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Abstract

The present study examined what kinds of patterns of task-values adolescents show, and whether these patterns predict their educational and occupational expectations and school track. Six hundred and fourteen adolescents were examined twice before their transition to secondary education and once thereafter. The clustering-by-cases analyses identified 6 groups: (1) those who placed a high value on all school subjects, (2) those who did not value any of the subjects, (3) those who valued Finnish and social sciences, (4) those who valued in particular practical and art subjects, (5) those who valued only practical and art subjects, and (6) those who especially valued mathematics and science. The patterns of task-values also predicted adolescents' occupational and educational expectations.

Although many studies have shown that high school motivation is associated with good academic outcomes (Eccles, Wigfield, Harold, & Blumenfield, 1993; Murphy & Alexander, 2000), little is known about how adolescents' motivation and task-values contribute to their educational expectations, vocational aspirations, and school tracks. Moreover, only few previous studies have examined the kinds of constellations of values adolescents show. These were the topics of the present study.

According to the expectancy-value theory (Eccles et al., 1983), the overall value of any specific task is a function of three components. Attainment value represents the importance of doing well on a task in terms of self-schema. Intrinsic value refers to the inherent enjoyment one gets from engaging in an activity. Utility value refers to whether a goal is instrumental for reaching other goals. When engaging in a certain activity, there is always something that needs to be given up, described as costs (Eccles et al., 1983). The present study focused on the value aspect of expectancy value theory, as we were interested in the consequences rather than the antecedents of task values.

Task values start to differentiate across various school subjects early after school entrance (Eccles et al., 1983). Later on, such individual differences in task values become increasingly stable (Gottfried, Fleming, & Gottfried, 2001). Girls value languages more than boys, while boys value mathematics and sciences (Eccles, Barber, & Jozefowicz, 1998). Task values relate to achievement performance in many ways. For example, young children's task values predict their academic achievement in related domains (Gottfried, 1990).

Students' task values may also contribute to the ways in which they think about and act upon their future lives, particularly in the domains of education and career. Such thinking about future has been described previously in terms of educational expectations and occupational aspirations (Lent, Brown & Hacket, 1994; Nurmi, 2004; Schoon & Parsons, 2002). Previous research has shown that students' task values contribute to their future educational plans (Eccles, 2005), enrollment decisions (Eccles, Vida, & Barber, 2004), occupational aspirations, and career choices (Eccles, 2005; Eccles et al., 1998). Alongside task values, parents' level of education (Eccles et al., 2004), socioeconomic status (SES) (Eccles et al., 2004; Trusty, 1998), and academic achievement (Schnabel, Alfred, & Eccles, 2002) also predict adolescents' expectations and educational choices. These educational expectations and occupational aspirations have been shown to contribute to adolescents' subsequent educational and occupational trajectories (Lent et al., 1994; Schoon & Parsons, 2002). In the present study, we investigated whether students' task values would predict their educational expectations, occupational aspirations, and the school track chosen after comprehensive education. Students in Finland need to make after a comprehensive school a decision between upper secondary school (academic track) and vocational school. Because their decisions are influenced not only by their grades but also their interests and motivation, we assumed that those students who value theoretical school subjects, such as math and sciences, would be more likely to go to upper secondary schools, whereas those students who value more subjects related to practical skills or do not value any school subjects also more likely to go to vocational school.

Previous research on the role of task values in educational plans has, however, some limitations. First, previous studies have applied a variable-oriented approach focusing on their associations with other variables. However, a person-oriented approach (Bergman, Magnusson, & El Khouri, 2003) focusing on the kinds of patterns of task values that adolescents show has seldom been deployed (as exceptions, see Roeser, Eccles, & Freedman-Doan, 1999; Roeser, Strobel, & Quihuis, 2002). Second, most of previous research has been carried out among students in the United States (Eccles, 2005; Eccles et al., 2004). Because the school system differs substantially across different societies (Hurrelmann, 1994), it is possible that the role of task values vary from one educational system to another. Consequently, the present study examined the role of task values in students' educational expectations, occupational aspirations, and the school track chosen after comprehensive education using a person-oriented approach (Bergman et al., 2003).

