On the Edge of Adulthood: Young people's school and out-of-school experiences at 16

14. Do social characteristics matter?

What different patterns do we see related to gender, ethnicity, family income, and maternal qualification? In models containing all four of the social characteristics (gender, ethnicity, maternal qualification and family income (at age 5), we found that maternal qualification was the only social characteristic that was associated with all the young people’s competency levels, and it usually had the strongest associations (Wylie & Hodgen, 2007). Family income was only associated with numeracy and literacy levels. Ethnicity was associated with numeracy, literacy, and two of the attitudinal competencies, at much lower strength than maternal qualification, and somewhat less than family income. Gender was associated with literacy and the two social skills competencies at slightly less or much the same level as maternal qualification, and at half the level of maternal qualification for the other two attitudinal competencies. Yet when we include social characteristics in models that also include young people’s own behaviour and approaches, these social characteristics are no longer as important.

So in this chapter, we aim to get “behind” these characteristics to see what they stand for. What other differences related to school participation, engagement and achievement, relationships with family and friends, and ways of spending time, exist that might shed light on why these differences (and similarities) in competency levels evident in relation to social characteristics exist when we look at them alone, but are no longer evident or as strong when we put the social characteristics in a fuller context?

Gender

School participation

There were no gender differences related to school attendance among those at school; and females and males were just as likely to be found among the school leavers.

School engagement

Males and females had similar average scores on the engaged in school factor. Their other views of learning and of their classes were also similar, but with these exceptions: females had slightly higher average scores for using internal markers of achievement, they were also less likely to show disengagement, to be in a disrupted learning environment, or to be in a comparative learning environment; and their teachers rated them slightly more highly when it came to their approach to NCEA assessment.

Looking back, females were more often reported by their parents to have been enthusiastic about school (47 percent) than males (34 percent), and males were more often reported to have mixed feelings about school (27 percent) or to have been unhappy at least once (14 percent) than females (18 and 7 percent, respectively).

Males were more likely to be in the “vocational” subject cluster (21 percent cf. 15 percent) or “contextual” cluster (16 percent cf. 11 percent), and girls were more likely to be taking traditional academic courses with a science orientation (55 percent cf. 40 percent). There were no gender differences related to taking traditional academic courses with an arts orientation.

Looking at extracurricular learning opportunities, females were more likely to take part in or attend musical or other performances (including kapa haka) and more likely to be members of debating teams; but no females were members of computer clubs, and few took part in practical investigations. Males were more likely to captain sports teams.

Achievement

At age 16, females did have higher literacy scores on average (a mean of 59 percent cf. 42 percent for males), and higher scores for the attitudinal competencies (ranging from a difference of 12 percentage points for focused and responsible, to 20 percentage points in relation to having social difficulties, where their score was lower on average. No gender differences were evident in relation to numeracy or logical problem solving scores.

Nor were there any gender differences related to the number of Level 1 NCEA credits achieved. However, parents of males were less likely to be satisfied with their progress at school (49 percent cf. 70 percent of parents of females), either because they thought they were not making good progress (33 percent), or were bored (16 percent).

Among the school stayers, females were more likely to mention academic achievement as something they were proud they had done over the past year, and less likely to mention sports achievement than the male school stayers; a similar pattern was evident among the school leavers. There were no gender differences among the things they were least proud of.

Interests, friendships, and home life

Females were no more, or less, likely than males to have risky friendships or embark on risky behaviour themselves. Relationships with their families had similar levels of support, communication, and inclusion, or pressure; and parents’ views of changes in their relationships with their child over the past two years were similar. Parents of females did give them a higher rating for being responsible, however. Females were more likely to enjoy extending friendships, and to have had more experiences of achieving and receiving praise over the past year.

Females were more likely to value a satisfying life (48 percent) than males (34 percent), whereas males were more likely to have standing out values (45 percent) than females (28 percent). A similar pattern was found at age 14.

Even allowing for the fact that the age-16 females in this study were more likely to have younger siblings, they were more likely than the males to look after these siblings, though there were similar proportions who wanted nothing to do with them.

