption in the period November 2020-April 2021 (Croitoru, 2021). SCHOOL can
be an ideal place for reading, as proven by the “Ten minutes of daily reading” initiative (EDICT,
2018). The pandemic period also generated other projects to encourage reading among the
youth, such as the project - Relevant curriculum, open education for all (CRED, 2021). All these
noteworthy activities aimed at developing the love for reading failed to generate a significant
response from students and young people in general. This state is also confirmed by the results
of the study conducted by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational
Achievement-IEA 2022 regarding progress in reading (PIRLS, 2001; PIRLS, 2022), publicly
released on 16 May 2023, with a five-year periodicity. PIRLS 2022 is the one that collected data
including in the context of school interruptions and closures due to COVID-19. In addition to
the PIRLS studies (Progress in International Reading Literacy Study), IEA also conducts the
TIMSS (Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study) and PISA – (Program for
International Student Assessment), (OECD, 2020).
Our study carries out field research of the time allocated to reading by students during the
weekend, using a version improved by us of the snowball method.
Page 3 of 20
58
Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal (ASSRJ) Vol. 10, Issue 7, July-2023
Services for Science and Education – United Kingdom
LITERATURE REVIEW
In addition to the studies of some institutions, as shown in the previous section, the issue of
reading and its impact on the youth is also the object of the scientific concerns of numerous
researchers, and, in the following, we make a picture of these concerns including the research
methods used.
Thus, Whitten et al. (2016) monitor the reading habits of sixty-five high school juniors, between
fifteen and seventeen years of age, attending a rural high school, and then draw conclusions
about the impact of reading on academic achievement. Better performance in reading tests, a
more developed vocabulary and an increased body of knowledge is the conclusion of the study
conducted by Pearson UK (2015).
A study by questioning 833 teenagers in the USA between twelve and eighteen years of age
about voluntary reading compared to a mandatory reading list was conducted by (Creel, 2015),
and also by Johnson & Blair (2003).
Another interesting study (Gambrell et al. 1996) explored the reading motivation of 330 third
and fifth grade Maryland students using the Motivation to Read Profile (MRP), the first part of
the study consisted of responding to a questionnaire of the Likert scale type, and the second
part took place in the form of an interview, on a random sample of 48 respondents. The effects
of reading on children's development are vast and the study highlighted the benefits of reading
(Collier, 2019). The author considers that teachers and parents are in an excellent position to
support reading to become part of children's daily routine. The importance of reading and
learning during the summer vacation is examined by Alexander et al. (2007) and highlights,
based on a survey, the strongly differentiated results between those students who practiced
reading and the rest of the students. An interesting study (Miller, 2009) compares the
educational systems in the USA and those in the G-8 Group, through comparable indicators that
use as primary sources: Indicators of National Education Systems (INES), those of the
Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD); data from the International
Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS). For example, the score for England was 552, significantly above
the international average, and the participant with the highest score was Hong Kong with a
scaled score of 571, while Morocco was the country with the lowest score, with 310 (Twist,
Sizmur, et al. 2012). Pradani (2021) emphasizes the knowledge gained by young people
following the practice of daily reading. Reading for pleasure, its importance and its impact on
the development of young people, and reading that allows good information about other people,
about history and social studies is elaborated by Clark & Rumbold (2006). Cultivating the love
for reading and turning occasional readers into lifelong readers is an action, which has shown
that reading for pleasure is positively correlated with the reading level and the writing skill
(OECD, 2020), the fondness for reading is achieved both at school and outside school (Sanacore,
2002).
Statistical research carried out among children has shown that reading for pleasure is positively
correlated with the level of reading and the writing skill, the fondness for reading is achieved
both at school and outside of school, favouring the understanding of text and grammar (Cox &
Guthrie, 2001), the development of vocabulary, the increase of intellectual skills, but also
greater self-confidence. Kirsch (2002), Twist et al. (2003) also develops the topic of children's