Attitudes, Intentions and Participation. Longitudinal Surveys of Australian Youth. Research Report No. 41

This report examines the relationship between students' attitudes to school and intentions to participate in education and training, and the influence of these attitudes and intentions on participation in Year 12 and in further education and training. Students' attitudes to school, educational intentions and attainments are considered in the context of earlier school achievement, social background, geographic location, language background and gender. These factors are related to attitudes, intentions and participation. The analyses conducted in this study indicate that, after student background and proficiency in literacy and numeracy are taken into account, attitudes to school have a substantial influence on students' intentions to continue to Year 12 and those intentions affect their participation in Year 12. In addition, the analyses show that the effects of attitudes to school on students' intentions towards and participation in higher education (and more broadly, tertiary education) follow a similar pattern. The analyses also show that attitudes to school are relatively independent of both proficiency in literacy and numeracy and student background. Therefore, the nurturing of favourable attitudes to school provides an important avenue for influencing participation through school and into education beyond secondary school. Appended are: (1) The Attitudes to School Scale; (2) Analytic Methodology; and (3) Data. (Contains 2 tables and 9 figures.) [This report is part of a research program jointly managed by Australian Council of Educational Research ( ACER), and the Australian Government Department of Education, Science and Training (DEST).]