The present study examined the following research questions:

1
What kinds of patterns of task values concerning different school subjects do adolescents show at the end of comprehensive school?
2
Do the patterns of task values predict adolescents' educational expectations, occupational aspirations, and the school track after controlling for gender, grade point average (GPA), and parental SES?

METHOD

Participants

The participants of this ongoing Kuopio School Transition study (Salmela-Aro, Niemivirta, & Nurmi, 2003) were 614 (295 girls, 319 boys) students (median age 16 at first measurement) from one medium-sized town in Central Finland facing the transition from comprehensive school to secondary education. The sample can be considered as representative of adolescents living in Finland. The participants were measured twice during their final term of comprehensive school at the beginning (Time 1) and at the end of the spring term (Time 2). The third measurement took place 1 year after the first measurement, in early spring of the first year of secondary education (Time 3). Of the original 627 participants from eight comprehensive schools at Time 1, 13 were omitted from the analyses because of missing information in some important variables (e.g., gender). The final samples at Time 1 was 614, at Time 2, 513, and at Time 3, 544.

At Time 1 the adolescents were group administered questions concerning their task values, academic achievement, and fathers' SES; at Time 2, they were group administered questions concerning educational expectations and occupational aspirations, and at Time 3, they were asked about their school track.

Finnish School System

At age 7, Finnish children start the comprehensive school, which divides into a lower (grades 1–6) and an upper level (grades 7–9). After comprehensive school, the large majority of adolescents continue to 3 years' secondary education, which divides into academic track, that is, upper secondary schools (55%), and vocational track, that is, vocational schools (37%). Two percent of adolescents go to the 10th grade, being planned for those students who have received a poor school report from the 9th grade. Around 6% drop out from the education system and start to work; for example, those who complete the upper secondary school typically go on to universities or polytechnics. Those who complete vocational school either go to work or to polytechnics.

Measures

Task values. Participants' task values (Eccles et al., 1983) were assessed by asking them (1) how important, (2) how useful, and (3) how interesting they thought the five school subjects were (Niemivirta, 2002). They answered these three questions, separately for each of the five subjects, on a 7-point scale (1=not at all; 7=very much). The five school subjects were (1) Finnish (mother tongue), (2) foreign languages, (3) mathematics and science, (4) social sciences (e.g., history, civics), and (5) practical and art subjects (music, physical education).

A principal-axis factor analysis with an oblimin rotation (criterion: an eigenvalue over 1) showed a subject-specific factor structure: all the task-value items (importance, usefulness, interest) concerning a particular subject loaded clearly on the same factor with factor loadings over .40. Consequently, the subject-specific task-value summary scores were calculated as the means of the items. The Cronbach α reliabilities for the task values assigned to Finnish, foreign languages, mathematics and science, social sciences, and practical and art subjects were .83, .76, .80, .84, and .82, respectively.

Academic achievement. Academic achievement was measured at Time 1 by asking the participants to report their GPA from the preceding spring term (i.e., 8th grade; Time 0) ranging from 4 (lowest) to 10 (highest). This self-reported GPA has been shown to correlate .96 with actual GPA (Holopainen & Savolainen, 2005).

Fathers' SES. Parental SES was assessed by asking adolescents to state their father's occupations. In Finland occupation usually gives relatively good proxy of SES, as the differences in income are relatively small compared with many other countries. The adolescents reported an occupation for 534 fathers. A total of 29% of fathers worked in the higher white-collar occupations (e.g., managers, teachers); 17% of fathers worked in lower white-collar occupations (e.g., clerks, nurses, office workers); and 34% of fathers were in blue-collar occupations (e.g., carpenters, mechanics, waiters, cooks). These occupations were recoded into an ordinal scale so that the highest score (3) indicated higher white-collar occupations and lowest score (1) indicated blue-collar occupations. The coding is based on the Classification of Socioeconomic Status 1989 of Statistics Finland (2001). Parental occupations classified as entrepreneurs (e.g., private entrepreneurs, freelancers, farmers) or status “other” (e.g., unemployed, students, at home with children) were coded as missing values (20.5% of fathers) and left out of the analyses including SES, because of a remarkable heterogeneity of this group.