Parents reported more males with their own computer (22 percent cf. 9 percent of females), or own video/DVD player (23 percent cf. 13 percent), but more females had their own phone (35 percent cf. 23 percent). Parents responding (mainly female) were more likely to shop with daughters (55 percent cf. 26 percent of sons), but more likely to share sports with their sons. Parental aspirations in terms of future education were similar for sons and daughters; parents of sons were somewhat more likely to see their child’s desire or choice as the thing that might stop them getting as much education as the parent wanted for them. Sixteen percent of parents of sons thought they were interested in a trade, cf. 2 percent of parents of daughters.

There are also some differences in trends over time in indicators of engagement in literacy: more females had consistently reported enjoying reading (48 percent) than males (29 percent), and correspondingly more males (12 percent) had said on two or more occasions they did not enjoy reading than females (1 percent). As in earlier phases of the study, females read a wider range of material, and wrote in a wider range of genres.

Among the school stayers, gender differences in interests and ways of spending time that had been evident in earlier years of the study continued: males spent more time playing sport for fun, playing electronic games, and were more likely to take part in competitive sport; females spent more time on the phone with their friends, text-messaging, on arts activities and performance, and were more likely to make or design things.

Male school leavers were more likely than female school leavers to surf the Internet for fun, and download software. Male school stayers were more likely than female school stayers to play games on their computer or download software while female school stayers were more likely to email people, use the Internet to get information for school, send in an assignment for NCEA credits, or look at NCEA information from NZQA or TKI. Males spent more time on the computer each week than did females.

Wellbeing

The female school leaver group stands out as the group that was least happy in what they were doing. Female school leavers were more likely to be reported as generally unhappy (31 percent cf. no males), and to be unsettled by something (77 percent cf. 33 percent of the males). This gender difference was not evident among the school stayers. Parents saw romantic or sexual relationships, and relations with their friends as being the source of their being upset. Female school leavers were least likely to be coping well if something was upsetting them. Not surprisingly, their parents were more likely to have concerns about their friendships, sexual relationships, and self-confidence. An open-ended question also showed these parents were more concerned about their daughters’ lack of interests or sustaining an interest (64 percent of the female school leavers said they never spent time on an interest or hobby, cf. 14 percent of the male school leavers), recklessness and contesting of parental authority, leaving school without a qualification, and substance use. Only 23 percent of the female school leavers were given a rating by their parent of 4 or 5 out of 5 for their ability to cope with life after school, cf. 53 percent of the males. According to their parents, males who left school were more likely to have had a specific job/apprenticeship or course in mind, and were more likely to have left school because they were bored; females who left school were more likely to have been depressed or found schoolwork too hard. Two-thirds of the parents of males thought they had no wish to do something different from they were currently doing, cf. 23 percent of the parents of females; and 85 percent of the latter wanted their school leaver daughters to be doing something different, cf. 40 percent of the male school leavers’ parents.

Female school leavers’ own reports of their friendships and lives are generally consistent with parental views. They were more likely than male school leavers to say their friends got into trouble, smoked marijuana, or did other drugs, and thought unsafe sex was okay, and that their friends had different plans for the future than they had themselves. Their trust in their mothers was less than the male school leavers showed in their mothers: but this is the only difference in views of their relationships with their parent(s).

Although females’ parents were more concerned about what they were doing, the pattern of experiences reported by the young people showed no marked differences between males and females: but perhaps it is this very lack of difference that perturbs parents of daughters who have left school at what is now an early age.

By contrast, there were some gender differences in the school stayers’ experiences. Females both made and lost friends, and supported friends in trouble more—and they were more conscious of being left out. They were also more conscious of a lack of money and freedom. Yet more females reported drinking quite often or more (42 percent cf. 30 percent of males), and they were more likely to have sometimes done something they regretted while drunk, while (a small proportion of) males were more likely to have done this lots of times.

