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Title: Self-Control and School Failure: Examining Individual Effects on Academic Achievement
Resulting in 1 citation.
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Bersani, Bianca Elizabeth |
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Self-Control and School Failure: Examining Individual Effects on Academic Achievement M.A. Thesis, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2005 Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79, NLSY79, NLSY79 Young Adult Publisher: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses (PQDT) Keyword(s): Attitudes; Behavioral Differences; Behavioral Problems; Discipline; Mothers, Education; Peers/Peer influence/Peer relations; School Completion; School Dropouts; School Progress; Self-Regulation/Self-Control Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher. Data from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) indicate that in 2000 nearly 11% of youth ages 16 to 24 were either not enrolled in school or did not have a high school diploma. Furthermore, national rates of school failure have continually increased over the past three decades (NCES 2000) indicating that school dropout rates have risen. Research examining the prevalence of adolescent school failure has traditionally looked at the influence of structural characteristics such as family structure and maternal educational level, and relational characteristics such as parental attachment and monitoring to explain why youth drop out of school. In the present study, I incorporate individual level characteristics, specifically self-control, into the examination of predictors of school failure. Gottfredson and Hirschi (1990) suggest that individuals with low self-control have behavioral and attitudinal characteristics that are in direct opposition to academic achievement. I analyze the extent to which self-control predicts school failure net of the traditional explanations using data on 822 young adults from the National Longitudinal Study of Youth Child and Young Adult data, 1994 and 1998 waves. Significant effects of self-control on school attachment, expected level of education, and school dropout were found, even when controlling for structural and relational characteristics. Young adults with low self-control were significantly less likely to be attached to school, had lower educational expectations, and were more likely to drop out of school than their peers. With the exceptions of mother's educational level and maternal educational expectations, the structural and relational characteristics were not significant predictors of school failure. While structural and relational characteristics still have a significant effect on adolescent school failure, these findings suggest the need to examine the effects of individual level predictors, such as self-control in future research. |
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Bibliography Citation
Bersani, Bianca Elizabeth. Self-Control and School Failure: Examining Individual Effects on Academic Achievement. M.A. Thesis, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2005. |