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Psychological and demographic predictors of entry to tertiary education in young Australian females and males
Author(s) -
Winefield Helen R.,
Winefield Anthony H.,
Tiggemann Marika,
Goldney Robert D.
Publication year - 1988
Publication title -
british journal of developmental psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.062
H-Index - 75
eISSN - 2044-835X
pISSN - 0261-510X
DOI - 10.1111/j.2044-835x.1988.tb01092.x
Subject(s) - psychology , tertiary level , higher education , developmental psychology , young adult , locus of control , longitudinal study , demography , medicine , mathematics education , pathology , sociology , political science , law
Although schoolchildren and tertiary students are often subjects for psychological investigations, little information exists about the transition process whereby individual school‐leavers decide to enter tertiary education rather than the work‐force. Taking advantage of an extensive set of longitudinal data, we examined the demographic and psychological characteristics of South Australian schoolchildren who, four years later, had become tertiary students of average age 19.6 years. Differences from the employed, both satisfied and unsatisfied, and from the unemployed, are apparent in the tertiary students' sex, social status, cultural background, and rated academic potential at school. In addition female students had shown differences from other girls while they were at school in self‐esteem and locus of control. In a subsample, female tertiary students reported different paternal rearing behaviours compared with other young women, while male students did not differ from other young men. These results contribute to understanding of identity formation in late adolescence for females.