Family characteristics, values, and educational plans : a study of Newfoundland youth

Baker, Marguerite (1978) Family characteristics, values, and educational plans : a study of Newfoundland youth. Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

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Abstract

The present study examined how selected family characteristics intervene through parental value orientations to influence children's educational plans. A sample of 38 Newfoundland secondary schools, involving 3315 females and 3500 males in Grades 9, 10, 11, 12 and vocational schools, was employed. The effects of the following seven family characteristics upon children's educational plans were analyzed by the method of multiple regression and path analysis: father's education, mother's education, father's occupation, mother's occupational status, parental presence, family size, and child's IQ. The three intervening value orientations were parental awareness, parental encouragement, and parental decision-making. -- Nineteen per cent of the variance was explained in the educational plans of males, and 20 per cent of the variance in the educational plans of females. For males, the independent variables in order of their effects upon educational plans from high to low were: child's IQ, family size, mother's education, father's education, father's occupation, parental presence, and mother's occupational status. Of the three intervening variables examined, parental encouragement was the most important, parental awareness was less important, and parental decision-making was the least important. For females, the independent variables in order of their effects upon educational plans from high to low were: child's IQ, mother's education, father's occupation, family size, father's education, parental, presence, and mother's occupational status. Of the three intervening variables parental encouragement was the most important, parental awareness was less important, and parental decision-making was of least importance. -- These findings have implications for the importance of educating mother's, for males in one-parent families, for the differential treatment of males and females in the home and school, and for the importance of parental encouragement and parental involvement in the educational process. -- Suggestions for further research concerned the sample, the method of analysis, and the variables.

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