British Journal of Educational Psychology (1999), 69, 377–392 Printed in Great Britain © 1999 The British Psychological Society At-risk and not at-risk primary school children: An examination of goal orientations and social reputations Annemaree Carroll* Schonell Special Education Research Centre, University of Queensland A.J. Baglioni, Jr Social Development Research Group, University of Washington Stephen Houghton Graduate School of Education, University of Western Australia Paul Bramston Department of Psychology, University of Southern Queensland Aims. The purpose of the present research was to examine whether at-risk and not at-risk primary school aged students differ in two social and psychological domains (future goal orientations and social reputation). Sample. A total of 886 years 5, 6 and 7 students from ve primary schools in the Brisbane metropolitan area of Queensland, Australia, participated in the study. Method. The Children’s Activity Questionnaire which constitutes three parts (demographic information, the Importance of Goals Scale, and the Reputa- tion Enhancement Scale) was administered under standardised conditions. Results. A series of multivariate analyses of variance (MANOVA) and univariate F-tests performed on each of the sets of dependent variables (goal orientations and reputation enhancement) revealed signicant differences between the at-risk and not at-risk participants on both goals and reputa- tion. Conclusions. Not at-risk children sought to attain an Academic Image through education and interpersonal goals, whereas at-risk children sought a Social Image and attached greater importance to physical goals. In line with this, children in the not at-risk group perceived themselves and ideally wished to be perceived as a conforming person, while at-risk children perceived themselves *Requests for reprints should be addressed to Dr Annemaree Carroll, Schonell Special Education Research Centre, The University of Queensland, Brisbane Q4072, Australia (e-mail: a.carroll@mailbox- .uq.edu.au).