The Influence of Major Ambition Resources on College Aspirations and Attainments : Toward a Comprehensive Model / William G. Spady.

This paper attempts to design a model that covers a comprehensive range of theoretically relevant variables that focus on the aspiration-attainment process. The discussion is in 4 parts. First, the concept of "ambition" is separated into theoretically and operationally distinct components. Second, educational aspiration and college attainments are regarded as outcomes of a complex social process involving both the family and the school, in which the ambition resources interact and develop. Third, the normative, social, and competitive structures of the high school are considered in accounting for major differences in the realization of student goals. Fourth, the multiple regression-based technique (known as path analysis) is used to assess the net, direct, simultaneous effect of each ambition resource on both aspiration and attainment. The sample was comprised of all 297 senior boys in two small-town, West Coast high schools, 77 percent of whom filled out a questionnaire in 1963. A follow-up questionnaire in 1967 was completed by 73 percent, and information was obtained about the others. The variables selected for the analysis were: GPA, family socioeconomic status, IQ, parents' aspirations, achievement motivation, achievement values, and extracurricular activities. The findings indicated that formal academic achievement was the most powerful resource in the ambition process. (AF)

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