It’s About the Boys: A Latent Class Analysis of Oppositional Culture in School

• In Event: 523 - Section on Sociology of Education Refereed Roundtable Session and Business Meeting
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 06. Gender Gaps: Session I

Abstract

As a contribution to literature on racial/ethnic achievement disparities, I analyze the latent taxonomies of schooling beliefs and attitudes among American adolescents. In particular I examine subgroup differences in youth schooling attitudes and behaviors as well as whether subgroup membership can be predicted by racial/ethnic status, gender, and socioeconomic status of youth. Participants were based on a nationally-representative sample of 8,554 high school students in the Educational Longitudinal Study, 2002. Analyses to identify subgroups and predict subgroup membership were estimated with bias-adjusted, multilevel, three-step latent class models (LCM). Results revealed three latent clusters, characterized by the patterns of responses to 10 binary items: (1) non-oppositional (53%); (2) oppositional peers (26%); (3) oppositional (23%)l. In contrast to Ogbu’s oppositional thesis, black 9th graders were less likely than white youth to belong to the oppositional attitudes group. It is not race but gender: being male is most strongly associated with endorsing oppositional attitudes. An additional contribution, among others, is the finding that 26% have oppositional peers yet non-oppositional attitudes. Membership in this resilient group is not associated with race, but instead with immigrant status and with higher family income. Implications of these novel findings are reviewed.

Author

• Nathan E Fosse, Harvard University