FAMILY ENVIRONMENTAL CORRELATES OF STUDENTS AFFECTIVE CHARACTERISTICS- A SOUTH-AFRICAN STUDY

This study examined the relationships between family environmental con te?cts, sibling structure, immediate family settings and students' aff ective characteristics. Data were collected from 460 (234 female and 2 26 male) South African senior high school students. Using partial leas t-squares path modelling the findings suggest that environmental conte xts and family immediate settings combine to have modest to large conc urrent validities in relation to differing measures of students' affec tive characteristics, immediate family settings are related more stron gly to measures of student affect than are indicators of family enviro nment contexts and there are gender-related differences in how social- status indicators form environmental context constructs and in the nat ure of the relationships between students' family environments and the ir affective characteristics.