Going to the museum, visiting the zoo or discussing books may increase adolescents' likelihood of continuing or completing high school education, according to a new study.
New research from the University of Warwick in the United Kingdom revealed that adolescents aged 10 to 15 who took part in cultural activities like going to the museum or discussing books with their parents were significantly more likely to continue their studies.
Researchers noted that the impact cultural activities made had more of an impact than homework clubs and school-related extracurricular activities on whether teens wanted to continue their studies past the age of 16.
"Filial dynamics such as emotional closeness to parents and cultural capital were better predictors than more school-driven parent-child interactions," said Dimitra Hartas, lead researcher of the current study and an associate professor in the Center for Education Studies at the University of Warwick.
The latest study involved data from the United Kingdom Household Longitudinal Study that involved 10,931 adolescents. Hartas and her team examined factors like family emotional closeness, bullying, friendships, homework, extracurricular activities and parental education interest. They also focused on survey responses to questions like how often children visited art galleries, discussed books, did homework and argued with their parents or siblings.
Study data revealed that self-efficacy, or the ability to solve problems, significantly predicted education aspirations. Teens who reported feeling less confident at solving problems were 30 percent less likely to rate graduating high school as important. Adolescents who reported lower levels of general well-being were 18 percent more likely to choose not to continue on to higher education.
The study also revealed that adolescents who did not feel close to their parents were twice as likely to think of graduating high school as unimportant. However, emotional closeness to parents was not linked to the desire to attend college.
"These findings have significant implications for family and educational policy, especially with regard to 'raising aspirations' and reducing early school leaving," wrote Hartas and her team. "They also raise the issue of reconsidering the role of the home environment as a web of emotionally and intellectually charged relationships between parents and children rather than an extension of the school day.... Discussions on young people's educational aspirations should not be polarized but informed by notions of opportunity and what young people make of it."
The findings were published in the Journal of Youth Studies.
