The attitude-achievement relationship among adolescents from Hispanic and Anglo cultures

Abstract

This study investigated the educational attitudes of Hispanic and Anglo students. It was hypothesized that attitudes concerning the value of an education are comprised of abstract and concrete attitudes and that concrete educational attitudes are the best predictor of grade point averages. A specially designed Educational Attitude Scale was used to measure students' concrete and abstract educational attitudes. The results of the study indicated the following: Principal component analysis of the Hispanic students' EAS responses suggests that educational attitudes are comprised of two underlying factors (concrete and abstract). Hispanic and Anglo students significantly differed in regards to concrete educational attitudes. Both Hispanic and Anglo students did not differ in their abstract educational attitudes. Concrete educational attitudes demonstrated to be the strongest predictor of academic performance. Finally, male and female Hispanic students did not differ significantly in educational attitudes. The implications for Hispanic student achievement were discussed.