A subset of data from a larger investigation on the achievement processes of youth was analyzed in two phases to describe disabled and nondisabled tenth-grade students on certain sociodemographic variables, high school curriculum track assignment, self-concept dimensions, and educational and occupational aspirations. (Author)

Evaluates a 10-item scale of perceived occupational opportunity, using data covering career decision making and labor entry, adolescence to young adulthood (N=630). The scale's external validity is explored using a structural equation model linking perceived opportunity to social origins, adolescent career plans, and early socioeconomic…

Explores the process by which young rural women translate adolescent aspirations for their own adult achievements and those of hypothetical "future" husbands into attainment patterns early in the life course. Stresses the influence of educational aspirations and attainment as prime factors of status attainment. (Author/JD)

Utilizing 1966 and 1968 data, this study investigated the dynamics of occupational aspiration employing the following variables: socioeconomic status of family of origin; race (White and non-White); residence; occupational knowledge; level of occupational aspiration in sophomore year; level of perceived goal-blockage as sophomore; and level of…

Tests the hypothesis that migrants from their communities of origin have higher status aspirations or greater prospects for socioeconomic success. Finds only modest evidence to support this hypothesis among rural youth, and reports that only among White males are occupational and residential aspirations linked. (Author/ST)

Describes research testing the 'race convergence' hypothesis for high school students of low socioeconomic background. Findings showed that many race differentials in the aspiration-formation process disappear at this level. (Author/CK)

Findings using data from the Southern Youth Study indicate net race and sex differences in values toward family, work, education, and residence which are not due to social origins; values for those four social objects tend to significantly direct both adolescent attitude formation and early adult behavior. (Author/CM)

A summary of the 1966-1979 Southern Youth Study (SYS), a 4-wave longitudinal research project intended to produce information on career development and decision-making processes and influences of rural southern youth from economically-disadvantaged counties, presents data collection procedures, an overview of instruments and variables,…

Using two panel studies which collectively covered the preadolescent-to-young adulthood period in the life cycle, the study focused on the issues of level of aspiration formation, stability, and race-sex subgroup invariance. The panel studies collected data from youths from (1) rural areas with towns of 2,500 or less and urban areas with cities of…