Family Background,Social and Academic Capital,and Adolescents' Aspirations: A Mediational Analysis

In this study a mediational model was constructed to examine relationships between refined measures of childhood and adolescent social capital and the aspirations of adolescents with varying academic capital and from differing social status and ethnic backgrounds. Longitudinal data were collected from 460 16-year-old Australians and their parents from Anglo-Australian, Greek, and Southern Italian groups. Using partial least squares path modeling the findings suggest: (a) family background, childhood social and academic capital, and adolescents' social capital combine to have medium to large associations with adolescents' aspirations, and that the associations are larger for educational aspirations than for occupational aspirations and stronger for males than for females; (b) the mediational model is more successful in explaining family background differences in educational aspirations than variations in occupational aspirations; and (c) after taking into account social and academic capital, Greek males continue to have higher occupational aspirations than do Anglo-Australian and Southern Italian males, and sons of fathers with high social status continue to have higher occupational aspirations than do other male adolescents. The investigation indicates that within encompassing family backgrounds, differences in educational outcomes should be examined in relation to children's and parents' perceptions of social and cultural capital and to variations in children's academic capital.     

Sex Role Expectations in Children's Vocational Aspirations and Perceptions of Occupations

To study sex role expectations, 120 boys and girls from three age groups—preschool, second grade, and fifth grade—in two socioeconomic levels were asked to name their vocational aspirations and to choose whether a man, woman, or both could do the work in 30 occupations depicted in a slide-tape series. Results indicated that sex typing was present in the way their aspirations conformed to traditional sex roles, with a significant relationship (p <.001) between sex typing of aspirations and sex of the respondents. Significant differences in responses to the occupational slides were found on the variables of sex (p <.01), grade level (p <.001), and socioeconomic level (p <.05), with greater sex typing indicated by boys than girls, by preschool children than by older children, and by lower to lower-middle class children than by middle to upper-middle class children. The study revealed a disparity between many children's perceptions of occupations as ones in which both sexes could work and their own personalized, sex-typed aspirations.     

Educational and Vocational Aspirations of Minority and Female Students: A Longitudinal Study

This study examined the relative importance of school, family, personal/psychological, race, and sex variables in predicting educational and vocational aspirations. A nationally representative sample of 10th‐grade students was followed through 2 years beyond their high school. Results suggested that sex and race significantly predicted educational and vocational aspirations of students. The educational aspiration model was shown to be more robust than the occupational aspiration model. Overall, students showed increases in educational and occupational aspirations, regardless of sex and race. Compared with other groups, Asian Americans had the greatest increase in educational aspirations. Female students, on the average, had higher educational and vocational aspirations.     

Self-verification as a mediator of mothers' self-fulfilling effects on adolescents' educational attainment

This research examined whether self-verification acts as a general mediational process of self-fulfilling prophecies. The authors tested this hypothesis by examining whether self-verification processes mediated self-fulfilling prophecy effects within a different context and with a different belief and a different outcome than has been used in prior research. Results of longitudinal data obtained from mothers and their adolescents (N=332) indicated that mothers' beliefs about their adolescents' educational outcomes had a significant indirect effect on adolescents' academic attainment through adolescents' educational aspirations. This effect, observed over a 6-year span, provided evidence that mothers' self-fulfilling effects occurred, in part, because mothers' false beliefs influenced their adolescents' own educational aspirations, which adolescents then self-verified through their educational attainment. The theoretical and applied implications of these findings are discussed.     

Relationships between work values,socio-educational and work experiences,and vocational aspirations of 6th, 9th, 10th,and 12th graders

Using a cross-sectional design and canonical regression analysis, the differential relationships between work values and social, educational, and occupational experiences and aspirations were examined for boys and girls in grades 6, 9, 10, and 12. Support was found for predicted differences in work-values correlates across grades and between sexes. The experiences and aspirations studied generally correlated positively with an intrinsic value pattern for girls rather than boys. Discussion focuses on possible determinants of sex-related differences in the patterning and correlates of work values.     

