Family and school environments,adolescents’ aspirations and young adults’ status attainment: Ability-attitude group differences

The study, which is a follow-up analysis of an earlier investigation in theJournal, examined relationships between adolescents’ perceptions of family and school environments, their aspirations and measures of social-status attainment, for young adults with different levels of ability and varying attitudes to school. Data were collected from 330 Australians who were 11-, 16-, and 21-years-old, respectively, during three surveys. The young adults were classified into four groups, defined conjointly by ability and cognitive attitudes to school. Within each group, regression surfaces were constructed from models that included terms to account for possible linear, interaction, and curvilinear relationships. The findings indicated that within various ability-attitude contexts, adolescents’ perceptions of environments and their aspirations operated differentially to be related to measures of young adults’ social-status attainment. Thus, the two longitudinal studies, when considered together, suggest that our understanding of variations in students’ school-related outcomes may be enhanced by exploring in greater detail contexts that are defined by ability and attitude dimensions.