Recent Trends in Intercategory Differences in Attitudes

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
This study reports the results of a test of a theory which was based on the assumption that lengths of school membership would be systematically related with adolescents' valuations of three significant others: mothers, fathers, and friends. Increasing time in school was predicted to be associated with decreasing valuations of parents and increasing valuations of friends with the exception of the last school year when anticipated change of settings would reverse these trends. From a secondary analysis of responses from 8,966 students in 22 schools, the theory in general was not supported. Rather, it was found that the effects of school experiences on the valuations of these three significant others occur within the first or second year of membership for junior high school students. An alternative interpretation is that the school, in toto, may constitute a generalized reference field which takes on increasing importance once the adolescent has been socially incorporated into the school organization. The importance of initial experiences in school or other adolescent settings are identified as important issues for future research.

This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: