Search Results
Title: Home Environment, Self-Concept, and School Achievement in a Disadvantaged and Multiethnic Sample
Resulting in 1 citation.
| 1. |
White, Mary Elizabeth |
|
Home Environment, Self-Concept, and School Achievement in a Disadvantaged and Multiethnic Sample Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Texas at Austin, 1991 Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79, NLSY79 Publisher: UMI - University Microfilms, Bell and Howell Information and Learning Keyword(s): Adolescent Fertility; Childbearing; Education; Educational Attainment; Ethnic Differences; Family Structure; Health Factors; Hispanics; Home Observation for Measurement of Environment (HOME); Household Composition; Marital Status; Mothers, Race; Self-Esteem; Self-Perception; Self-Perception Profile for Children (SPPC); Socioeconomic Status (SES); Teenagers The purpose of this study was to test hypotheses regarding the effects of home environment variables on self-concept and school achievement. The statistical technique of path analysis was used to examine an extensive data set. Data were partly derived from a variety of psychological measures administered to a large sample of families in the first months of 1986. The measures included an achievement measure, a receptive language measure, a self-worth and perceived cognitive competence measure, and a home environment measure. Additional data considered in the analysis were developed from selected characteristics of the family units included in the study sample. Assessed characteristics included components of socioeconomic status, family structure (marital status of the mother), maternal educational level, race of the mother, and gender of the subject. The sample was composed of 307 male subjects and 291 female subjects between the ages of 7 and 15 years. The racial composition of the sample was 83 Hispanic, 255 Black, and 260 White subjects. The subjects participated in the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) in 1986. An important characteristic of the sample was that the majority of the mothers of the subjects gave birth when they were adolescents. As a result of the early pregnancies, the sample was highly representative of a more disadvantaged, less well educated population than the general population of American mothers. Results of the study indicated that the three variables most directly associated with scholastic achievement were family process, maternal education, and perceived cognitive competence. While no gender differences were identified in the analysis, there were significant ethnic differences in the relationships among the predictor variables and school achievement. One particularly significant finding was the importance of maternal education levels in predicting both family process characteristics and school achievement. The influence of maternal education was evident for all three ethnic groups examined in the study. Implications for intervention programs are discussed. |
|
|
Bibliography Citation
White, Mary Elizabeth. Home Environment, Self-Concept, and School Achievement in a Disadvantaged and Multiethnic Sample. Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Texas at Austin, 1991. |