A study of the values of a selected group of high school students

The purpose of the study was to determine if a difference existed between the values of students who choose to be members of Students Staying Straight and the values of students who did not choose to be members of Students Staying Straight. The Rokeach Value Survey was used to measure the ranking of the values of the students. Membership in Students Staying Straight was determined by information gathered on a student questionnaire administered at the same time as the Rokeach Value Survey. Data were gathered from 365 students at David Lipscomb High School and 885 students at John Overton High School. Five hundred and eighty-five of these students were members of Students Staying Straight. The data were analyzed by the Kruskal-Wallis one-way analysis of variance to determine if significant differences did exist in how these two groups ranked their values. The data yielded the following results: (1) Members of Students Staying Straight ranked the terminal values, Equality, Salvation, and True Friendship, significantly higher than non-members. They did this across the school populations and within each school. (2) Members of Students Staying Straight ranked the instrumental values, Forgiving, Honest, Loyal, Loving, and Obedient, as significantly more important than non-members. They did this across the school populations and within each school. Among the conclusions resulting from the analysis of data, the following were deemed to be most significant: (1) There seems to be a tendency on the part of members of Students Staying Straight to rank more importantly relationship-oriented values. (2) There seems to be a tendency to rank more importantly self-oriented values on the part of students who chose not to be members of Students Staying Straight