| Abstract: | This study is based on Project TALENT data collected in the last year of high school and five years beyond high school. Young men were classified as persisters in, dropouts from, and recruits to farming as a career. Those groups were compared with each other and with students in general. The most outstanding characteristic of young farmers in the United States is their relatively extensive background in agriculture, including father's occupation, high school curriculum, extracurricular activities in high school, work experience, and college major. Five years after high school, young fanners are more likely than students in general to have embarked on their life work and to have established their family. Differences in college attendance are consistent with this pattern. Despite incomes that are often relatively low, young farmers are not more dissatisfied with their work. The characteristics tapped by psychological tests appear to have few strong relationships to choice, satisfaction, and success in farming as a career. |