Educational expectations. Educational expectations were examined by asking the participants to state the highest level of education they expected to attain by choosing from one of the following alternatives: (1) university degree (40%), (2) polytechnic degree (27%), (3) final certificate from vocational school combined with upper secondary school curriculum (8%), (4) final certificate from upper secondary school (9%), (5) final certificate from vocational school (15%), and (6) no further qualifications after comprehensive school (0.5%). Because (3) vocational school combined with upper secondary school curriculum provide a “double degree,” it was ordered as higher level degree than (4) upper secondary school degree.

Occupational aspirations. The participants' occupational aspirations were assessed by asking the adolescents to state their favourite future occupation, if they had one. Only 249 adolescents reported such an occupation. These answers were classified on the basis of the Classification of Socioeconomic Status 1989 of Statistics Finland (2001) into higher white-collar occupations (55%), lower white-collar occupations (15%), and blue-collar occupations (21%). Occupations that could have been classified as entrepreneurs or some other occupations (e.g., student) (9%) were left out of the analyses as no homogenous group could have been created from these answers. When the adolescents who did not report their favourite occupation were compared with those who did report such an occupation using independent samples t test, no differences between these groups were found in any of the other variables.

School track. At Time 3, after entrance into secondary education, the participants filled in a questionnaire where they were asked about what kind of secondary education they were participating. These answers were coded either into (1) upper secondary school (academic track) or (2) vocational school (vocational track). Of those participants who reported their new school, 336 (62%) had started their secondary education on an academic track and 208 (38%) on a vocational track. Adolescents who were in upper secondary education reported higher GPA (M=8.53, SD=0.52, p<.001) and higher educational expectations in comprehensive school (M=5.20, SD=1.17, p<.001) than those in vocational school (for GPA, M=7.30, SD=0.60; for educational expectations, M=3.93, SD=1.52).

RESULTS

Patterns of Task Values

To examine what kinds of patterns of task values concerning different school subjects 9th-grade students show, a clustering-by-cases analysis was carried out for the task-value variables. First, the criterion variables, that is, task values, were standardized. Second, outliers were handled by forcing the standardized values to within the range −3 to 3. Third, optimization-partitioning (MacQueen's k-means method) clustering-by-cases analysis was carried out (SPSS 14.0, 2006). The number of clusters was determined on the basis of three criteria: (a) the fit of the cluster solution as evaluated by the Bayesian Information Criterion (BIC; the lower the BIC value, the better the fit of the cluster solution), (b) the theoretical interpretation of the clusters, and (c) the number of cases in each cluster.

The BIC indices showed that the fit of seven-cluster solution (BIC=1,582.17) was better than those of six-cluster (BIC=1,583.70), five-cluster (BIC=1,591.83), and eight-cluster (BIC=1,601.42) solutions. However, the difference in BIC values for six-cluster and seven-cluster solutions was small, and the six-cluster solution was supported by the dendrogram of hierarchical clustering. Because the group differences in major criteria variables were clearer and easier to interpret in six-cluster solution than in seven-cluster grouping, the former was chosen as the final solution. In the six-cluster solution (see Table 1) the first task-motivation group valued all the school subjects highly. This group was labelled “Multi-motivated” (n=232; 37.8%). The second group gave a low rating to each school subject, and was labelled “Low-motivated” (n=37; 6%). The third group placed a high value on, in particular, Finnish language and social sciences. This group was labelled “Social sciences and mother-tongue-motivated” (n=85; 13.8%). The fourth group valued in particular practical and art subjects. This group valued also foreign languages. The adolescents in this group were labelled “Practical skills and language-motivated” (n=110; 17.9%). The fifth group also valued practical and art subjects, but they clearly placed a low value on the other subjects. This group was labelled “Practical skills-motivated” (n=61; 9.9%). Finally, the sixth group was characterized by adolescents valuing mathematics and science and foreign languages. This group was labelled “Math and science-motivated” (n=89; 14.5%).

