The purpose of this study was to determine whether certain variables, utilized as a group, discriminated between black middle school children from father-absent homes and black middle school children from father-present homes. The selected variables used were ability, achievement, grade point average, attendance, number of siblings, sex, age, the level of agression and the level of anxiety. The theoretical rationale was based primarily on the conflict between Coleman's (1966) and Moynihan's (1965) findings. Coleman (1966) asserted "contrary to much that has been written, the structural integrity of the home (principally the father's presence or absence) shows very little relationship to achievement for Negroes" (p. 302). Moynihan (1965) reported "the matrifocal black family is a hindrance to success striving" (p. 1).;It was hypothesized that selected variables (ability, achievement, grade point average, attendance, number of siblings, sex, age, the level of aggression and the level of anxiety) utilized in combination will discriminate between black middle school children from father-present homes and father-absent homes.;It was found that two of the variables discriminated between black middle school students from father-absent homes and black middle school students from father-present homes. It was also found that some of the variables discriminated between boys and girls within the father-absent group.;Further study is needed to determine why the father-absent students scored 7.07 percentile points lower than the father-present students on the STEA, an ability test.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:wm.edu/oai:scholarworks.wm.edu:etd-1568 |
| Date | 01 January 1981 |
| Creators | Simmons, Joe Louis |
| Publisher | W&M ScholarWorks |
| Source Sets | William and Mary |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects |
| Rights | © The Author |
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