The causal linkage between socioeconomic status, occupational and educational aspiration, and attainment was examined in this attempt to test an existing theoretical model which used socioeconomic status as a major input variable, with significant other influence as a crucial intervening variable between socioeconomic status and aspiration. The findings of this 20-year longitudinal study gave partial support to the theoretical model tested. An especially strong relationship between educational attainment and occupational attainment was found. A large proportion of the variance was left unexplained. Therefore, other significant variables must be added to the model to determine more fully the factors that enable youth to raise their educational and occupational goals. Sample size (123), lack of IQ and grade point data, and the testing of an existing model were limitations involved in this study. Related documents are ED 017 393 and ED 016 544. (SW)