Table 1.
Means (M) and Standard Deviations (SD) of Subject-Specific Task Values (Standardized Variables) and GPA for the Six Task-Value Groups

	Multi- Motivated	Low- Motivated	Social Science and Mother-Tongue- Motivated	Practical Skills and Language-Motivated	Practical Skills- Motivated	Mathematics and Science- Motivated	F
	Task-Value Group
Mathematics and science
M	0.62^a	−1.31^b	−0.54^c	−0.39^c	−1.02^b	0.63^a	111.62^***
SD	0.62	1.01	0.77	0.77	0.82	0.65
Finnish
M	0.63^a	−1.25^b	0.42^a	−0.06^c	−1.28^b	−0.58^d	112.75^***
SD	0.60	1.13	0.60	0.69	0.85	0.85
Foreign languages
M	0.51^a	−1.21^d	−0.48^b	0.25^c	−1.17^d	0.23^c	88.60^***
SD	0.59	1.25	0.82	0.55	0.96	0.62
Social sciences
M	0.69^a	−1.91^c	0.46^a	−0.59^b	−0.61^b	−0.30^b	143.28^***
SD	0.57	0.82	0.60	0.73	0.82	0.79
Practical and arts subjects
M	0.52^ab	−1.71	−0.56^c	0.69^a	0.07^d	−1.01^e	157.83^***
SD	0.55	0.77	0.80	0.49	0.77	0.81
GPA
M	8.31^a	7.42^cd	7.85^bd	7.93^b	7.42^c	8.10^ab
SD	0.80	0.62	0.74	0.77	0.77	0.79

Note. Group means with different superscripts show a statistically significant difference (p<.05) with Tamhane's procedure.
GPA=grade point average.
^*** p<.001.

To examine the validity of this six-cluster solution the data were randomly split into two parts and a clustering-by-cases analysis was carried out for both parts. The six clusters identified in these analyses were closely similar to the results for the whole sample. The cluster analyses of the first random half of the data showed a very similar six-cluster solution that was described previously for the whole sample. In the cluster analysis for the second half of the data five out of the six clusters identified were closely similar to the cluster identified for the first random half of the data, as well as for the whole data, that is, the “Multi-motivated”“Low-motivated,”“Practical skills and language-motivated,”“Math and science-motivated,” and “Social sciences and mother tongue-motivated” groups. Although the sixth cluster of this second random half of data resembles that of the first random half and of the whole sample, the scores for practical skills were not as high as those in the solution of the first random half of data and the solution for whole sample.

Girls were overrepresented in the “Multi-motivated” (adj. res.=2.9) and “Practical skills and language-motivated” groups (adj. res.=2.8), whereas boys were overrepresented in the “Low-motivated” (adj. res.=2.0), “Practical skills-motivated” (adj. res=3.6), and “Math and science-motivated” groups (adj. res.=3.8). The six motivation groups showed also different GPA levels, F(5, 561)=17.60, p<.001 (Table 1).

Task-Value Grouping as a Predictor of Educational Expectations and Occupational Aspirations

To examine whether the patterns of task value that adolescents showed would predict their educational expectations and occupational aspirations, adolescents in different task-value groups were compared according to their educational expectations and occupational aspirations at Time 2 using ANCOVAs in which task-value group and gender were included as independent variables, and GPA and fathers' SES as covariates. Because the Task-value group × Gender interaction was statistically significant in the analysis concerning educational expectations, F(5, 321)=2.67, p<.05, the analyses were carried out separately for girls and boys. The results (Table 2) showed that, among girls, task-value grouping had a statistically significant main effect, F(5, 159)=2.44, p<.05. Post hoc comparisons (LSD) showed that girls who were in the “Multi-motivated” and in the “Math and science-motivated” groups had higher educational expectations than those who were in the “Low-motivated” and “Social sciences and mother-tongue-motivated” groups. Girls in the “Social sciences and mother-tongue-motivated” group had also lower educational expectations than girls in the “Practical skills and language-motivated” group. Also, the higher the GPA, the higher were the girls' educational expectations, F(1, 159)=30.33, p<.001.

