Deterrents to participation as perceived by participants

Hayes (1988) points out that most of the literature on low participation in adult basic education is based on untested assumptions or descriptive studies of groups such as high school dropouts. Using empirical research methods, she and Darkenwald (1988) confirmed the existence of numerous barriers to participation in ABE. Their sample was drawn from 160 ABE students in seven urban ABE programs in the U.S.A. These adults were asked to identify barriers that had prevented their participation prior to their enrolment in ABE.

Thus, the sample used could not permit a typology to be developed of the entire low-literate population, but is representative of those most likely to participate in ABE. Building on the work of Scanlan and Darkenwald (1984) and Darkenwald and Valentine (1985), Hayes and Darkenwald used the Deterrents to Participation Scale developed specifically for use with low-literate adults.

They found five factors to be the most conceptually meaningful representation of the data. These factors were:

1. Low Self-Confidence. Items subsumed under this factor reflected feelings of low self-esteem in general, and especially in relation to academic ability.
2. Social Disapproval. Items subsumed under this factor suggested the existence of a social environment, among family and friends, where education was not perceived to be important or useful.
3. Situational Barriers. Items under this factor were similar to those in Cross's (1981) situational barriers - cost, lack of transportation and family problems.
4. Negative Attitude to Classes. Items subsumed under this category were related to dislike of schoolwork or classes, or to an act of participation in classes such as going to a school building. The items evidently represented personal evaluations rather than barriers erected by the institutions.
5. Low Personal Priority. Under this category items reflected situations in which other activities took precedence over education. The authors then went on to develop six types of low-literate adults clustered according to their scores on the five deterrent factors. Several socio-demographic variables were used to describe each cluster.

The authors concluded that meaningful sub-groups of the low-literate population can be identified based on their perception of deterrents to participation in ABE, especially as scores on the deterrent factors highlighted differences between groups with similar background characteristics. There were two groups largely characterized by unemployed women with dependent children, for example, in which the one group scored high on Situational Barriers, followed by Low Self-Confidence and the other group scored high on Low Personal Priority - the lack of time was perceived as a major deterrent.