Documentary search
 
 

Document

The Process of Dropping Out of High School: A 19-Year Perspective


File number :
CS-DSC-11e

Bibliographic reference :
Garnier, H.E., Stein, J.A., & Jacobs, J.K. (1997). The Process of Dropping Out of High School: A 19-Year Perspective. American Educational Research Journal, 34(2), 395-419.

Abstract :

Theoretical context/Study objectives
The authors of this American study begin by tracing a profile of the main studies analyzing developmental pathways with a family dimension to explain school drop-out. In an overview of the primary concerns and numerous consequences related to this problem, they explain that past school drop-out research had primarily focused on identifying risk and protective factors.

Today’s researchers have adopted a developmental perspective where the interest is shifted to processes and pathways that lead to quitting school before graduation. The authors affirm that since the 1960s families have been confronted with a multitude of social, cultural and economic change. The various resulting adaptations have wrought instability and stress within the family unit. The authors explain that this situation greatly influences the personal characteristics of young people and their decision to drop out. Within the framework of this study, the hypothesis supported was that early family factors (distal effects), combined with adolescent behaviour (proximal effects), directly and significantly could predict school dropout.

Methodology
The data used for this study was from the Family Lifestyles Project. The 194 subjects in this longitudinal study were questioned on several occasions between 1974 and 1992. Various tools were used for young people, parents and teachers: questionnaires, interviews, official academic transcripts, clinical assessments, tests and home observations. The authors verified the distal or proximal effects of several variables such as family lifestyle, family values, cumulative family stress and change, socio-economic status (SES), academic performance, school motivation and drug use on school dropout.

Results
The authors affirm that the model in which early family factors combined with adolescent behaviour and attitudes directly influences school dropout is more predictive than the model in which early family factors are mediated by adolescent behaviour and attitudes. They further suggest that cumulative family stress, poor academic achievement and school motivation, low sixth-grade performance and adolescent drug use are important risk factors for school dropout. In a developmental perspective, the model underscores the importance of including family variables in developmental pathways to understand and explain the school dropout phenomenon.



Links :
This journal is also available in electronic format.


Key Words :
Risk factors, Developmental pathways, Family factors, Family structure, Cultural change, Social change, Social factors, Distal effects, Proximal effects, Longitudinal study, Quantitative analysis, Primary, Elementary, Secondary/High school

Monitored Countries :
United States