Table 2.
Means (M) and Standard Deviations (SD) of Educational Expectations and Occupational Aspirations for the Six Task-Value Groups

	Multi- Motivated	Low- Motivated	Social Science and Mother-Tongue- Motivated	Practice Skills and Language- Motivated	Practical Skills- Motivated	Mathematics and Science- Motivated
	Task-Value Group
Educ. Expect.
Girls
M	5.15^a	3.33^bc	4.00^c	4.74^ab	3.80^abc	5.22^a
SD	1.19	1.51	1.57	1.36	2.05	1.17
Boys
M	4.93	4.23	5.11	4.13	3.95	5.00
SD	1.48	1.42	1.20	1.63	1.70	1.39
Occupation aspirations
M	2.68^a	1.60^b	2.39^a	2.24^ab	1.64^b	2.53^a
SD	0.66	0.97	0.72	0.93	0.93	0.84

Note. Educ. Expect.=Educational Expectations. Group means with different superscripts show a statistically significant difference (p<.05) with Tamhane's procedure.

The results for boys, in turn, showed that the task-value grouping did not have an effect. However, the higher the GPA, the higher were the boys' educational expectations, F(1, 161)=41.11, p<.001.

The analysis for adolescent's occupational aspirations was done to the whole sample, because the Task-value group × Gender interaction did not reach statistical significance, F(5, 157)=1.09, ns. Task-value grouping had a statistically significant effect, F(5, 157)=3.32, p<.01. Post hoc comparisons (LSD) showed (see Table 2) that adolescents who were in the “Multi-motivated,”“Social sciences and mother-tongue-motivated,” and “Math and science-motivated” groups had higher occupational aspirations than those who were in the “Practical skills-motivated” and “Low-motivated” groups. Moreover, GPA, F(1, 157)=4.89, p<.05 and fathers' SES had also main effects, F(1, 157)=8.13, p<.01: the higher their GPA and the higher their fathers' SES, the higher were adolescents' occupational aspirations.

Task-Value Grouping as a Predictor of School Track

To investigate whether the patterns of task values adolescents showed would predict their educational track, multinominal regression analyses were carried out for the academic versus vocational track variable. The “Multi-motivated” group was contrasted to the other five groups.

The results showed, first, that the membership of the task-value groups predicted school track χ²(5)=65.06, pseudo-R²=.17, p<.001. Examination of the frequency table of task value and educational track showed that the “Low-motivated” (adj. res.=4.2), the “Practical skills and language-motivated” (adj. res.=2.0), and “Practical skills-motivated” groups (adj. res.=4.9) were overrepresented among the students on the vocational track, and the “Multi-motivated” (adj. res.=5.7) and the “Math and science-motivated” groups (adj. res.=2.2) were overrepresented among the students on the academic track. However, after entering GPA and fathers' SES into the model, the task-value group variable was no longer statistically significant χ²(5)=10.07, ns. Only GPA had a main effect, χ²(1)=195.84, p<.001; B=−4.05, Wald(1)=74.30, p<.001. Overall, this result suggests that, although the task-value groups differed in their educational track, these results are due to their differences in GPA.

DISCUSSION

A person-oriented approach to what kinds of patterns of task values adolescents show identified six groups: the “Multi-motivated” group (38%), the “Low-motivated” group (6%), the “Social sciences and mother-tongue-motivated” group (14%), the “Practical skills and language-motivated” group (18%), the “Practical skills-motivated” group (10%), and the “Math and science-motivated” group (15%). Overall, these results suggest that task values are clearly distinguished at the end of comprehensive school (Eccles et al., 1993; Wigfield et al., 1997), that more than a third of the adolescents valued all the school subjects highly, and that a large majority of the rest valued at least one school subject.

The patterns of adolescents' task values also predicted their subsequent occupational aspirations. The adolescents in the “Multi-motivated,” the “Math and science-motivated” and the “Social sciences and mother-tongue-motivated” groups had higher occupational aspirations than those who valued practical skills only or who placed a low value on all the school subjects. In other words, high motivation in academic subjects leads adolescents to seek occupations where the academic skills can be exploited, whereas high value on practical skills leads to blue-collar occupations. Eccles et al. (1998) found recently that adolescents who valued math-related tasks aspired to science and math-related careers, whereas those who valued people/society-oriented tasks aspired to health-related occupations.

The patterns of task values predicted also adolescents' educational expectations: girls who were motivated toward all the measured school subjects and girls in the “Math and science-motivated” group had higher educational expectations than those who did not value any of these subjects and those in the “Social sciences and mother tongue-motivated” group. These results accord well with those of Eccles et al. (1998), who found that girls who value subjects like math are likely to aspire to science and math careers, which usually require a higher level of education than careers focusing on human services, health, and other areas to which girls who value people/society-oriented tasks are likely to aspire (Eccles et al., 1998).

