Examination of High School Students' Learned Resourcefulness: A Review of Gender, Parental Attitudes, and Values 1

Abstract

High school education is a process involving quite challenging life situations such as university entrance exam preparation, career choice, as well as autonomy development. While some students overcome with the difficulties successfully, the others might not demonstrate the same skills. The differences among students are explained with learned resourcefulness. Many factors such as the relationships with parents have an effect to develop learned resourcefulness. In this study, determination of the predictive power of gender, parental attitudes, and values on learned resourcefulness of high school students were aimed. The study is designed according to the survey model. The sample consisted of 420 (F=202; M=218) high school students studying in different schools in Istanbul. Parental Attitude Scale, Rosembaum’s Learned Resourcefulness Scale, Schwartz Value Scale, and personal information sheet were used as measurements. Results showed that gender, parental attitudes and values had predictive power on learned resourcefulness. It was also gained that mother and father educational levels had significant effects on learned resourcefulness, whereas number of siblings and birth order did not yield any effects. The result indicated that effects of parents’ on their children must be investigated in terms of cultural themes.