How school achievement and attitude toward school are influenced by a set of demographic, ecological, and psychological variables: A causal model analysis [microform]
- Bib ID:
- 3287266
- Format:
- Book and Microform
- Author:
- Baron, Joan Boykoff
- Description:
- 197 p.
- Summary:
-
The two primary problems under investigation in this study relate to school achievement and attitude toward school and the extent to which they could each be predicted by a common set of six antecedents. The antecedents were selected because they were found by past researchers to predict school achievement and/or attitude toward school and they could be conceptualized within a causally related system. The antecedents chosen were one demographic variable, the sex of the student; one ecological variable, the size of the school's enrollment; and three psychological variables, locus of control, achievement orientation, and perceived crowding. Two measures of school achievement were used: scores on a reading test and self-reported grades in school.
The sample consisted of 1336 students from 70 Connecticut schools. Towns were chosen to be representative of the State of Connecticut on size/urban status, regional location and socioeconomic status using a two-stage stratified random sampling procedure. The instruments used were the How I Feel Attitude Questionnaire, the IARQ locus of control scale, and an achievement test in reading and mathematics. Consistent with a review of related literature, the eight variables in the study were incorporated into two theoretical models and a causal modeling technique known as path analysis was applied to the data. The specific conclusions were as follows: Grades in School are directly affected by reading ability and achievement orientation. The effects of the sex of the student, locus of control, and enrollment size on grades are statistically significant but the paths are indirect. A relationship between perceived crowding and grades is not supported by the data.
Attitude toward school is directly affected by locus of control, achievement orientation, perceived crowding, and reading ability. The effects of the sex of the student are largely mediated, primarily by achievement orientation. The magnitude of the relationship between enrollment size and attitude toward school is statistically significant, yet small; the direct path was dropped. Reading test scores are directly affected by the sex of the student, locus of control, and perceived crowding. Achievement orientation has no significant effect on reading test scores. Perceived crowding is directly affected by the sex of the student, locus of control, enrollment size and achievement orientation. Achievement orientation is directly affected by the sex of the student and locus of control.
The enrollment size has no effect. Locus of control is not affected by the sex of the student. A secondary problem investigated in this study was to understand the degree of relationship between school achievement and attitude toward school while holding constant the demographic, ecological, and psychological antecedents. Using three separate procedures, grades in school and attitude toward school were found to be related even after the effects of the six antecedents were removed. Several conclusions can be drawn from the findings in this study. This study supported the existence of a frequently hypothesized but rarely tested relationship between reading test scores and grades in school for middle school students.
However, very different causal patterns were observed when each of these school achievement measures served as the criterion measure in a multiple regression equation. These results suggest that the choice of a dependent measure of school achievement should be made with care. Another finding of this study is that achievement orientation emerged as a strong predictor of both school grades and attitudes toward school. Finally, school enrollment size influences attitude toward school primarily through perceived crowding. Therefore, this suggests an intervention strategy which would attempt to directly reduce students' perceptions of crowding in schools where the objective social or spatial density is high.
- Notes:
-
- (UnM)AAI8025340
- Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 41-06, Section: A, page: 2505.
- Thesis (Ph.D.)--The University of Connecticut, 1980.
- Reproduction:
- Microfiche. Ann Arbor, Mich.: University Microfilms International.
- Subject:
- Education, Educational Psychology
- Other authors/contributors:
- The University of Connecticut
- Copyright:
-
In Copyright
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Copyright status was determined using the following information:
- Material type:
- Literary Dramatic Musical
- Published status:
- Unpublished
- Creation date:
- 1980
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