Examining the Associations Among Home-School Dissonance, Amotivation, and Classroom Disruptive Behavior for Urban High School Students

Educ Urban Soc. 2013 Jan;45(1):142-162. doi: 10.1177/0013124511408715. Epub 2011 Jun 13.

Abstract

The current study examined the association among home-school dissonance, amotivation, and classroom disruptive behavior among 309 high school juniors and seniors at two urban high schools in the Southern region of the country. Students completed two subscales of the Patterns of Learning Activities Scales (PALS) and one subscale of the Academic Motivation Scale (AMS). ANCOVA analyses revealed significant differences in classroom disruptive behaviors for the gender independent variable. Controlling for gender in the multiple hierarchical regression analyses, it was revealed that home-school dissonance significantly predicted both amotivation and classroom disruptive behavior. In addition, a Sobel mediation analysis showed that amotivation was a significant mediator of the association between home-school dissonance and classroom disruptive behavior. Findings and limitations are discussed.

Keywords: amotivation; classroom disruptive behavior; high school students; home–school dissonance; urban education.