Adolescents school-related, self-assessment, values, and aspirations

Abstract

The first aim of this study is to test some of the possible effects of family on adolescents' development of values and attributions related with schooling, their aspirations and expectations about their educational and occupational status, and evaluations of their academic competence. This is done using adolescents' perceptions of their parents' values and opinions as the determining factor on tyheir own values and opinions on these topics. It was predicted that, there would be significant differences between parents' and adolescents' values, aspirations, expectations, and evaluations, but there would be no such differences between adolescents' and adolescent-perceived parents' values and opinions on these topics. It was also predicted that adolescents' positions with regard to these topics would be more significantly related with their perceptions of parents' positions rather than the actual positions parents took. Lastly, we predicted to find higher actual agreement between generations on these topics under the conditions of warm and supportive intrafamily relations. The sampled population was composed of 40 middle-class boys and girls who were adolescents in the sixth, seventh, eighth, and ninth grades of secondary school in Istanbul. The sample also consisted of the mothers of the selected adolescents. The measuring instruments consisted of three separate questionnaires; an adolescents', a parents', and an adolescent-perceived parents' questionnaire. 96The results which were based on the comparisons among the data gathered from these three questionnaires, generally confirmed our hypotheses. However, for some measurements of values and evaluations, we found non-significant differences between adolescents and parents, and significant relationships between two generations which were unexpected. Finding these deviations were considered not to be surprising since they were the mostly discussed and shared topics within the family context. Additionally, it was found that actual agreement between generations increased as the adolescents perceived their families as happy, family interactions as close and harmonious, an mothers as loving and supportive. Beyond These main results based on the hypotheses, additional results were obtained showing the relations among the variables related to value put on education and schooling, commitment to schooling, self-esteem/self - concept, and belief in internal and external control, ail of which helped to enhance our understanding of adolescent school-related beliefs, behaviors, and motives.