At-risk and not at-risk primary school children: an examination of goal orientations and social reputations.
OBJECTIVE
The purpose of the present research was to examine whether at-risk and not at-risk primary school aged students differ in two social and psychological domains (future goal orientations and social reputation).


METHODS
A total of 886 years 5, 6 and 7 students from five primary schools in the Brisbane metropolitan area of Queensland, Australia, participated in the study.


METHODS
The Children's Activity Questionnaire which constitutes three parts (demographic information, the Importance of Goals Scale, and the Reputation Enhancement Scale) was administered under standardised conditions.


RESULTS
A series of multivariate analyses of variance (MANOVA) and univariate F-tests performed on each of the sets of dependent variables (goal orientations and reputation enhancement) revealed significant differences between the at-risk and not at-risk participants on both goals and reputation.


CONCLUSIONS
Not at-risk children sought to attain an Academic Image through education and interpersonal goals, whereas at-risk children sought a Social Image and attached greater importance to physical goals. In line with this, children in the not at-risk group perceived themselves and ideally wished to be perceived as a conforming person, while at-risk children perceived themselves and ideally wished to be perceived as non-conforming. Significant gender differences were also found on both sets of dependent variables.


CONCLUSIONS
The findings are compared to recent research conducted with high school adolescents.
Carroll
A
A
Schonell Special Education Research Centre, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia. a.carroll@mailbox.uq.edu.au
Baglioni
A J
AJ
Houghton
S
S
Bramston
P
P
D000987:Antisocial Personality Disorder / Q000523:psychology*; D002648:Child; D002653:Child Behavior Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006040:Goals; D006801:Humans; D007604:Juvenile Delinquency / Q000523:psychology*; D007859:Learning Disabilities / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D008297:Male; D011793:Queensland; D012307:Risk Factors; D012917:Social Adjustment; D012933:Social Identification; D012951:Socialization