The Contribution of Parental and Societal Conditional Regard to Adjustment of High School Dropouts

Background: This study examined the contribution of parental and societal conditional regard to high school dropouts' adjustment (i.e., subjective well-being, loneliness and future orientation), along the different stages of the dropout process. Parental conditional regard (PCR) indicates when a parent either gives or withholds love and acceptance depending on whether the child complies with the parent’s expectations, and can be divided into two kinds of regard:  positive and negative regard.  A novel aspect of the current study was the examination of a new concept, termed societal conditional regard (SCR), i.e., when a societygives or withholds love and acceptance on the basis of the individual's compliance with social norms.  Specifically, the current study focused on high school dropouts from a traditional community, where dropout was accompanied by various social repercussions. Uncovering the fact that the community – by offering conditional love and acceptance – has an influence on the dropout's adjustment may help us understand the complex situation of dropouts in traditional communities. The resemblance of SCR to PCR warrants an investigation.

Method: The study, conducted in Israel among Ultraorthodox Jewish males, included 261 participants, ages 14-21, who were at different stages of the dropout process: youths in yeshiva high schools but at risk of dropping out (n=61); youths who dropped out of yeshiva and enrolled in a program for high school dropouts (n=131); and youths who dropped out of school and were not in any educational framework (n=69). The mean age of the participants was 17 (SD= 1.71). Participants completed self-report questionnaires which are commonly used in this type of study. The study was approved by the BIU institutional review board, and questionnaires were distributed by youth practitioners working with each of the three study groups.

Results:Structural equation modeling indicated a significant negative contribution of parental conditional negative regard to adjustment, while societal conditional positive regard made a significant positive contribution to adjustment. Moreover, dropouts indicated the existence of higher parental and societal conditional regard than youths in high school or in a program for high school dropouts.

Implications: The findings confirm our assumption about the importance of SCR in understanding the dropout's adjustment in traditional communities. In fact, both PCR and SCR played a significant role in the adjustment of these dropouts. While parental conditional negative regard was found to be a risk factor, societal conditional positive regard was found to be helpful to the dropout's adjustment. When developing intervention programs for dropouts in traditional communities, social workers could therefore take the present study's findings into consideration: seeing the parents and community as targets for intervention, emphasizing a decrease in conditional negative regard, and reinforcing those aspects of societal conditional positive regard that contribute to the positive adjustment of youths. Further research should investigate the ramifications of conditional regard in relation to the behavioural aspects of adjustment among dropout youths and also in relation to other phenomena that constitute an affront to the social norms of traditional communities.