Att plugga eller inte plugga är frågan : En kvantitativ studie om ungdomars inställning till högre studier

Women have since a long time performed better than men throughout their schooling. More women than men start reading on university and more women are graduating. This study is a contribution to previous research in the field by merely studying the Norrbotten county, part of which has a different structure from other counties, and the study of the relationship between social class, gender, geographic region and attitudes to higher education. The purpose of this study is to examine the attitude young people (15-19 years) in the county has to higher education and their plans to continue studying after high school. This study intends to examine, from a gender perspective, if young people in Norrbotten is influenced by their social class and geographical area, in their choice of higher education after secondary education. The limitation of the study is the county of Norrbotten and students in grade 9 and final year in high school. This quantitative study is limited to 1177 adolescents and 784 adolescents responded to the survey. The theoretical framework consist of the concept youth, social background, gender, social bias in recruitment, linguistic codes, Bourdieu´s capital theory and social and cultural reproduction. The main result is that more women than men, regardless of class background and geographical area, looking to study at university the next three years after high school, more would consider moving from their home to study and more women think they have an academic degree when they are 35 years old. Young people´s class background affects their attitude to higher education and the men showed a greater extent than women that they are influenced by their class background and attitude to higher education. Even geographic area affects men more than women. Regardless of where women may live, they have a more positive attitude to study at university, and men are more positive to higher education if they live near to a university.Keywords: Youth, gender, social class, geographic area, education.Validerat; 20120614 (anonymous