Among the school stayers, females were more likely to think their friends respected their feelings, listened to what they had to say, that they talked together about their hopes and plans for the future, that they liked to get their friends’ point of view on things, and less likely to think that their friends pushed them to do stupid things. More males were neutral on whether they thought their parents wanted to control them or were always trying to change them.

Females had more health problems—but males had more injuries (60 percent had at least one cf. 44 percent of females). Males reported more physical fighting (42 percent cf. 20 percent of females had done so at least once), more hassling or bullying others more (31 percent cf. 21 percent of females), but females reported fighting at home more (86 percent had done this at least once, cf. 56 percent of males).

Parents of male school stayers were more concerned about their learning at school (22 percent cf. 8 percent of parents of female school stayers), and the open-ended question showed 25 percent of parents of sons were concerned that they had disengaged from school work, cf. 10 percent of parents of daughters (though we found no difference between males and females on average in their own reports of their engagement in school and in classes).

Ethnicity

When we asked the young people to give the ethnic groups with which they identified, a fifth gave us more than one. In total, we had 405 who identified with NZ European/Pākehā, 61 with Māori, 36 with a Pacific culture, 9 Chinese, 7 Indian, and 22 other. This multiple identification is worth noting. In our descriptive reporting and analysis, we have used the categories given by parents given when their children were young. The parents identified fewer as Māori and Pacific, and there were fewer choices of more than one group, so that prioritizing ethnicity (Māori, then Pacific, then Asian) to give the measure used in all our analyses was appropriate. Because of the lower numbers identifying with minority groups, our analysis here groups together those groups that tended to show more similarity when we looked at the competency measures: Māori and Pacific; and Pākehā and Asian.³⁴

Effects of ethnicity are difficult to separate out from income, maternal qualifications, school decile, and school gender mix. About half of the Māori or Pacific young people (as identified by their parents) in the study at age 16 were from low-income homes at age 5, compared with about a quarter of Pākehā/Asian young people. These proportions are much the same for age-16 family income, although there was a certain amount of movement between groups: of those in the lowest income group at age 5, 59 percent were in the corresponding group at age 16, and 10 percent were in the highest income group; of those in the highest income group at age 5, 70 percent were in the same group at age 16, and 8 percent were in the lowest income group. Three percent of the age-5 Māori/Pacific students’ mothers had university qualifications, and 30 percent had no formal qualifications, compared with 21 percent of the Pākehā/Asian students’ mothers with university qualifications, and 11 percent with no formal qualifications.

Participation

Those who were identified as Māori were more likely to be among the school leavers (15 percent cf. 6 percent of those categorised as either Pākehā or Asian). However, the Māori/Pacific school leavers were more likely to be in employment or studying than those who were Pākehā/Asian. Current school attendance was lower for Māori/Pacific students: 59 percent had good or better attendance cf. 77 percent of Pākehā/Asian students.

School engagement

Consistent with having somewhat lower attendance levels, Māori/Pacific students also reported somewhat lower levels of school engagement, and slightly lower levels of a positive attitude to their work; they were also somewhat less satisfied with their subject mix than Pākehā/Asian students. Māori/Pacific students were more likely than Pākehā/Asian students to be taking subjects with a vocational orientation (28 percent compared with 16 percent) or a contextual orientation (33 percent cf. 10 percent), and were less likely to be taking traditional academic subjects (9 percent cf. 23 percent, for arts, and 31 percent cf. 50 percent for science). Parents of Māori/Pacific young people were more likely to wish they and their child had had more guidance on subjects (31 percent cf. 19 percent for Pākehā/Asian).

Teachers of Māori/Pacific students rated their approach to NCEA assessment somewhat lower than that of Pākehā/Asian students.

Pākehā/Asian students were more likely to have engaged in extracurricular learning that took the form of individual sports, between-schools competitions, or debating; and Māori/Pacific students, in kapa haka or other cultural performances.

