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The impact of factors on trajectories that lead to a high school diploma and to participation in post-secondary education among those with low reading competencies at age 15 - November 2007
Appendix: Definitions of constructed variables
Academic effort (IRT scale)
A previously constructed scale of academic engagement, comprised of items such as amount of time spent on homework and frequency of skipping classes.
Alcohol/marijuana use (index)
Use of alcohol (f2q76) and marijuana/hash use (f2q78) were recoded and combined such that a score of 0 indicates neither and a score of 2 indicates having consumed both.
Extracurricular participation (index)
Participation in school (f2q56b) and non-school based (f2q57) were recoded and combined, such that a score of 0 indicates neither and a score of 2 indicates participation in both.
High school job/education preparation (standard score)
The number of job/future education preparatory activities provided by their school (d2q07a - d2q16) that respondents had participated in were counted and then converted to standard scores.
Peer educational support (standard score)
Responses to how many of their peers the respondent thought completing high school was important (f2q76) and how many planned to pursue PSE (f2q78) were combined.
Employed 20 or more hours per week (indicator variable)
Constructed from a derived variable (hpdhsd2), such that a score of 1 indicates having worked at least 20 hours per week.
Parental educational support (index)
How important the respondent believed it was to their parents that they complete high school (u2q57) and to pursue PSE (u2q58) were recoded and combined so that a score of 0 indicates neither was very important and a score of 2 indicates both were very important.
Educational aspirations (standard score)
M2q31 was first recoded into approximate years of education the respondent desired and then transformed into a standard score.
Home ICT (standard score)
Respondents were as how often a computer was available at home for their use (r2q07). Responses were converted into standard scores.
University-preparatory classes (index)
A score of 0 indicates that neither the last math nor language class was taken at a university-preparatory level, whereas a score of 2 indicates that both were taken at a university-preparatory level.
Marks (standard score)
The mean of student's self-reported average marks and mark obtained in math and language. Parallel measures were constructed for marks at ages 15 and 17.
Canadian born (indicator variable)
Parent report was used in the first instance. Where parent information was not available, student report was substituted (swt16q01).
Parental years of education (standard score)
Parental level of education was derived from gender and relationship of PMK to child (and from spouse of PMK). Where information from the PMK was not ascertained, the youth report was substituted. The level of education was then converted to estimated number of years of education. The mean of mother's and father's estimated years of education was then computed to represent parental years of education.
Household income (quintiles)
Household income was derived from the parent questionnaire. Income was recoded into quintiles to remove the problem of outliers and skewed distribution.
Missing value indicator
A missing value indicator was constructed on the basis of the presence of missing values on those variables that had the highest proportion of missing information (parental SES, peer support, and participation in extracurricular activities).
Math/language classes at grade level (index)
A score of 0 indicates that neither math nor language was taken at the Grade 10 level at age 15, while a score of 2 indicates that both were taken at that grade level. A parallel measure was constructed for age 17.
GPA (standard score)
The mean of student's self-reported average marks and mark obtained in math and language was converted into standard scores Parallel measures were constructed for marks at ages 15 and 17.
Enriched/remedial programs (indicator variables)
PMK report was used in the first instance. Where parent information was not available, student report was substituted (st23, st24).
| Mean | Standard Deviation | |
| Social Supports | -0.24 | 0.869 |
| Academic effort | -0.20 | 0.950 |
| Alcohol/marijuana use | 2.14 | 1.010 |
| Peer educational support | -0.29 | 1.066 |
| Extracurricular participation | 1.29 | 0.672 |
| Number of missing values | 0.44 | 0.777 |
| High school job/education preparation | -0.17 | 1.026 |
| Worked during school year | 0.75 | 0.434 |
| Worked 20 or more hours per week during school year | 0.22 | 0.414 |
| Parenthood | 0.01 | 0.087 |
| Parental educational support | 1.27 | 0.834 |
| Educational aspirations | -0.37 | 0.947 |
| University-preparatory classes | 0.75 | 0.846 |
| GPA | -0.56 | 0.907 |
| Changed high schools | 0.21 | 0.408 |
| Parental education | -0.35 | 0.955 |
| Availability of home computers | -0.21 | 1.268 |
| Income (in quintiles) | 1.68 | 1.288 |
| Female | 0.40 | 0.489 |
| Canadian-born | 0.74 | 0.437 |
| Visible minority | 0.12 | 0.329 |
| Two biological parents | 0.57 | 0.496 |
| Math achievement | -0.66 | 1.025 |
| Reading achievement | -1.25 | 0.589 |