Abstract: | The purpose of this study was to determine if work ethic differed for a sample of 152 selected 9th-grade students categorized by risk of school failure and by gender. Work ethic attributes were measured using the Occupational Work Ethic Inventory (Petty, 1993). Results of a two-way multivariate analysis of variance indicated significant work ethic differences in main effects of at-risk classification and gender for dependent variables of interpersonal skills, initiative, and being dependable. Interaction effects were not significant. Underlying constructs indicated that adolescents with greater degrees of risk were less dependable and that girls in the study were more dependable than boys. |