Aspirations and opportunity structures: 13-year-olds in areas with restricted opportunities

Some of the ways in which the occupational and educational aspirations and expectations of 13-year-olds are influenced by local opportunity structures are examined. The educational and occupational aspirations of 13-year-olds in contrasting local labour markets are explored, along with the ways in which their plans may be affected by living in an area with restricted opportunities. It is argued that differences in aspirations and expectations are largely explained by the socio-economic location of families rather than by the structure of the local labour market. However, 13-year-olds have an awareness of the limited nature of local job opportunities, and many realise that migration may be necessary if they are to fulfil their aspirations.     

Educational Planning and Academic Achievement of Middle School Students: A Racial and Cultural Comparison

A nationally representative sample of middle school students from diverse cultural and ethnic backgrounds was surveyed on educational aspirations, planning, and achievements. Results indicated significant racial and gender differences in educational and voational planning help-seeking behaviors. Results also indicated a significant race and sex interaction in students' educational aspirations as well as perception of parental expectations. Students' educational aspirations were significantly related to their current academic achievements. In many cases, students' aspirations and perceived parents' expectations did not match closely. Significant dtfferences in mathematics, science, and reading proficiency among racial and sex groups also were indicated. Implications for counseling are discussed.     

Father identification,achievement, and occupational behavior of rural youth: 10-year follow-up

Males from rural economically deprived school districts, who had previously been surveyed as high school seniors, again 1 year after graduation, and again 5 years after graduation, were surveyed a fourth and final time 10 years after high school graduation concerning their occupational status and aspirations, their marital status, their spouses' educational and occupational achievements, the importance of life roles, and their occupational and personal satisfactions. In the original study the participants had been divided into two groups, low-identification males (LIM) and high-identification males (HIM) based on independent evaluators' judgments of the adequacy of their fathers as identification models. Each group's responses to the survey were compared. The results indicate that there were no statistically significant differences between the two groups on the variables of optimism about the future, spouses' occupational achievements, role importance, occupational satisfaction, and personal satisfaction. There were statistically significant differences on the variables of occupational status, occupational aspirations, educational achievements, educational plans, marital status, and spouses' educational achievements. The results are discussed in the context of the three previous surveys. Over the 10-year period the occupational and educational achievements and aspirations have been significantly higher for the HIM group than for the LIM group. Equally consistent is the finding that over the 10-year period there has been no differences between the two groups in satisfaction with status.     

Sex-related differences in the aspirations of high school students

The factors affecting the educational and occupational aspirations of male and female high school students are compared. The main difference seems to be the role of perceived opportunities in mediating antecedent effects on aspirations. Males' perceptions of what they can and are expected to attain are strongly influenced by their academic ability and achievement, while females' perceptions are influenced mainly by their social origins. Academic achievement has a crucial positive effect on the aspirations of both groups. While its effect on boys' aspirations is more pronounced, the process of schooling tends also to increase the confidence of able and high performing girls and motivate them toward high career attainment.     

Adolescents' occupational and educational goals: A test of reciprocal relations

During adolescence, young people's future aspirations and expectations begin to crystallize, especially in the domains of education and occupation. Much of the research in this area has emphasized development within a particular domain (e.g., education) and relations between aspirations and expectations across domains remain largely unexplored, resulting in a lack of information on how goals develop in tandem and affect each other. It is also unclear whether these developmental processes differ by gender and socioeconomic status. We tested reciprocal effects between occupational and educational goals using a longitudinal sample of 636 adolescents (52% boys). Results from dynamic systems models indicated change in occupational and educational goals across high school. For all youth, occupational aspirations predicted change in occupational expectations. Educational expectations predicted change in occupational aspirations for youth in high but not low parent education groups, and occupational expectations predicted change in educational expectations for girls but not boys.     

