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Why Children and Young People Do or Do Not Engage with Writing in Their Free Time: Towards a Multidimensional Model of Writing Engagement

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Bibliographic Details
Title: Why Children and Young People Do or Do Not Engage with Writing in Their Free Time: Towards a Multidimensional Model of Writing Engagement
Language: English
Authors: Francesca Bonafede, Christina Clark, National Literacy Trust (United Kingdom)
Source: National Literacy Trust. 2026.
Availability: National Literacy Trust. Swire House, 59 Buckingham Gate, London, SW1E 6AJ, UK. Tel: +44-2078-282435; Fax: +44-2079-319986; e-mail: contact@literacytrust.org.uk; Web site: http://www.literacytrust.org.uk
Peer Reviewed: N
Page Count: 58
Publication Date: 2026
Document Type: Reports - Research
Descriptors: Children, Adolescents, Writing Attitudes, Learner Engagement, Writing (Composition), Adolescent Attitudes, Childrens Attitudes, Recreational Activities, Social Behavior, Affective Behavior
Abstract: Drawing on open-ended responses from 55,075 8 to 18-year-olds who took part in the 2025 Annual Literacy Survey, this report explores what children and young people told the authors, in their own words, about their engagement and disengagement with writing. The authors analysed comments by grouping them according to reported levels of writing enjoyment and identifying themes within these perspectives. These themes were organised across four factors -- behavioural, affective, cognitive and environmental/social -- enabling them to explore three broad orientations towards writing. By articulating writing engagement as a multidimensional, interactional and dynamic construct, this model shows that increasing writing engagement is not a matter of simply fostering enjoyment or teaching skills more effectively, but of creating conditions in which emotional resonance, cognitive manageability, identity development and contextual support can align. In doing so, it offers a more ambitious, equitable and realistic vision of what it means to cultivate confident young writers.
Abstractor: ERIC
Entry Date: 20260101
Accession Number: ED682706
Database: ERIC
Description
Abstract:Drawing on open-ended responses from 55,075 8 to 18-year-olds who took part in the 2025 Annual Literacy Survey, this report explores what children and young people told the authors, in their own words, about their engagement and disengagement with writing. The authors analysed comments by grouping them according to reported levels of writing enjoyment and identifying themes within these perspectives. These themes were organised across four factors -- behavioural, affective, cognitive and environmental/social -- enabling them to explore three broad orientations towards writing. By articulating writing engagement as a multidimensional, interactional and dynamic construct, this model shows that increasing writing engagement is not a matter of simply fostering enjoyment or teaching skills more effectively, but of creating conditions in which emotional resonance, cognitive manageability, identity development and contextual support can align. In doing so, it offers a more ambitious, equitable and realistic vision of what it means to cultivate confident young writers.