Abstract
Closing the poverty-related attainment gap in school children is a stated priority for the Scottish Government. Previous research has attested to the relationship between academic attainment and both school attendance, and academic self-efficacy. The present study examined the poverty-related attainment gap in Glasgow, which contains more than half of the 100 most deprived areas in Scotland. The study measured self-efficacy, school attendance, socio-economic status, sensation seeking, heavy episodic drinking, and Tariff Score, a composite academic attainment score. Participants were 3,924 pupils in their fourth year of high school, attending 30 Local Authority schools in Glasgow. Preliminary results revealed that of three socio-economic indicators used, only Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) was significantly associated with attainment. While social, and emotional self-efficacy scores remained relatively stable over the four waves of data collection, there was a slight decline in academic self-efficacy with time, and an interaction of emotional self-efficacy with gender, such that females reported significantly lower self-efficacy than males. Tariff Score was equally predicted by academic self-efficacy, SIMD, and school attendance. Results suggest that increasing academic self-efficacy and school attendance are viable means of increasing school attainment in this context.
Original language | English |
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Title of host publication | Handbook on Child and Adolescent Behavior and Health |
Publisher | Nova Science Publishers, Inc. |
Pages | 105-119 |
Number of pages | 15 |
ISBN (Print) | 9781536179200 |
Publication status | Published - 22 May 2020 |
Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- Academic Self-Efficacy
- Attainment
- Scotland
- Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation
- Tariff Score