Research and impact
BookTrust’s work is driven by evidence.
We are working to have impact for disadvantaged children and families and children from vulnerable family backgrounds. All our work is driven by evidence: evidence on the benefits reading brings for children and families, evidence on the lives and needs of children and families, and evidence on the impact of our interventions. Use the links below to find out more about our wide programme of research, innovation and evaluation activities.
In this section
Research and innovation
Explore research and reports across early years, primary, secondary and wider reading for pleasure. Find out what impact our programmes have on children and families.
Impact
Understanding the impact of our interventions is central to BookTrust’s work. Find out more about the impact of our programmes and activities.
Our research briefings use findings from our 2022 Family Survey - an online study of parents and carers of children aged 0–7 living in low-income households in England, Wales and Northern Ireland - to explore key themes surrounding reading in the early years.
Children's reading habits in the early years
This briefing provides an overview of BookTrust’s research of children’s early years reading habits across England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
The importance of multiple reading influencers
Our research finds that the more people in a child's life who are involved in influencing their reading, the more likely the child is to become a keen independent reader.
Supporting generational cycles of readers
Our recent research highlights the extent of the influence that parental reading enjoyment has on nurturing generational reading habits.
The benefits of reading
From babies to children in their early years and all the way through to early teens, reading brings profound and wide-ranging benefits that can have a lifelong positive impact on children’s lives.
BookTrust's Theory of Change
Our Theory of Change describes how our work leads to the outcomes and impacts that we want to achieve – children from low-income and vulnerable backgrounds experiencing the wide-ranging benefits of reading, and every child reading regularly by choice.
Download the Theory of Change diagram (PDF)
How we use research in our work
In this article - published in Impact Magazine by the Market Research Society - BookTrust's Director of Research and Impact Ruthann Hughes explains how research informs everything that BookTrust does.
