Exploring achievement values among ethnic minority early adolescents.

Abstract

Two studies examined middle school students' achievement values by using peer nomination procedures. Nominations of peers whom participants admired, respected, and wanted to be like were summed to create a values index. Respondents also nominated peers who fit 6 behavioral descriptions including effort versus disengagement and being socially responsible versus deviant. Study 1 participants were African American and Study 2 participants were ethnically diverse. Both studies yielded systematic findings. Girls valued high-achieving female classmates, whereas ethnic minority boys least valued high-achieving male students. White boys, similar to girls, valued high-achieving, same ethnicity classmates. Respondents associated academic disengagement and social deviance with being male, a low achiever, and an ethnic minority. The usefulness of peer nomination procedures as a methodology for studying values and implications for understanding the plight of ethnic minority male adolescents are discussed. Writing in 1967 about the achievement gap between Black and White students, Irwin Katz was among the first psychologists to call attention to the study of motivation as a promising direction for research on the causes of low achievement among ethnic minority youth (Katz, 1967). Thirty years later, Katz's admonitions still ring true. African American children continue to experience chronic school failure in disproportionately high numbers, and efforts to understand the root causes of this vexing problem have increasingly turned to motivational explanations. For example, it has been argued that a history of school failure has led many Black children to have low expectations for future success, to perceive themselves as relatively incompetent, and to attribute poor performance to either low ability or other factors not within their control. Although low expectations, perceived incompetence, and attributions to uncontrollability are often precursors to failure (e.g., Weiner, 1985), the relations between these maladaptive self-beliefs and school achievement among African American youth are far from certain (see review in Graham, 1994). A different kind of motivational explanation for Black underachievement that may hold more promise focuses on achievement values. Unlike achievement-related cognitions, which largely center on beliefs about ability (Can I do