Status; *Student Attitudes

As part of a larger study examining students' attitudes toward schoolwork, this investigation examined the relationship between children's attitudes toward schoolwork and their gender, socioeconomic status, age, school achievement, and school attainment value (the importance they placed on doing well in school). The study also examined the relationship between students' attitudes toward schoolwork and their perception of parental behaviors that support schoolwork. Subjects were 140 fourth- through eighth-grade students in a Roman Catholic school in Wisconsin. Students completed a questionnaire that measured their attitudes toward schoolwork and perception of parental behaviors supporting schoolwork. Analysis showed that school attainment value was the most useful variable for predicting students ' attitudes toward schoolwork and their perception of parental behaviors supporting schoolwork. Parents ' valuing of and concern for schoolwork and parents ' positive feelings about good school performance correlated positively with their adolescent children's attitudes toward schoolwork. (MM) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. di