1. Objectifs

Intentions :
« The present study explores the influence of background variables (family structure, parent education, gender), parental involvement and concern for education (parenting style, parent expectations, family cohesiveness, parent communication about school), and student academic self-concept (grades, perception of school, extra reading done outside of school), and peer influences on educational aspiration of adolescents. » (p. 27)

Questions/Hypothèses :
« 1. Are there significant difference between the educational aspirations of males and females from intact and divorced families? [...]
2. Are there differences among the family structure groups (divorced versus intact) on positive perception of school, average grades, extra reading, peer-school related influences, parents communication about school, parents concern for school, family cohesiveness, parents expectations after high school, and parent education when each variable is considered alone? [...]
3. In what way do academic self-concept, parent involvement, peer influence, and parent education variables influence educational aspiration across family structure groups in a structural equation model? » (p. 28)

2. Méthode

Échantillon/Matériau :
« The sample data was obtained from the National Youth Science Project (NYSP) [...]. The sample consisted of 728 competitors from the 1995 and 1996 Canada Wide Science Fair (CWSF) and 3313 randomly selected students chosen from schools in Eastern, Central, Western, and Northern regions of Ontario and Quebec [...]. » (p. 30)

Type de traitement des données :
Analyse statistique

3. Résumé

« The purpose of this study was to develop and test a model to predict the educational aspirations of males and females from intact and divorced families, and to explore group differences on the model. A sample of 3864 adolescents from grades 8 to 12 and OAC in Ontario and CEGEP in Quebec was taken from the National Youth and Science Project. No significant interactions between family structure and gender were found on any of the variables, thus models were tested for both these variables separately. The results showed that the model had a reasonable fit for all groups, and that there were no significant differences between them on the model, which indicated that the variables used to predict educational aspiration were of equal importance to males and females and to adolescents from intact and divorced families. Academic self-concept was an important predictor of educational aspiration for all groups, and further testing revealed that this was especially true for those from divorced families. » (p. ii)