Dropping Out of High School: The Effects of Family Structure and Family Transitions

We use the 1988, 1990, and 1992 waves of data from the National Education Longitudinal Study to examine the effects of family structure and family transitions on adolescent high school dropout. Our study differs from previous studies by using a large longitudinal sample (N?=?21,420) and applying event history analysis with standard errors corrected for clustered sampling. Our study has two major contributions. First, we examine single-mother, single-father, stepmother, and stepfather families separately. Controlling for socioeconomic status, children from single-mother families are doing better than children from single-father and stepparent families. Second, using event history we can determine the causal order between family transitions and high school dropout rates. We find high school students are not hurt by their parents marrying, remarrying, or starting a cohabiting relationship, but are negatively affected by a parental divorce or separation during the high school years.     

Academic Self-Efficacy,Dropping Out,and the Significance of Inequality

Increased academic self-efficacy can facilitate educational progress and success as well as minimize the risk of dropping out for adolescents. However, there are sex, racial, and ethnic disparities associated with the risk of dropping out of high school. What remains unknown is if increased academic self-efficacy can minimize sex, racial, and ethnic disparities linked to the risk of adolescents dropping out. This study utilizes data from the Education Longitudinal Study of 2002 and incorporates multilevel modeling techniques to examine the impact of academic self-efficacy on dropping out. The results indicate that racial and ethnic minorities have relatively lower levels of academic self-efficacy; however, increased academic self-efficacy can ameliorate sex, racial, and ethnic dropout disparities. The implications of the evident sex, racial, and ethnic disparities in the relationship between academic self-efficacy and dropping out are discussed.     

The Effects of Divorce on the Academic Achievement of High School Seniors

Abstract

The divorce rate in the United States has climbed at an astounding rate during the past 80 years. Consequences of this change in family structure have impacted millions of children in a variety of ways. This study assessed the impact of divorce in relation to students' academic achievement. Two hypotheses were introduced reflecting expectations suggested by previous studies. High school seniors from a middle class school in a Rocky Mountain State served as the population for this study.

The results suggest that family structure impacts both the grade point average and attendance of high school students. Adolescents from intact families outperform those students from other family structures. One of the most surprising findings was that these results were most pronounced for females. Females were more negatively impacted by family structures due to divorce than were males.     

School Order,Justice, and Education: Climate,Discipline Practices,and Dropping Out

There is a growing body of research that explores how school climate, order, and procedural justice are related to violence within American public schools. What remains in the background, however, is how school climate, order, and justice are related to aspects of education such as dropping out. This study uses multilevel analysis, drawing from the Educational Longitudinal Study of 2002, to examine the effect of school climate, order, and justice on dropping out. Results indicate that, when considering the various dimensions of school climate, order, and justice, a student receiving a formal school sanction remains the strongest factor related to the likelihood of a student dropping out of school. These results underscore the importance of careful design and implementation of school discipline and safety policies.     

高中学业不良生学业成就个体心理影响机制研究

运用心理测量法对高中学业不良生学业成就的心理影响机制进行初步研究,得出如下结论1.影响学业不良生学业成就的主要学习策略是元认知策略,主要非智力因素是内源性动机和学习控制性观念.2.学习策略、非智力因素、原有知识三个变量对学业不良生的学业成就分别产生显著的直接效应,其影响程度由大到小依次为原有知识、非智力因素、学习策略.3.非智力因素、原有知识和智力因素分别通过学习策略对学业不良生学业成就产生明显的间接效应;非智力因素还通过原有知识对学业成就产生间接作用.     

Urbanicity Moderates Associations between Family Income and Adolescent Academic Achievement

Research has shown that family income's relations to early childhood achievement is stronger in large inner cities and weaker in less urbanized areas. Research has not yet considered whether links between family income and achievement in adolescence differ across the urban to rural landscape. Using nationally representative data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 1998–1999 (N ≈ 9,350), this study examines differences in family income's links with eighth‐grade achievement across large urban, small urban, suburban, and rural communities. The point at which income‐achievement links plateau occurs later in the income distribution in less urbanized areas. The magnitude of the association between family income and reading and science skills also differs across the urban‐rural continuum, such that family income has stronger relations to reading and science achievement in urban cities and weaker links in suburban and rural communities.     

