Student Characteristics And Choice Of High School Remembrance Role

Adolescence, Summer, 1999 by Alyce Holland, Thomas Andre

Function 1 accounted for 69.3% of the explained variance in the scores and seemed to discriminate students choosing to be remembered as star athletes from the other three groups of students. The univariate ANOVA conducted on this discriminant function confirmed the observed difference, F(3,408) = 57.34, p [less than] .00005. The follow-up Tukey/Kramer test indicated that the star athlete group differed significantly from the other three groups. In addition, individuals choosing to be remembered as brilliant students differed significantly from those choosing the remembrance role of most popular (Table 2). The variables that contributed to the discrimination provided by Function 1 included: total sports participation, total social activity participation, high school rank, gender, and attitudes toward women. Not surprisingly, the strongest variable was participation in sports. The univariate ANOVAs conducted on the discriminating variables, followed by Tukey/Kramer post hoc tests, indicated that individuals who selected the athletic star role had significantly higher levels of total sport participation and significantly more traditional attitudes toward women than did those who selected any of the other remembrance roles. Moreover, individuals who selected either the brilliant student or leader in activities role had significantly higher high school academic rank than did those who selected either the athletic star or most popular role. Students who preferred the role of leader in activities had significantly higher levels of social activity participation than did those who selected any of the other roles. Females were more likely than males to select leader in activities or brilliant student, and males were more likely than females to select athletic star (Table 1).

Function 2 accounted for 21.9% of the explained variance and seemed primarily to discriminate students choosing to be remembered as most popular from students choosing the remembrance role of leader in activities. The univariate ANOVA conducted on Function 2 confirmed this impression, F(3, 408) = 18.07, p [less than] .00005. The post hoc Tukey/Kramer test indicated that students choosing the role of most popular differed significantly from those choosing leader in activities. In addition, individuals choosing to be remembered as star athletes or as brilliant students differed significantly from the other two groups, but did not differ from each other (Table 2). The variables that contributed to the separation of groups provided by Function 2 were: total social activity participation, masculinity, self-esteem, and total sports participation. Students who preferred to be remembered as leaders in activities had significantly higher scores on social activity participation, masculinity, and self-esteem than did those who desired to be remembered as most popular. Although total sports participation had a structure coefficient of 0.311, its low standardized LDF coefficient (0.057) suggested it contributed little discrimination to Function 2.