Effects of early marriage and marriage deferment on educational attainment and occupational achievement of black and white youth were investigated in a longitudinal study of 1,052 rural youth from Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Texas. Data were obtained from the larger Southern Youth Study, 1966-72. Within the…

Extending application of Svalastoga's (1965) concept of system permeability to the intrasystem analysis of sex-race differentials in educational permeability in the rural South, an operational procedure was developed to quantify permeability as the percent variation in filial attainment of a status not associated with variations in parental…

Career and career related preference expressed by a number of rural Southern high school youth were found to moderately predict their early adult behaviors. Preferences for post high school education were the dominant influence and single best predictor of subsequent educational attainment. Moderate linkages were also found to exist between…