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To identify variables which inhibit social and academic adjustment, 42 kindergarten students were studied longitudinally by means of parent interviews, observation, tests, and anecdotal records. The IQ score for the group remained normal to slightly above over the 8-year period, but individual scores tended to vary more with increased age. Underachieving students in reading were compared to their achieving classmates; in grade 3 there was a significant difference between the two groups on the level of discouragement. By sixth grade the underachievers exhibited a less desirable social adjustment and participated less in class discussions. Short attention span and sensitivity about weight and speech were recurring characteristics of underachievers. The feeling of having a place among his peers and being assured of it, and a feeling of personal worth and appreciation were the only variables that continued to correlate consistently with the child's overall academic accomplishment throughout the first nine years of school. Additional results, conclusions, and suggestions are reported. (RJ)

The study investigated 17 dependent variables in the familial, personality and vocational areas, with male high school students (n=77) and male school dropouts (n=72), matched on age, as two levels of the independent variables. The study reveals that in comparison to their counterparts in high school, dropouts as a group, had parents of lower educational levels, had fathers whose occupations could be characterized by lower level of difficulty, responsibility and prestige, received less encouragement from parents regarding education, perceived relationships with fathers to be less fruitful, perceived fathers' attitudes toward them to be lower in acceptance and higher in avoidance, showed lower level of achievement motivation, had lower accuracy in perceiving the occupational prestige heirarchy, showed lower occupational aspiration, and chose occupations of the types which are of a lower leve of difficulty, responsibility, and prestige. The significant differences were found between the two groups on father concentration, parental interest, fear of failure, and self-esteem. (author/MC)