Gender and interest processes in response to literary texts: situational and individual interest

This investigation examined interest in literary texts among senior secondary students. It explored how individual and situational factors contribute to topic interest and, using interactive computer techniques, monitored reactions to the texts that followed. Eighty-six tenth graders (equal numbers of boys and girls) participated. Gender was the factor most closely associated with topic interest, and text titles served as important situational triggers. Individual interest in literature made a relatively small contribution to topic interest. Whereas a model linking topic interest, affective responses and persistence operated for higher topic interest texts, for lower interest texts persistence was influenced only by gender. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.