DETERMINANTS OF ASPIRATION IN SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS
| Pages | 175-186 |
| Published date | 01 February 1978 |
| Date | 01 February 1978 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/eb009796 |
| Author | KEITH F. PUNCH,BARRETT E. SHERIDAN |
| Subject Matter | Education |
THE JOURNAL OF EDUCATIONAL ADMINISTRATION
VOLUME XVI, NUMBER 2 OCTOBER, 1978
DETERMINANTS OF ASPIRATION IN SECONDARY
SCHOOL STUDENTS
KEITH F. PUNCH AND BARRETT E. SHERIDAN
This paper examines the relationship between the reference group, influences of parents,
teachers and peers, and the vocational aspirations of secondary school students, taking
account of differences in sex, social class, mental ability and home environment. It uses
a sample of 704 student, of ages 16 and 17 years, drawn from four metropolitan senior
high schools in Western Australia. Regression analysis indicates that approximately two-
thirds of the variance in boys' vocational aspirations, and half the variance in girls'
vocational aspirations, is accounted for by a model which uses as predictors social class,
mental ability, home environment, teacher and parent expectations and peer aspirations.
Further analysis, using step-wise techniques, shows that the influences of parents and
teachers—in that order—are most important, as intervening variables, between the
contextual variables of social class, mental ability and home environment, and the
dependent variable of aspirations.
INTRODUCTION
This paper examines the relationship between reference group
influences and the vocational aspirations of Australian secondary school
students. It does this for both girls and boys, and takes account of
differences in social class, mental ability and home environment. Voca-
tional aspirations is used here as a composite term, bringing together
educational and occupational aspirations. The three reference group
influences considered are the adolescent students' parents, teachers and
peers.
While a good deal of research has been done on this general topic
in North America, there has been relatively little in Australia.
Most recent studies have considered social class and mental ability
as the variables with which to commence the investigation of aspiration
formation. Thus Sewell and Shah,1 for example, used in their first study
a simple path model to examine the effect of social class and mental
ability on educational aspirations. Their later investigation2 included
parental encouragement in the model, and the amount of variance
explained in aspirations increased from 26 per cent to 37 per cent for
males,
and from 24 per cent to
41
per cent for females. While this model
explained approximately the same percentage of variance in aspirations
KEITH F. PUNCH is Senior Lecturer in Education, University of Western Australia.
He holds the degrees of B.A., B.Ed. (Hons.) (W.A.), and Ph.D. (Toronto). Dr. Punch
has published extensively in the fields of educational administration, sociology of education
and educational research. He is a member of the Editorial Board of the Journal.
BARRETT E. SHERIDAN is Lecturer in Science Education at Claremont Teachers
College, Perth. Formerly a Senior Science Master in the Western Australian Department
of Education, Mr. Sheridan holds the degrees of B.Sc. and M.Ed. (W.A.).
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