There were several indications (not all significant) that parents of Māori/Pacific students were less positive about their children’s school experiences than were parents of Pākehā/Asian students. Fewer reported their children as enthusiastic about school (41 percent cf. 57 percent of Pākehā/Asian students’ parents). Eighteen percent rated teachers’ support for their child’s learning a low 1–2 on a 5-point scale cf. 9 percent of Pākehā/Asian students’ parents; and 33 percent gave a 1–2 rating for teachers’ support for their child’s emotional wellbeing cf. 18 percent of Pākehā/Asian students’ parents. This pattern is consistent with the difference in parental reports of their children liking most or all of their teachers (45 percent of Māori/Pacific students’ parents cf. 69 percent of Pākehā/Asian students’ parents). The only ethnic-related difference in parental concerns was that more Māori/Pacific parents were concerned about their child’s school behaviour (16 percent cf. 5 percent of Pākehā/Asian students’ parents).

Achievement

Ethnicity was reflected in differences in literacy and numeracy scores at age 16, and in the attitudinal competencies thinking and learning and focused and responsible. Pākehā Asian scores were higher on average for these measures.

A third of Māori/Pacific students achieved fewer than 80 Level 1 credits, and only 15 percent had achieved over 120 credits, compared to just under a fifth and just under half of Pākehā/Asian students.

Teachers gave Māori/Pacific students lower ratings for their overall ability.

Only a third of the parents of Māori/Pacific students were satisfied with their child’s school progress; almost half the 63 percent of Pākehā/Asian students’ parents were. This level of satisfaction is also notably lower than when the young people were aged 14: then 58 percent of parents of Māori/Pacific students were satisfied with their progress. Two years ago, the reason for lack of satisfaction was their child’s boredom; now it was their lack of progress. Their aspirations for their child’s post-school education remained as high as it was for parents of Pākehā/Asian students; and their views on the occupations that interested their child were also similar.

Among the school stayers, Māori/Pacific were more likely to mention a creative or arts academic achievement or something related to employment as something they were proud they had done over the past year. There were no ethnic differences among the things they were least proud of.

Interests, friendships, and home life

The only difference related to friendships and home life was that Māori/Pacific students were more likely to have friends with risky behaviour. They were also more likely to have risky behaviour themselves.

Māori/Pacific students were less likely to place value on having a satisfying life than Pākehā/Asian students (30 percent cf. 43 percent), but more likely to place value on having an aspirational life (37 percent cf. 19 percent).

Among the school leavers, Māori/Pacific were more likely to play sport for fun (57 percent did this one or two days a week cf. 14 percent of Pākehā/Asian), and more likely to take part in cultural activities (57 percent cf. 14 percent of Pākehā/Asian).

Among those still at school, Pākehā/Asian students were more likely to read often (31 percent cf. 13 percent of Māori/Pacific students). Māori/Pacific students were more likely to often play competitive sport, sing or play a musical instrument, hang out with their friends, and to take part in cultural activities, or church or religious activities. There were some differences in computer use: Māori/Pacific students were more likely to use it to play games, download music and software, take part in news groups, email people, and to meet new people. While that signals more use of the communicative aspects of the Internet, Māori/Pacific students reported less reading of websites for enjoyment (along with less reading of fiction).

Wellbeing

There were no ethnic differences related to parental reports of their child’s general happiness, or whether anything was unsettling them, and if so, how they were coping with it.

Māori/Pacific school leavers were less likely to have done something they regretted while drunk (39 percent cf. 86 percent of Pākehā/Asian school leavers), or to have hassled or bullied someone (14 percent cf. 57 percent).

Māori/Pacific school stayers gave a less positive view of their everyday life. They were more likely to say they had quite often or lots of times got behind with their school work (35 percent cf. 21 percent of Pākehā/Asian school stayers); they were more likely to have been hassled about their culture (30 percent cf. 13 percent of Pākehā/Asian school stayers), to have got into trouble at school (61 percent had been in trouble at least sometimes over the past year cf. 39 percent of Pākehā/Asian school stayers), to have supported a friend in trouble, and less likely to have been praised for achievement, but also less likely to have been excluded from a group they really wanted to be in.

