Abstract
Previous literature indicates that educational aspirations are an important predictor of achievement at school and beyond. This paper examines the factors that are associated with high educational aspirations. It also looks at the relationship between aspirations and achievement at the General Certificate of Secondary Education in a deprived area of London. The results show that educational aspirations are associated with individual characteristics. Girls were more likely than boys to express a wish to remain in education beyond the age of 16. For the most academic route post-16, there were substantial ethnic differences, with minority ethnic groups generally being more likely to state a desire to follow this path. Students who were eligible for free school meals tended to have lower aspirations. Socio-psychological variables were also shown to be of importance, particularly self-esteem and psychological distress. Importantly, educational aspirations had a strong association with actual achievement at age 16, remaining associated even after controlling for a number of other variables, including prior achievement. These findings are discussed in light of previous research and potential intervention strategies.
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Acknowledgments
RELACHS was commissioned by the East London and City Health Authority. The data collection was funded by East London and City Health Authority and the Department of Health. CR is funded by a Medical Research Council Special Training Fellowship (G0601707). We would like to thank the adolescents who took part in the RELACHS study as well as the research team for the collection of the data.
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Open Access This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0), which permits any noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are credited.
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Rothon, C., Arephin, M., Klineberg, E. et al. Structural and socio-psychological influences on adolescents’ educational aspirations and subsequent academic achievement. Soc Psychol Educ 14, 209–231 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11218-010-9140-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11218-010-9140-0