Study title

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.This is a mixed-methods collection. The research investigated the hypothesis that ‘laddish’ behaviour serves to protect the self-worth of some pupils. There were four main research questions. 1) In what ways does ‘laddish’ behaviour act to protect self-worth? 2) How can schools and teachers reduce ‘laddish’, anti-school attitudes? 3) Are some girls adopting ‘laddish’ behaviours, if so, why? 4) Are some groups of girls and boys more likely than other groups to adopt ‘laddish’ behaviours, if so, which groups, why and with what effects? Six secondary schools were involved: four co-educational, one girls’ and one boys’. There was a mix of pupils in terms of social class, ‘race’ and ethnicity, and a mix of schools in terms of overall examination results and gender of intake (single-sex and co-educational). All pupil participants were in year 9 (aged 13-14) at the time of the study (academic year 2003/04). Questionnaires were administered to the entire year 9 cohort in each school. There were three questionnaires in total. Two explored students’ academic goals, self-concept, self-handicapping behaviours, and perceptions of their learning environments in English and maths respectively. A third, explored pupils’ views about ‘laddishness’ and popularity. Interviews were conducted with 153 pupils; 75 girls and 78 boys. They took place over the spring and summer of 2004, during the school day, in school and lasted approximately 30 minutes. The interviews were semi-structured and covered a number of topics, including attitudes and approaches to schoolwork; Standard Assessment Tests (SAT); pressures in school; ‘lads’ and ‘ladettes’; friends and popularity. In addition, an average of five teacher interviews were conducted in each school: 30 in total (17 women and 13 men). The teacher sample was diverse in terms of: subject specialisms; number of years in teaching; seniority in school; time at that...