Maternal qualification

Maternal qualification stands for a wide range of both environmental and genetic influences. Mothers with higher qualification levels are more likely to be part of families with higher income levels (52 percent of students with mothers with university-level qualifications had a family income over $100,000 at least once by age 14, cf. 7 percent of those whose mothers had no formal qualifications), and, in our sample, to have Pākehā or Asian children (and so most likely to belong to a similar ethnic group). Mothers with higher levels of qualifications are also more likely to have children who would like to have and be able to have similar qualifications, they are more likely to value learning (in the broadest sense), and to engage in activities that support and encourage learning in their children.

Participation

School-leavers were more likely to have come from the group with mothers who had no formal qualification: 19 percent of this group had left school at age 16 cf. 2 percent of those whose mothers had a university qualification. Age-16 student attendance rates were related to maternal qualification levels: good or better school attendance increased from 62 percent of those whose mothers had no qualification to 86 percent of those whose mothers had a university qualification.

Engagement

Students whose mothers had a university qualification reported the highest levels of engagement; those whose mothers had no qualification or a mid-secondary level or trades qualification the lowest. The students whose mothers had a university qualification also had higher average scores for the factors affirmed at school, attitude to work, and internal markers of achievement. Teacher ratings of student approach to NCEA assessment were lowest for students whose mothers had no qualification, and highest for those whose mothers had a university qualification. In terms of opportunity to learn, the only difference was that students whose mothers had no or trades level qualification were somewhat more likely to be in comparative learning environments; and there was an indication that they were more likely to be in an environment where students were disengaged in learning.

There were also differences in subject clusters: 89 percent of the students with mothers with university-level qualifications were taking traditional academic subjects in either arts (41 percent) or science (48 percent) cf. 42 percent of the students with mothers with no formal qualifications (6 percent arts, 36 percent science). Students with mothers with no formal qualifications were much more likely to be taking the vocational orientation subjects (34 percent) or contextual orientation (22 percent) cf. those whose mothers had a university qualification (4 and 5 percent, respectively). Possible reasons for this include that individuals in both generations had similar facility or difficulty with the academic subjects, that the young person was following a similar career path to their parents, and that parents who had completed a formal academic education themselves encouraged their children to take the more traditional subjects in preparation for post-secondary study.

Parental reports of their child’s enthusiasm about school followed maternal qualification levels, as did, in reverse, reports of their being unhappy or bored with school: 23 percent of students whose mothers had no qualification were reported as being unhappy or bored with school, decreasing to 5 percent of students whose mothers had a university qualification. But maternal qualification levels were unrelated to parental reports of how much their child liked their teachers.

While participation in extracurricular sports activities was unrelated to students’ mothers’ qualification levels, those whose mothers had no qualification were less likely to report involvement in musical activities or between-schools competitions; and those whose mothers had a university qualification were more likely to take part in debating teams or practical investigations, and in youth parliaments or similar events.

Achievement

Maternal qualification levels were the only social characteristics to be reflected in differences in student scores on all the competencies measured at age 16. Generally, students whose mother had a university qualification had the highest scores, followed by those whose mother had a tertiary or senior secondary school qualification, then those whose mothers had no qualification, or a mid-secondary level or trades qualification.

These differences were reflected in the number of Level 1 NCEA credits gained: 35 percent of students whose mothers had no formal qualifications achieved fewer than 80 Level 1 credits, 60 percent achieved between 80 and 120, 4 percent achieved between 120 and 160 credits, and none achieved over 160 credits. The students whose mothers had university qualifications had a rather different pattern of NCEA credits: 5, 30, 56, and 10 percent, respectively. Some of these differences would also reflect differences in subject clusters which, as we saw in Chapter 3, offer different numbers of NCEA credits.

Teacher ratings of students’ overall ability also followed maternal qualification levels, from an average of 5.5 on a scale of 1 to 10 for students whose mothers had no qualification, to 7.5 on a scale of 1 to 10 for students whose mother had a university qualification.

Parental satisfaction with their child’s progress at school was highest for those whose mothers had a university qualification. Dissatisfaction with their child’s progress increased from 7 percent for the latter, to 25 percent of those with no qualification, largely because parents felt their child was not making good progress.

