Family Integration, Achievement Values, Academic Self-Concept and Dropping Out of High School

Abstract

It is not necessary to document the magnitude and seriousness of the high school dropout problem. For more than a decade now this problem has been one of major concern to education, govern ment, minority groups, and social scientists. It has been estimated that in the 1960's about one-third of American high school students have failed, or will fail, to graduate (S.M. Miller, et al 1964). If pressed, the layman often resorts to poverty and intelligence as explanations of this phenomenon. The accumulated social science research does bear out his notions, but with certain important qualifications. There is, for example, considerable variability among the dropouts. Some middle class and some high I.Q. students do leave school early, and the majority of lower class and low I.Q. youth do in fact graduate. In an effort to go beyond simple description and to provide a more global explanation of premature school withdrawal a number of theoretical approaches have been advanced, each having its own merits. This paper attempts an appraisal and synthesis of two such approaches. The influence approach is exemplified in the work of Cervantes (1965a; 1965b; 1965c) and Elder (1965). Following the lead of Hollingshead (1949), who first suggested that research should focus upon the student's family experience, Cervantes found the