Task-value grouping did not, however, predict boys' educational expectations. One possible explanation for this finding is that boys' educational expectations originate from objective criteria, such as their academic achievement and parental modeling, whereas girls form their expectations on wider considerations of different aspects of life, including also their values and motivation. Another possible explanation for the fact that boys' task values did not predict their educational expectations is that, because girls mature earlier than boys (see, e.g., Wigfield, Byrnes, & Eccles, 2006), they are also more mature in their decision making concerning their future, and, therefore, their own interests and motivation affects their plans and expectations more than do interests and motivation of boys.

The patterns of adolescents' task values predicted also their subsequent school track. The adolescents in the “Low-motivated,” the “Practical skills and language-motivated” and the “Practical skills-motivated” groups aimed typically at a vocational track, whereas youth in the “Multi-motivated” and the “Math and science-motivated” groups aimed at an academic track. However, after controlling for GPA, the patterns of task values no longer predicted subsequent school track. This decrease in the impact of task values after controlling for GPA is likely to be due to the fact that in Finland the selection of an academic track is highly influenced by adolescents' academic achievement. These results also suggest that differences in school achievement in earlier school years lead students to value different school subjects, which then contributes to their planning of future educational trajectories. This is in accordance with earlier results (Eccles et al., 1983; Eccles & Wigfield, 1995; Jacobs, Lanza, Oswood, Eccles, & Wigfield, 2002).

In the present study some gender differences emerged in task values. Girls were overrepresented in the “Multi-motivated” group and in the “Practical skills and language-motivated” group. Boys, in contrast, were overrepresented in the “Low-motivated” group, in the “Math and science-motivated” group, and in the “Practical skills-motivated'group” (see also Eccles et al., 1998). However, there were no gender differences in the “Social sciences and mother tongue-motivated” group, as has been found in some previous studies (e.g., Eccles et al., 1998; Wigfield et al., 1997). One explanation for the last finding is that in the present study the “Social sciences and mother tongue-motivated” group valued, besides their mother tongue, many different school subjects, such as history, civics, and religious education, not only social sciences.

The results of the present study have also some implications for practitioners who deal with students facing a transition from comprehensive schools to secondary education. First, the fact that task values concerning various school subjects have consequences for later educational decisions means that such interests should be taken seriously in any discussions with students concerning their educational plans. Second, the results showing that task values played a more important role in the case of girls than boys may be of some value for those who do student counseling in comprehensive schools.

There are some limitations in the present study that deserve mention. The first limitation is the low rate of response when adolescents were asked about their occupational aspirations. The second limitation is the relatively short time interval between the first and the second measurements. The third limitation is that only task values related to school subjects were studied, although those related to hobbies or other areas might also play an important role in adolescents' educational trajectories. Finally, all of the data was gathered as self-report, and may involve some biases.

The results of the present study increase our understanding of the role of motivation in adolescent years by showing that the kinds of constellations of task values adolescents report before the transition to secondary education do contribute to their educational expectations and occupational aspirations.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

This study was funded by grants from the Finnish Academy (1210319 and 7119742).

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Volume19, Issue4

December 2009

Pages 786-798

The Role of Task Values in Adolescents' Educational Tracks: A Person-Oriented Approach

Abstract

METHOD

Participants

Finnish School System

Measures

RESULTS

Patterns of Task Values

Task-Value Grouping as a Predictor of Educational Expectations and Occupational Aspirations

Task-Value Grouping as a Predictor of School Track

DISCUSSION

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

REFERENCES

Citing Literature

References

Information

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The Role of Task Values in Adolescents' Educational Tracks: A Person-Oriented Approach

Abstract

METHOD

Participants

Finnish School System

Measures

RESULTS

Patterns of Task Values

Task-Value Grouping as a Predictor of Educational Expectations and Occupational Aspirations

Task-Value Grouping as a Predictor of School Track

DISCUSSION

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

REFERENCES

Citing Literature

References

Related

Information