Individual, Family, and Community Education ETDs

Publication Date

10-12-1966

Abstract

Purpose of The Study

The study was a broad consideration of the student marriage problem in sixty-eight public secondary schools in New Mexico. The basic purpose of this study was to present evidence which would tend to clarify: (1) the effects of marriage on the student in terms of school performance, (2) the relationship between school practices and in-school marriage and withdrawals due to marriage, (3) the attitudes of persons in the schools, both students and staff, toward married students and in-school marriage, (4) the position of various schools on student marriage as reflected by policy and practices, and (5) the attitudes of the marriage student toward school and in-school marriage.

Methods

Findings of the study are based on information gathered through the use of questionnaires, interviews, and examination of individual and school records. Extensive work was done in twelve of the participating schools, while the remainder of the schools participated by mail.

Findings of The Study

School performance. – Findings of the study with respect to the school performance of married students indicates that: (1) conduct of married students, as rated by principals, is generally as good as or better than unmarried student conduct in each area rated, with the exception of attendance problems, (2) attendance patterns of students deteriorate in most instances after marriage, and (3) scholarship of married students is significantly better after than before marriage.

Politics. – Although the relationship between school policies and practices and incidence of student withdrawal due to marriage is a loose one, findings of the study strongly suggest that policies which restrict the attendance or participation of married students encourage discontinuance of the educational pursuits of married students. The findings do not suggest that the incidence of in-school marriage is related to the degree of permissiveness of school policies.

Attitudes. – Attitudes of school personnel toward married students are basically negative. Most school persons favor restrictions on the activities of married students, although most do not favor exclusion or suspension of those students. Unmarried students in the schools do not seem to be especially concerned with, or affected by, the presence of married students. Unmarried students think that married students should be allowed all the opportunities given unmarried students, with the exception of elective offices and honors. Responses of married students to questions designed to reveal their attitudes toward school suggest that the in-school married student holds education in higher esteem than his unmarried counterpart.

Conclusion. – Findings of the study lead to the conclusion that the categorical labeling of married students as detriments to the school is unwarranted.

Document Type

Dissertation

Language

English

Degree Name

Family Studies

Level of Degree

Doctoral

Department Name

Individual, Family, and Community Education

First Committee Member (Chair)

Wilson Howard Ivins

Second Committee Member

Robert John Doxtator

Third Committee Member

Unknown

Download

Included in

Education Commons

Share

COinS