Longitudinal Analysis of Select Influences on Adolescents' Occupational Aspirations

The National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 was used to investigate the longitudinal influence of select demographic and latent variables on the development of adolescents' occupational aspirations at three critical points in the career development process—early, mid-, and late adolescence. Linear structural equation (LISREL) analysis examined the contributions of family status, academic achievement, and social psychological variables. Occupational aspirations of adolescents were relatively stable across the 4-year time period. Further, earlier aspirations offered significant predictive power for subsequent ones. Structural coefficients for social demographic variables indicated that socioeconomic status (SES) had significant effects on adolescents' aspirations. In contrast, two latent variables, academic achievement and self-evaluation, initially represented only modest effects on aspirations which then decreased consistently over time.     

Sex differences in mathematical reasoning ability at age 13: their status 20 years later

Reported is the 20-year follow-up of 1,975 mathematically gifted adolescents (top 1%) whose assessments at age 12 to 14 revealed robust gender differences in mathematical reasoning ability. Both sexes became exceptional achievers and perceived themselves as such; they reported uniformly high levels of degree attainment and satisfaction with both their career direction and their overall success. The earlier sex differences in mathematical reasoning ability did predict differential educational and occupational outcomes. The observed differences also appeared to be a function of sex differences in preferences for (a) inorganic versus organic disciplines and (b) a career-focused versus more-balanced life. Because profile differences in abilities and preferences are longitudinally stable, males probably will remain more represented in some disciplines, whereas females are likely to remain more represented in others. These data have policy implications for higher education and the world of work.     

Sex differences in realization of individual potential for achievement

Data from 4035 participants in Project TALENT were analyzed to examine the extent to which known sex differences in achievement held up when early potential for achievement was contolled. Original TALENT data, consisting of information on socioeconomic background, cognitive abilities, and educational and occupational aspirations, were collected in 1960 when members of the study sample were in Grade 9. Follow-up surveys measuring participants' educational and occupational attainment were conducted at 1, 5, and 11 years after the date of participants' expected graduation from high school. Women had higher high school grades and scored higher on a composite of academic ability tests taken in Grade 9 than did men. However, by 11 years after high school, men had acquired more education and were earning more money on the job. Sex differences in realization of achievement potential were found across all socioeconomic levels. At least part of the reason behind women's relative failure to translate potential into achievement may lie in the greater conflict, for women, between the roles of spouse/parent and the roles of student/worker: variables measuring the onset, duration, and extent of family-related commitments were more strongly related to female than to male realization of potential. Sex differences in achievement grew larger between the 5- and 11-year follow-ups as a greater proportion of women in the study sample became wives and mothers. The widening of the sex gap in achievement during this period was particularly pronounced among the subgroup of individuals who were in the top quartile of potential in Grade 9.     

'When i grow up i want to be …': A longitudinal study of the development of career preferences

The career preferences of a cohort of 1,773 pupils in ten co-educational comprehensive schools were studied at three points between the ages of 11 and 17. At all three ages, there were enormous differences between the sexes in their job plans, although girls and boys gave similar responses to questions about the characteristics of their ideal job. There were also significant differences between children of different social class and academic ability, and some indications of differences between ethnic groups. Individual children showed little consistency in the occupations they named, although some jobs, notably hairdressing and teaching, were chosen at an earlier age than others. One of the strongest predictors of the occupational aspirations of 17 year-olds was their perception of what their parents wanted for them when they were 14. Boys' aspirations seemed to be based on their individual abilities and achievements, whereas girls' aspirations were more strongly related to ascribed factors such as social class.     

A Study of Black and White College Women

In an examination of career aspirations, 101 black and 530 white college women were asked to indicate their occupational and educational plans, important considerations for career choices, and their attitudes toward combining the roles of career and family. Results indicated that women who planned careers in male-dominated occupations had higher career and educational aspirations than women who desired careers in femaledominated occupations. Black women who planned careers in male-dominated professions showed high levels of aspirations, planned more education than was necessary for the desired occupations, and perceived less conflict in combining the roles of career and family than their white counterparts. There were few differences between black and white women in their attitudes toward the traditional roles of men and women. Those choosing female-dominated careers, however, had more traditional attitudes regardless of race. Implications of these findings for the influence of occupational gender dominance on career aspirations are discussed.     

