Health, Exercise, and Sports Sciences ETDs

Publication Date

Summer 7-21-1971

Abstract

This study was designed to determine attitudes of parents from three different social classes toward school health services. The social class status of parents was determined by the use of Duncan's Social Class Index. This Index, consisting of four hundred forty-six occupations, was divided into a decile scale against which each parent's occupation was checked for a corresponding decile number. If a parent's occupation was not on the Index the investigator subjectively decided on a rating using Duncan's Social Class Index as a guide.

Parents of children enrolled in nine elementary schools (Pajarito, Coronado, Duranes, Inez, Monte Vista, Carlos Rey, Chelwood, Acoma, and Comanche) in the Albuquerque Public School system composed the population for this study. The data from 2,533 questionnaires returned by these parents, were analyzed by three statistical tools. Frequency distri­butions and percentages were used to organize parent responses from the questionnaires; cross tabulation located parents in ten social class deciles; and, chi square was used to determine what differences, if any, existed among the responses of parents from the three social classes.

Two null hypotheses were tested in this study.

Hypothesis I: There are no significant differences in attitudes of parents from different social classes toward school health services.

Hypothesis II: There are no significant differences in the kinds of school health services wanted by parents from different social classes. Hypothesis I was rejected and Hypothesis II was not rejected.

One major question to be answered as a result of the study was: What specific health services do parents from different social classes want the school to provide for their children? Comments made by parents at the end of the question­naire provided the data related to this question. These data showed that while there are no significant differences in the kinds of school health services wanted by parents from differ­ent social classes, there was variation by social class in the intensity of these wants.

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Physical Education

Level of Degree

Doctoral

First Committee Member (Chair)

Ella May Small

Second Committee Member

Phyllis Douglass

Third Committee Member

Marion Fleck

Fourth Committee Member

Martin Burlingame

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