Parents who had no qualification gave their children lower ratings for their self-efficacy and responsibility at home than did others. They were much less likely to want their child to go on to university, or other tertiary education (or see these as a likelihood). However, the proportions of those who thought their child might take a professional job were much the same for this group as others, and consistent with the level who did see their child going on to university.

While there are marked differences between students that reflect maternal qualification levels, it is also worth remembering that these are not evident for all students: over half the students who had nonqualified mothers had achieved a Level 1 NCEA, and their parents were satisfied with their progress.

Students’ reports of what they were proudest of in their achievements over the past year showed no differences related to maternal qualification levels, with one exception: those whose mothers had no qualification were more likely to mention relationships with others, and less likely to say that the reason they were pleased with their achievement was because their effort had paid off. When it came to things they were least proud of, this group and those whose mothers had a mid-secondary level or trades qualification were less likely to mention a difficulty or failure in their school work, and more likely to mention getting into trouble.

Interests, friendships, and home life

Risky behaviour and having friends with risky behaviour were most likely for students whose parents had no or mid-school/trades level qualifications.

Just under a quarter (24 percent) of students whose mothers had no formal qualifications had always enjoyed reading, whereas a half of those whose mothers had university-level qualifications had. TV watching features as one of the main interests for mothers with no formal qualification; and there was a matching pattern in the amount of TV the young people were allowed to watch between ages 8 and 14: 71 percent of those whose mothers had university qualifications had low rates of TV watching cf. 40 percent of those whose mothers had no formal qualifications.

These longstanding patterns were consistent with differences at age 16 in time use. Students with nonqualified mothers were less likely to often read (20 percent cf. 50 percent of those with university-qualified mothers), do their homework (31 percent cf. 56 percent), or sing or play a musical instrument (16 percent cf. 33 percent). They were more likely to often play competitive sport (45 percent cf. 23 percent) or interact with their friends (67 percent hung out with them cf. 39 percent of those with university-qualified mothers).

While students whose mothers had no qualification were as likely as others to read magazines, instruction manuals, emails and websites, and do word puzzles, they were less likely to read fiction, nonfiction, and daily newspapers. They were as likely to write emails and to text, and to write letters or songs, and keep a diary, but they were less likely to write reports or short stories.

Eighty-four percent of age-16 students with a university-qualified mother had a desk in their room cf. 64 percent of those with a nonqualified mother. The latter were more likely than others to have a video/DVD player (39 percent); their parents were more likely to share watching sport with them, but less likely to share physical activities, holidays, or interests or hobbies. But both parent and student reports indicated parent–child relationships were as close and supportive in this group as in groups where mothers had higher qualification levels.

Students whose mother had no qualification were more likely to more than occasionally download music or pictures, surf the Net more than occasionally, and use it to meet new people; they also looked more at their school website or Intranet.

Wellbeing

Maternal qualification levels were not reflected in different levels of reported happiness. Children of university- or tertiary-qualified mothers were more likely to be upset about something, but most were coping with this. Parental concerns were also undifferentiated by maternal qualification levels, with the exception that more parents were concerned about their child’s school learning if the mother had no qualification.

Students whose mother had no qualification were more likely to say they had never been included in a group they really wanted to be in—but least likely to say they felt left out. They were also least likely to report losing their temper more than once, or to have fought with others at home quite often or more. Having sex quite often or more over the past year was most likely for this group and those whose mothers had a trade level or mid-secondary level qualification. Trying to fit everything into their time was more of an issue for those whose mothers had a university qualification.

Current family income

We see fewer associations with current family income than we saw for the other three social characteristics.

Participation

School-leavers’ families had lower average incomes, and 42 percent had low incomes cf. 5 percent of the school stayers’ families. A third were receiving benefits (mainly domestic purposes and invalids/disability). However, the difference between attendance patterns for current school students from low-income homes and others was not statistically significant.

Engagement

The low-income group was more likely to have got into trouble at school.