Correlates and consequences of uncertainty in career aspirations: Gender differences among adolescents in England

Young people today face a great deal of uncertainty regarding their career opportunities, yet relatively little information is known about the correlates and consequences of uncertain aspirations. Drawing upon the Longitudinal Study of Young People in England (LSYPE) born in 1989/90, this study examined a pathway model investigating whether uncertain career aspirations and other associated variables mediate the link between socioeconomic status and prior achievement and later educational outcomes. Gender differences were also examined. Findings indicate that adolescents who had lower prior achievement and were from lower socioeconomic backgrounds were more likely to have uncertainty in their career aspirations. The hypothesized model was supported to some extent, indicating that uncertain career aspirations and other associated variables were significant mediators. Unexpectedly, adolescents with uncertain career aspirations had higher academic performance at age 16 and a greater likelihood of educational enrollment at age 18 compared to those with high, certain aspirations, when parental educational expectations, school motivation, perceived academic ability and useful career advice were taken into account, suggesting that these young people may benefit from an extended period of moratorium in their career choice.     

The Effect of Mother's Employment on the Achievement,Aspirations, and Expectations of the Child

This study of 3,014 high school seniors examined school achievement and educational aspirations and expectations of youth of working and nonworking mothers. The sample was stratified by socio-economic level and by the sex of the student. The fact that mothers were employed full-time appeared to have little, if any, detrimental effect on children in regard to educational aspirations, expectations, and achievement. There was even a trend for these children to have higher educational aspirations and expectations than children of nonworking mothers, with the exception of boys from the professional socio-economic level. Aspirations and expectations were less divergent at higher socio-economic levels than at lower levels. Girls with working mothers planned to combine a homemaking and working career in their own lives more often than did girls with nonworking mothers. Children of both sexes with working mothers, at lower socio-economic levels but not at professional levels, expected more financial help from their family for future schooling.     

Factors Related to Career Aspirations of New Entrants into a Stratified Occupational System

A transactional model of career aspirations is presented. Selected variables from the model were measured with a postal questionnaire completed by 346 new entrants into a stratified occupational system. Factors found to be strongly related to initial career aspiration levels included sex and educational qualifications. These variables were found to mediate other factor relationships with career aspirations.     

Father identification,achievement, and occupational behavior of rural youth: 5-Year follow-up

Rural economically deprived adolescent males, who had previously been surveyed as high school seniors and again 1 year after graduation concerning their post-high school plans, were surveyed again 5 years after graduation concerning their occupational status and aspirations, their educational achievements, their satisfaction with their present status, their evaluation of their high school preparation in regard to their present jobs, and their optimism about the future. The subjects had been divided in an earlier study into two groups, low identification males (LIM) and high identification males (HIM) based on independent evaluators' judgments of the adequacy of their fathers as identification models. Each group's responses to the survey were compared. The results indicate that there are no statistically significant differences between the two groups on the variables of satisfaction with present status or evaluation of their high schools' preparation of them for their current occupation. There are statistically significant differences on the variables of occupational status, occupational aspirations, educational achievements, and optimism about the future.     

Vocational aspirations of Chinese high school students and their parents' expectations

This study examined the vocational aspirations and parental vocational expectations of high school students and their parents (1067 parent–child dyads). Participants completed a demographic questionnaire and an Occupations List. The Occupations List consisted of 126 occupational titles evenly distributed across the six Holland types. Parents were asked to check the occupations that they expected their children to pursue and students were asked to select occupations to which they aspired. The expectations of parents were compared to the aspirations of children according to the occupational field, prestige, and sextype of occupations. The expectation–aspiration gap was relatively small for occupational field, but the gap was larger for occupational prestige and sextype. There were also gender differences for both expectations (parents' expectation toward sons and daughters) and aspirations (aspirations of male and female students). Types of high school (key or regular high schools) and parental educational background also related to expectations and aspirations. Theoretical, research, and practice implications are discussed.