Higher education increases the likelihood of a healthy and successful life. This study investigated the association between relative deprivation and aspiration for college education in adolescents in Japan. The data of the 2016 survey of the Longitudinal Survey of Newborns in the twenty-first Century, a nationwide birth cohort study following…

Indulgence in risky behavior is a reason for low academic performance. We hypothesized that four constructs including academic aspiration, self-confidence, interest in schooling, and peer influence mediate the relationship between risky behavior and academic performance. Data are from 1256 school-going girls in urban slums who came from the lowest…

Teachers are often portrayed as the recipients of information about widening access initiatives and cast in the role of encouraging their students to engage in these activities. However, recent research has corroborated what might constitute an expected association, given the time pupils spend at school: teachers can have a significant impact on…

Using prospective, longitudinal data spanning 10 years (age = 10-20) from a study of 295 economically disadvantaged males, the current investigation evaluated a developmental model that links early family environment and later educational aspirations, extracurricular activities, and educational attainment to substance use in early adulthood. The…

Recent UK government statements and education policies have emphasized the need to instil a "culture of aspiration" among young people in deprived communities to address social exclusion. Specific proposals include raising the school leaving age to 18 and extending compulsory employment training. These statements and measures express the…

Despite decades of research on the benefits of educational expectations, researchers have failed to show that unrealized plans are consequential for mental health, as self-discrepancy and other social psychological theories would predict. This article uses two national longitudinal studies of youth to test whether unrealized educational…

Self-report questionnaire, school records, and census block group data for 502 Latino adolescents in immigrant families were examined using multilevel modeling to test how structural neighborhood adversity, in addition to perceived neighborhood, parental, and adolescent factors, explained grade point average (GPA). The results showed perceived…

In this paper, we present findings from the second stage of a three year longitudinal study involving 3,570 students aged 13-18 in a London Borough looking at the impact of Widening Participation (WP) on the attitudes of students. We outline findings from a previous stage and then focus specifically on two cohorts of Year 10 students (aged 14-15)…

Examines occupational and educational aspirations and expectations of 13-year olds as influenced by local opportunity structures. It is argued that differences in aspirations and expectations are largely explained by the socioeconomic location of families rather than by the structure of the local labor market. (FC)

Develops an attitude formation model for the occupational and educational goals of disadvantaged African-American students, and tests it for 175 African-American male and female twelfth graders in an urban school district in New Jersey. Discusses variance in student attitudes, sex differences, and the marginalization of African-American urban…

This paper examines how religious practice and religious faith can protect Latino youth from problems in school and contribute to their academic success. Data were drawn from research on social capital and from three major national surveys with large samples of Latinos. Findings indicate that Latino students who actively attended church or who saw…

This book presents an overview of working-class life in England, showing how women from working-class backgrounds still seldom achieve higher level academic qualifications and the lifestyle to which they lead. Analyzing her own experience and that of others of similar background, the author shows how their mothers and fathers held low expectations…

Two influences that are held to produce a lack of academic motivation in mixed minority group children are identified. (1) Minority students frequently come from families that, for a variety of reasons, do not encourage academic excellence; (2) the New Rochelle school program does not compensate for this lack by offering replacement encouragement…