Student Characteristics And Choice Of High School Remembrance Role

Adolescence, Summer, 1999 by Alyce Holland, Thomas Andre

Coleman (1961) argued that an adolescent subculture had come into existence. The social forces that promoted this subculture included increased industrialization and suburbanization, segregation of adolescents from adults, less parental supervision than in more agrarian times, and less transmission of values directly from parents to children through shared work and responsibility. The investigation and analysis of this separate youth culture has become an ongoing part of the study of adolescent development (Fornas, 1995; Hendry, Shucksmith, Love, & Glendinning, 1993).

Coleman analyzed how the social structure of the adolescent subculture in ten Illinois schools assigned status and how this status system influenced adolescents' activities and development. He had adolescents respond to a 175-item questionnaire about their attitudes and values. One item asked students to select how they would like to be remembered after high school. Responses were thought to reflect both adolescents' own interests and the values of the adolescent subculture. Male high school students, when asked to choose between being remembered as an athletic star, most popular, or brilliant student, selected the role of athletic star most frequently (44%). In the late 1950s when Coleman collected his data, opportunities for sports participation were limited for high school females. Therefore, for females, leader in activities was substituted for athletic star, and this role was preferred most frequently (37%), followed closely by the role of most popular (34%). The ten high school cultures studied varied slightly in their regard for academics, but, overall, the students sought peer recognition through participation in sports and other activities rather than through academic success. Coleman concluded that the status system of the adolescent culture did not value and reward academic achievement and the pursuit of intellectual goals. He argued that, as a result, the most academically talented students diverted energy into nonacademic pursuits and developed their intellectual capacities less completely than they might otherwise have done. Coleman believed that this trend had negative consequences for society, and proposed that academically oriented interscholastic competitions and other means be used to align the goals of the adolescent subculture with those of adults.

Coleman assumed that adults prefer high school students to strive to be remembered as brilliant students. However, he found evidence that the parents of the students purported to value academics, but may actually have valued nonacademics behaviorally. Further, he assumed that participation in extracurricular activities diverts students' energy from the academic curriculum. According to Marsh (1992), this viewpoint supposes a zero-sum model in which a commitment to one (e.g., athletics) represents a loss to the other (e.g., schoolwork).

Many replications of Coleman's research have been conducted. Because of increased societal emphasis on athletics for females, since the mid-1970s the same four remembrance roles have been used for both males and females: brilliant student, most popular, athletic star, and leader in activities. Studies have consistently found that a majority of male adolescents wish to be remembered as athletes. In contrast, the role of athletic star is selected least frequently by females, while the roles of leader in activities and brilliant student are chosen most often (Eitzen, 1975; Feltz, 1978; Goldberg & Chandler, 1991; Holland & Andre, 1994; Kane, 1988; Thirer & Wright, 1985; Williams & White, 1983). Research on college students has found the remembrance role of brilliant student to be the predominant choice (Furst & DiCarlo, 1991; Pearce, Fisher, & Baluch, 1993; Whitfield, Cort, Fallone, & Baluch, 1993). This may reflect differences in the college and high school cultures, as well as self-selection bias inherent in college-student samples.

While the majority of adolescents have been found to choose a nonacademic remembrance role when forced to select only one, it is not clear that academic values are ignored. In addition to investigating remembrance role, Friesen (1968) asked Canadian students what was important for their future. Academics were rated as much more important than were athletics. More recently, Goldberg and Chandler (1989) asked adolescents to rate each of the four remembrance roles on a five-point Likert scale. Over half of the males rated the roles of outstanding student and star athlete as important or very important. Only the role of outstanding student was rated as important or very important by a majority of females.

Despite Coleman's assertion that the high school social structure suppresses academic achievement, researchers have generally found a positive relationship between high school activity participation and academic achievement, educational aspirations and their achievement, and occupational achievement (Dowell, Badgett, & Hunkler, 1972; Feltz & Weiss, 1984; Hanks & Eckland, 1976; Marsh, 1992, 1993; Otto, 1975, 1976; Spady, 1970, 1971). Type of activity, however, may be determinative. Males who participate in both athletic and social activities have higher academic achievement and educational attainment when compared with males who participate only in athletics, and males who do not participate in any high school activities have the lowest educational performance (Landers, Feltz, Obermeier, & Brouse, 1978; Spady, 1970, 1971). Research using causal modeling techniques has indicated that, for males, both athletic participation and social activity participation have relationships with educational attainment that are independent of obvious moderator variables, such as socioeconomic status and academic ability (Hanks & Eckland, 1976; Otto, 1975, 1976). For females, however, Hanks and Eckland (1976) found little relationship between athletic participation and educational outcome.