School-Related Aspirations of Children with Different Socio-Cultural Backgrounds

Studies of educ'al aspirations of Negro parents & children show inconsistencies, & an analysis of the literature in the area suggests that this occurs because measures of aspirations which reflect hopes & desires give results differing from those which reflect expectations. Thus, it would appear that Negroes hope for & desire, but do not expect to achieve, as high a level of educ'al attainment as Mc whites. In this study, the focus is on children's aspirational reactions to soc & academic opportunities in the classroom. 30 items from the 198-item Children's Sch questionnaire were admin'ed to S's in the 4th grade in 4 diff elementary Sch's, each representing a homogeneous S-cul subgroup; namely, MC white (N=76), ULc white (N=95), Mexican-Amer (N=73), & Negro (N=87). These items represent achievement opportunities in the classroom, & in indicating his own status in relation to them, the child reveals something about his Sch related aspirations, esp his hopes & desires in contrast to expectations, & subgroup comparisons can be made. Results show that Negroes generally have the highest hopes & desires for Sch achievement, both soc & academic. Diff's between M & ULc whites are similar to those between Negroes & Mexican-Amer's, with Mc whites & Negroes having the higher aspirations. In general, white children have higher Sch expectations, leading to stronger achievement-related motives, & more achievement-oriented behaviors, while nonwhite children desire & hope for Sch success at least as much as white children but do not have the means to achieve success, & thus are exposed to additional sources of Sch stress. Comparing Sch aspirations to the degree of success/failure in Sch, the discrepancy is largest among Negroes, followed by Mexican-Amer's, Lc whites, & Mc whites. The stress potential of such discrepancies is therefore greatest for Negroes & least for Mc whites, so that if Sch stress is a major source of Sch anxiety, Negroes ought to be the most Sch anxious, followed by the Mexican-Amer's, Lc whites, with Mc whites being the least Sch anxious--a conclusion supported by other studies. AA.