Texas ranks among the top 10 states for school dropouts with an annual dropout rate of about 30%. Some dropout prevention programs are incorporating community service components as a means to counter the alienation and low self-esteem frequently seen among dropouts and at-risk students. Significant adults other than school personnel provide youth…

This report focused on the goal of investigating, within a path analytic framework, the stability and interplay of two occupational status projection variables in a Texas sample. More specifically, the dynamics of occupational aspirations and occupational expectations, observed in a three-wave rural youth panel, were analyzed using the…

Based on a 1967 survey of Mexican American high school sophomores conducted in the "border region" of South Texas, this 1973 follow-up study examined the extent to which: (1) historical changes had occurred in the use of Spanish and English by Mexican American boys and girls over the 6-year study period, and (2) the variations in 1973…

The changes in residence projections (statements of behavior, attitudes, or beliefs about future residence status) of rural East Texas high school sophomores between 1966 and 1972 were examined. Focus was on general trends over the time span as well as those specific to race, sex, and respondent's residence. The analysis involved an…

Historical change in occupational and educational status projections of Texas rural Mexican American teenage boys and girls between 1967 and 1973 were examined. The study determined the nature and extent of historical change patterns occurring among these youth in reference to the following dimensions of occupational and educational status…

A study examined how rural youth perceive leadership and how sense of place affects those perceptions. Interviews and observations of 12 students who participated in a leadership academy in 3 rural Texas high schools indicated that rural adolescents viewed leadership as situational. Teamwork and service were the elements of leadership that…

Research objectives were to determine the extent to which ethnic variability existed in reference to male and female: occupational aspirations (type, level, and intensity); occupational expectations (type, level, and certainty); and anticipatory goal deflection. Data were derived from surveys of the following rural youth (high school sophomores)…

The study assessed the stability or change in the residential orientations of rural Mexican American youth living near the Texas-Mexico border, examined changes in the local social and economic environment, and made some predictions as to their effects on the students' dispositions. In the springs of 1967 and 1973, questionnaires were administered…

A comparative analysis of the findings of three studies involving widely varying ethnic groupings of rural youth was conducted in order to evolve a speculative frame of propositions about religion as a variable attribute of the life situation of rural youth, and to speculate about the possible significance of patterned variability in religious…

The major purpose of this paper is to provide information about occupational status orientations of Negro youth through analysis of data obtained from a recent study of high school sophomores residing in Texas. The specific objective of the research was to explore rural and urban differences among Negro boys on the following aspects of…

This study seeks an answer to one broad question, "Do black children who attend racially desegregated schools, have educational aspirations and expectations which are significantly different (either higher or lower) from black children who attend racially segregated schools?" To facilitate this, the study not only examines the…

The military orientations of rural East Texas black and white high school students interviewed in 1966 were very similar; those of metropolitan and nonmetropolitan youth also did not differ much. Since then, status projections of Texas youth have been extended by adding a sample of Mexican American sophomores (1966) to compare with the East Texas…

Utilizing data collected from high school sophomores in 1972 and 1973, the study investigated the religious behavior and orientations of rural Black, White, and Mexican American youth in reference to religious affiliation, church participation, religious self-image (perceptions by peers), religious identification as an impediment to social…

The specific objective was to study racial differences in the consistency dimension of desired status objects (aspirational frame of reference) and expected objects (anticipated frame of reference) of adolescent males from the rural South. Specific observations were made on (1) racial differences in consistency of aspirational frames of reference…

Four rural counties in Texas--Jones, Haskell, Stonewall, and Fisher--were selected for the study because they represent every type of problem which needed to be examined to develop a comprehensive career education model. Since 1950, the population in each of these counties has declined, and the population characteristics have changed. Even with a…