Television's Impact on High School Achievement

Using data from the first two waves of the High School and Beyondproject, this study examines the reciprocal relationship betweenmedia use and academic achievement among American high schoolstudents. The hypothesis of the study was that TV influencesachievement negatively as it displaces other, more beneficialactivities, but that reading influences achievement positively,particularly reading skills. It was also hypothesized that achievementinfluences media use: specifically, achievement negatively influencestelevision use and positively influences reading. The studyused multiple regression in a cross-lagged model. No clear evidenceof negative effects of TV on achievement were found. TV, however,was found to be relatively less beneficial than reading forpleasure. And while achievement's influence on the amount ofTV viewing was not supported, reading achievement does seemto influence the amount reading.     

Examining Racial Differences in the Effects of Substance Abuse on High School Students' Academic Achievement

Abstract

Many studies document racial disparities in the American educational system, finding that white students generally outperform black students. Researchers justifiably focus on structural explanations for such disparities, but generally pay less attention to more proximate influences on academic achievement. However, studies have found that substance use negatively impacts adolescent academic achievement; other findings on race and substance use suggest that this relationship could be more damaging for black students. This paper uses National Education Longitudinal Study data to determine if substance use negatively impacts the academic achievement of high school students, and if black students are more negatively affected than whites. The analysis finds that substance use has a negative impact on academic achievement, even while controlling for a range of known influences on academic achievement. However, this relationship is not found to be more damaging to black students, probably due to white students' higher level of substance use.     

The Social Ecology of Race and Ethnicity School Achievement Gaps: Economic,Neighborhood, School,and Family Factors

This study used a nationally representative sample of middle and high school students to examine the degree to which economic, neighborhood, school, and family factors contributed to three points on a proposed school outcome continuum: (1)avoidance of problem behavior, (2)sense of school coherence, and (3)grades. Multilevel models were employed to account for the clustering of students inside schools. Results suggested that though family and neighborhood social factors contribute to variance in school outcomes, family and neighborhood economic factors revealed the largest potential to explain and therefore present leverage points to reduce race and ethnicity achievement gaps.     

Generation Status,Social Capital,and the Routes Out of High School

This study investigates immigrant-native differences in the activities of adolescents 2 years after their sophomore year of high school. We employ longitudinal data for the modeling of duration, nativity and generation differences in education and employment activities during late adolescence. We ask if the same human and social capital characteristics employed as explanations for nativity differences in achievement are predictive of high school participation versus other activities such as labor force participation within a cohort of adolescents. Despite their lower levels of human capital and lower previous academic performance, recent immigrants who arrive in the United States as adolescents are more likely than those who arrive earlier or those born in the United States to persevere in high school. Access to familial social capital and attitudinal measures help explain some of this effect. As for those who do leave school early, socioeconomic status and language background play a role in the activities respondents pursue. While recent immigrants are more likely to persevere in high school, once they leave they are no more likely to pursue additional education than their U.S. born counterparts.     

Academic Achievement Among Adopted and Nonadopted Children in Early School Years

The study examined academic achievement among adopted and nonadopted children in Norway. The adopted group included children adopted from China, South Korea, South Africa, Ethiopia, and Colombia. The study also included a control group of nonadopted classmates with same gender and age. The findings show no significant differences in academic achievement between adopted and nonadopted in either first or third grade, but a greater variety in adopted children’s performance. Adopted children received more special education and more support from parents than nonadopted classmates did. Language skills and hyperactive behavior made a significant contribution in explaining the variance in academic achievement among adopted children.     

Developing an Additive Risk Model for Predicting Academic Index: School Factors and Academic Achievement

The impact of school factors on academic achievement has become an important focus for identifying, preventing, and intervening with youth at-risk for academic failure. This study was designed to develop and test a more comprehensive school factor risk index. Specifically, the relationship between cumulative grade point average (GPA) and an additive risk index (ARI) were tested and an analysis of the index is presented. School factors that been shown in previous research to impact academic achievement were tested. Those factors were included in the final risk index if they met the criteria of (1) having a correlation with GPA, (2) containing a difference in outcomes between the risk and non-risk groups, and (3) making a unique contribution to the overall index. The risk and protective factors included in the creation of the ARI were attendance, academic self-efficacy, academic expectations, grade retention, music instruction, and school behaviors. The interplay between risk and protective factors was shown to have a significant relationship with GPA.     

