The status projections of high school sophomores residing in rural East Texas were surveyed in spring of 1972. Focus was on their aspirations and expectations for status attainment in occupation, education, income, and type of place of residence. In each area, four elements of status projections were examined: aspiration level, expectation level,…

Theoretical statements by Talcott Parsons and others were used as a basis in deriving the hypothesis that degree of identification with the Mexican American subculture among adolescents is inversely related to desire for upward social mobility. (Author)

The study investigated whether Mexican American male and female migrants differed from Mexican American male and female non-migrants in reference to: level and type of occupational and educational aspirations and expectations; projected age of marriage and procreation; and valuation of life goals. Using data gathered in a 1973 survey of Mexican…

Four nonmetropolitan South Texas counties were the target areas in exploring the proposition that dropouts should have lower aspirations and expectations than their in-school age peers. Data were obtained from approximately 600 Mexican American high school sophomores and 75 dropout age peers residing in the counties studied in 1968 and 1969. The…

Studies on U.S. rural youth indicate current regional and ethnic diversity; limited rural-urban differences; and some limited social change in terms of values, needs, and aspirations. The size of the rural youth population is considerable (25,013,948 out of a total youth population of 93,313,518 in 1970). The majority of rural youth are white…

The broad purpose of this paper was to investigate orientations toward military service held by Negro and white teenage boys, utilizing data gathered in rural East Texas during 1966. Negro and white youth were generally positive about military service and lower class youth with high aspirations differed little from other youth in their…

Information obtained from Mexican American students in a 1967 study of high school sophomores in 4 Texas counties was analyzed empirically relating to occupational goals and expectations. It was concluded that: (1) large proportions of the Mexican American youth studied desired high-level occupations; (2) little difference existed between the…

Ambitions for social mobility among rural southern Blacks and their influence on out-migration trends were explored in this analysis. Data utilized were collected as part of a more comprehensive study of living patterns among disadvantaged families. In the summer of 1970, samples of Black, female adults were drawn from 2 rural villages and a town…

While many speculative statements exist to indicate that aspirations of metropolitan Negro youth are high, little empirical evidence exists to document this thesis. This report provides findings from an analysis of the frames of aspirational reference of 281 sophomores from an all-Negro high school located in a low income ward of Houston, Texas.…

The hypotheses to be tested by this study were (1) that Negro youth are more positively oriented toward participation in military service than white youth and (2) that lower class youth with high aspirations are more positively oriented toward military service than other youth. Respondents were male high school sophomores from 3 schools located in…

Identical instruments and procedures were used to collect data on military orientations from 98 Black boys who attended predominantly Black high schools in nonmetropolitan East Texas and 111 Blacks attending an all-Black high school in Houston, Texas, during the spring, 1966. The hypotheses tested were (1) that nonmetropolitan Black boys have more…

The document tested the level of generalization of a recent conclusion from past research (see ED075156) on nonmetropolitan (NM) south and southwest Texas Mexican American teenagers: that these youths have predominantly high and strong status aspirations and expectations. Earlier findings on NM Mexican American youth supported Merton's thesis that…

In an effort to determine to what extent ethnic groups are associated with differences in adolescents' projected frames of status reference, data were collected from Negro, Mexican American, and Anglo youth residing in rural areas of Texas. Occupational and educational status projections were compared to determine levels of aspiration and…

Projecting the future for the rural youth of America, the paper examined the problems and needs of this group. Rural youth, for the most part economically, socially, and educationally disadvantaged, were not found to be chaffing at the bit to enter the value configurations and behavioral patterns of "Consciousness III". They are still very much…