Learning Environments, Family Contexts, Educational Aspirations and Attainment: A Moderation-Mediation Model Extended

Abstract

In this extension of a previous study (Marjoribanks, 1999), a moderation-mediation model was constructed to examine relationships among learning environments, adolescents' educational aspirations and the educational attainment of young adults from different family contexts. Data were collected as part of a longitudinal survey of Australian youth (4382 females, 3940 males). The findings from the two investigations indicated that when distal family contexts were defined conjointly by family social status and parents' aspirations: (1) distal family contexts, academic performance and learning environments combined to have large associations with adolescents' educational aspirations; (2) distal family contexts, adolescents' learning environments and educational aspirations combined to have large associations with young adults' educational attainment; and (3) there were family-context differences in the linear and curvilinear nature of the relations among measures of individual characteristics, learning environments and educational outcomes, and these also varied between females and males in those family contexts.