The Values and Character Dispositions of 14-16 Year Olds in the Hodge Hill Constituency

Principal Component One - general positiveness

As is frequently the case the main differences between respondents were largely a matter
of how positive they were across all questions. The degree of emphasis placed on each
question can be seen from the component loadings shown in Appendix 8a. Questions
indicating a positive self-image and pro-social attitudes are especially important in
Principal Component One (PC1). Those with the higher loadings contribute more to the
differences between students.

In general the overall positiveness factor is of little interest and requires no detailed
interpretation. Its chief contribution to interpretation is to allow more subtle differences
to be detected once general positiveness has been discounted. In looking for the subtleties,
a student who Strongly Agrees with most questions but only Agrees with a particular
question needs to be seen as less ‘positive’ on the particular point than someone who
usually Disagrees but on this particular questions Neither Agrees nor Disagrees. It needs
to be born in mind that on average Muslim students scored relatively high on PC1 (see
Appendix 8a); so when, later in the analysis, they tend towards positive responses to
some questions and negative to others, it is usually the case that their ‘negative’
responses are comparable with the ‘positive’ responses of other students.

Principal Component Two - family, school and community versus self-concept

The second Principal Component (PC2) looks beyond general positiveness to find the
next major differences between students. This takes the form of a contrast between those
who favour one group of questions relative to another and those who favour the other
relative to the one. These groups can be identified from the component loadings in
Appendix 8b as those with high positive values and those with high negative values.
(There is no real-world significance in which group is positive and which negative only
in the fact that they are contrasted matters).

In this survey the contrast was between on the one hand those who gave relatively more
positive responses to questions about engagement with the family, school and community:

I help out in my community

Community Leaders have an influence on my attitude towards life

My school gets us to discuss local community issues

My local neighbourhood influences how I behave

People in Media have an influence on my attitude towards life

I take part in school run community projects

I have found school trips/residential trips make me a better person

I am a member of a club or community organisation outside school

Citizenship is a useful subject in my school

I think the newspapers change my view of the world

Other family members have an influence on my attitude towards life

To be successful where I live you have to fit in

I would like more time in school to discuss my ideas and learn about myself

I prefer to fit in with the views of others

A good person is intelligent

My teachers help me to think about being a good person

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