Master's Theses

Department

Social Work

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Abstract

The purpose of the researcher was to investigate the effects of family structure, family happiness, self-concept and gender on the students' academic achievement (reading and mathematics). Independent variables were family structure, family happiness, self-concept and gender. The sample for this study consisted of 190 sixth, eighth and tenth grade students. Students were from two small towns in northwestern Kansas. Four instruments were used: Kansas Minimum Competency Test, Personal Attribute Inventory for Children-Family, Personal Attribute Inventory for Children-Self, and a Student Information Sheet. Four hypotheses were tested at the .05 level of significance. Two comparisons were found to be statistically significant at the .05 level. One was for the main effect family happiness and reading achievement in sixth grade. The results of present study indicated students who reported they were from unhappy families had higher achievement in reading than students from happy families. The interactions between self-concept and gender for the dependent variable mathematics sixth grade were statistically significant at the .05 level. The result indicated the following: (1) girls with low self-concepts had numerically higher achievement in mathematics than boys with low self-concepts; (2) girls with high self-concepts had numerically lower achievement in mathematics than boys with high self-concepts; (3) girls with low self-concepts had numerically higher achievement in mathematics than girls with higher self-concepts; and (4) boys with high self-concepts had numerically higher achievement in mathematics than boys with low self-concepts.

Keywords

Counseling

Advisor

Dr. Bill C. Daley

Date of Award

Summer 1990

Document Type

Thesis - campus only access

Rights

© The Author(s)

Comments

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