Achievement

As family income increased, so did parental desire for their child to have a university education; even so, it was not a universal desire among the very high-income families (68 percent). A similar trend was evident when parents were asked what occupation they thought their child might do as an adult: 48 percent of the very high-income families mentioned a professional occupation, decreasing to 31 percent of the low-income families.

Family income levels were unrelated to whether parents were satisfied with their child’s school progress, whether they felt welcome in the school, or their views of the support their child got for their learning, but were related to their views of the support their child had in terms of their emotional wellbeing, with scores of 4–5 out of 5 most common among the very high-income group (46 percent), and least common among the low- and low-mid-income groups (20 percent).

Students from high-income families were most likely to take part in school extracurricular activities. That meant they were more likely to coach or lead a sports team. Mention of achievement in sport not surprisingly rose with income levels (from 20 percent of those from low-income families to 42 percent of those from very high-income families). None of the latter mentioned an achievement related to employment, but 10 percent of the students from low-income homes did.

Perhaps related to their greater engagement in sport, the very high-income group was most likely to have been praised lots of time for their achievement (24 percent cf. 12 percent of those from the low-income group).

Wellbeing

Just over a quarter of the students from low-income families said they had never been included in a group they really wanted to be part of during the past year cf. 11 percent of those from families with mid or higher incomes.

But this pattern was not evident in relation to being selected for a team or event. Only 10 percent of the students from low-income homes said they had never been without enough money cf. 38 percent of those from very high-income homes.

Different patterns related to different social characteristics

There are some differences in the patterns of young people’s experiences and the development of learning identities that do relate to different social dimensions or characteristics. Bear in mind that we are looking at four different social dimensions: none of them on their own creates a completely different social group, and none of them are in a completely separate niche. Thus, if we look at gender differences, we see that at age 16 young women were somewhat more likely than young men to show the attitudes that stood them in good stead for school learning, with their interests out of school also more attuned to this; yet this is not true for the small group of female school leavers, who seemed to be trying to vault themselves into adulthood through romantic and sexual relationships, without any distinct identity for themselves. Although young men generally reported more risky behaviour, there was a higher proportion of young women who indicated drinking patterns of concern. This may be because they see drinking differently; but it is also a reminder that we cannot assume that “risk” is resident in only one side (or group) of a social dimension. What matters more than the group we see young adults belonging to is the behaviour and back behind that, the reasons for it, and what other behaviours and values go along with it. Thus, we may not worry quite as much about a young man who gets drunk from time to time if his values were more consistent with having a “satisfying life” than one who wants to “stand out”.

Gender was largely unrelated to school performance. So was current family income, though more of the school leavers came from low-income homes. Maternal qualification and ethnicity were associated with differences in school performance, and these two social characteristics were also the two that show the most overlap, reflecting the narrower and more limited opportunities available to the parents, and grandparents, of Māori and Pacific students. These students were also more likely themselves to be in the “vocational” and “contextual” subject clusters; and to show less satisfaction with their subject mix. They were less engaged in school, and less positive about the kinds of learning opportunities they had in their classes. Thirty percent had been hassled about their culture over the past year. Their parents were largely not satisfied with their progress at school, and did not think the support they got from their teachers was at a high level.

Out-of-school factors also played a part, with more risky behaviour and friends with risky behaviour among Māori and Pacific students. Over the previous years, this group was less likely to have enjoyed reading, and had watched more television; their age-16 performance had been preceded by lower performance levels on the cognitive and attitudinal competencies. So it is likely that what lies behind their current lower achievement at this crucial stage of senior secondary qualifications is the development of ambivalent learning identities, not able to entirely positively identify with school, or the kinds of activities associated with school, encountering negative reactions to their identity, not seeing themselves as among the most successful kinds of learners, finding other ways to make their mark that in turn make it harder to find meaning or success through school. Thus to see real improvements in Māori and Pacific students’ achievement, and substantial gains in those who remain at secondary school and leave with meaningful qualifications, we see the importance of early learning engagement and achievement, to which learning opportunities at home, early childhood education, and school all contribute, as well as ensuring that their current class experiences are engaging.