The problem of this study was to identify relationships which might exist between variables measuring alienation feelings in high school students and variables measuring attitudes exhibited by those students toward the school environment. Mackey's Adolescent Alienation Scale was used to obtain student scores on three dimensions of alienation—Personal Incapacity, Cultural Estrangement, and Guidelessness. The Minnesota School Attitude Survey (MSAS) was used to obtain scores on attitudes toward factors in the school environment: School Curriculum, Self at School, Others at School, Support Received at School, Pressure at School, and Personal Development at School. Pearson Product moment correlations were computed for each dimension of alienation and the attitude clusters. Correlations were computed for each of nine statistical subgroups which comprised the sample group of 294 students— ninth-, tenth-, eleventh-, and twelfth-grade subgroups, male and female subgroups, and Anglo, Black, and Hispanic subgroups. Students in the population for the study were enrolled in a traditionally-organized, comprehensive curriculum, racially-integrated urban high school in a large-city public school district. Findings revealed that the single most influential environmental factor related to student alienation in this study was a feeling of pressure in the school setting. Pressure was related directly both to feelings of Personal Incapacity and to feelings of Guidelessness. Also, the greater students' feelings of Personal Incapacity, the less pleasant (more unpleasant) they felt their experiences were with the curriculum, themselves, and others at school. Alienation in the sense of Cultural Estrangement was related strongly and inversely to personal growth and development experiences at school. Feelings of Guidelessness were associated inversely with both students' attitudes of pleasantness/unpleasantness and their attitudes of importance/unimportance toward the school curriculum, themselves, and others at school. It is recommended that studies be conducted to determine specific learning activities, school experiences, and organizational processes which can reduce effectively students' feelings of alienation in the school setting.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:unt.edu/info:ark/67531/metadc332331 |
| Date | 05 1900 |
| Creators | MacQuigg, Georganna |
| Contributors | Bezdek, Jim J., Miller, Bob W., Halstead, Francis E., 1930-, McCallon, Earl L. |
| Publisher | North Texas State University |
| Source Sets | University of North Texas |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | vii, 213 leaves: ill., Text |
| Rights | Public, MacQuigg, Georganna, Copyright, Copyright is held by the author, unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved. |
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