Effects of Parental Involvement and Family Structure on the Academic Achievement of Adolescents

Abstract

Using the 1992 NELS data set, this study assessed the effects of three aspects of parental involvement and family structure on the academic achievement of those children. The results indicate that family structure and two of the three aspects of parental involvement were associated with higher adolescent academic achievement, when gender, race, and socioeconomic status are controlled for. Family structure was the single greatest predictor of academic achievement. The extent to which parents discussed school issues and attended school functions also had a positive impact on adolescent academic achievement. Whether a parent checked on a child's homework and checked on his or her friends did not have a positive impact, and sometimes had a negative effect, on academic achievement. The significance of these results is discussed. To the extent that parental family structure is, in itself, partially a measure of parental involvement, the relative influence of family structure and other measures of parental involvement on children's academic achievement is discussed.     

Parental Influence and Academic Achievement among Middle School Students: Parent Perspective

This study examined the effects of parental influence on middle school students' academic achievement. The sample included 32 parents of middle school students. The questionnaire measured: parental pressure and support; parental help, monitoring, and press for literacy; and communication. There was a relationship that approached significance between communication and academic achievement: as communication increased, academic achievement increased. There was also a relationship that approached significance between parental help, monitoring, and press for literacy and parents' highest level of education: the higher the level of education of parents, the more involved parents were. The implication for school social workers is discussed.     

Athletic Involvement,Academic Achievement,and Aspiration

Abstract

Prior to World War II, religion in America was characterized by a tripartite system of Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish groups. More recently, Robert Wuthnow (1988), James Davison Hunter (1991), and others have argued that religion in America has been “restructured” into a two-party system, consisting of liberals within these religions on one side and conservatives on the other. Most empirical research examining the restructuring of religion in America focuses on the two-party division within Protestant religious advocacy groups, noting how some Protestant groups are politically more similar to Catholics than to other Protestants. Little work has examined the extent to which this phenomenon applies to Washington offices, which are formally tied to parent religious bodies, particularly Jewish groups. By conducting interviews with Washington office leaders and examining office materials and websites during the 108th Congress, this study seeks to answer the question: How does the thesis of the restructuring of religion in America apply to 15 Washington offices? Results suggest the thesis applies to both Protestant and Jewish Washington offices. The priorities of liberal offices, such as social welfare and economic justice issues, differ from those of conservative offices that focus on life and morality concerns.     

Self-Concept of Academic Ability and the Adult College Student

Adults' self-concept of academic ability is discussed within the larger context of self-concept theory, the presence of adults in college, and the sparse research on adult self-concept. The operation of adult self-concept was explored with data gathered from 480 undergraduate students age 25 or older. Adult self-concept of academic ability appeared to operate much as predicted by the theory. It was shaped from past academic activities (credits earned and GPA), and it affected subjective academic outcomes such as "how well one feels he/she is doing in college" and "whether one's goals are being met by the college experience." It also affected objective outcomes such as current credit load carried and grades attained. Self-concept did not vary by race, gender, or income, though it did vary by age. Subdomains of self-concept were explored, and the most important appeared to be interaction skills within the classroom. Relating academic self-concept to other psychological variables showed that it is unrelated to motivation, positively related to global self-esteem, and negatively related to depression, stress, and external attributions for academic success.     

推动家庭、学校、社会教育三结合 全国妇联儿童工作部

儿童是祖国的未来,民族的希望。近年来,在党中央国务院的亲切关怀下,妇联儿童工作坚持以科学发展观为指导,认真贯彻《中华人民共和国未成年人保护法》,参与实施《中国儿童发展纲要(2001-2010)》,积极牵头家庭教育、配合学校教育、参与社会教育,着力维护儿童