Thinking differences. Reading practices of university students according to gender.

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to identify the differences by gender between the reading practices of
female and male university students. In addition to identifying their literary preferences, it was
examined whether there were differences regarding the self-perception of one and the other as
readers and whether gender was associated with the preference for specific reading formats
(print/digital) or certain forms of acquisition. We applied a self-elaborated questionnaire to 444

students through a proportional stratified sampling. We analyzed the data through the Student's t-
test for independent samples and the Chi-square association test. The results show significant

differences by gender. Specifically, women show a more excellent taste for reading and perceive
themselves much more as readers than men. In addition, the female gender is associated with
reading books in printed format, and the male, with the digital format. Gender differences were also
found in terms of preference for particular readings and literary genres. It is proposed to carry out
more research of this type to delve into these differences and better understand the particularities of
readers and other kinds of links between gender and reading.