This paper examines the unique characteristics of rural adolescents raised on farms. As part of a longitudinal study on rural youth development, semistructured interviews were conducted each year for 4 consecutive years with 87 adolescents from 4 rural high schools in upstate New York. This study focused on data from the 19 adolescents who resided…

Seventeen adolescents from four rural high schools in upstate New York were interviewed while in the 12th grade and again a year later. Interviews focused on student perceptions of their community, school, and social life; values; and future plans. All participants graduated from high school, and most went on to college or moved to another…

A process model which included the influences of social origin, encouragement, and the formation of adolescent period attitudes as antecedents of early marital and fertility behavior was constructed and evaluated using three-wave panel data obtained from 176 nonmetropolitan females from selected Alabama, Georgia, Texas, and South Carolina high…

The document tested the level of generalization of a recent conclusion from past research (see ED075156) on nonmetropolitan (NM) south and southwest Texas Mexican American teenagers: that these youths have predominantly high and strong status aspirations and expectations. Earlier findings on NM Mexican American youth supported Merton's thesis that…

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…

The paper described and compared the attitudes that teenage boys and girls hold of marriage and procreation. Sex comparison was emphasized, because the process of change and its concomitant value and role confusion may be producing conflicting orientations toward future familial roles and spouses' expected roles. Specifically, the study focused on…

Based on comparative data from two 1973 studies, this study examined whether or not the occupational and educational status projections and language usage patterns of Mexican American teenagers living in a large metropolitan area differed from those of teenagers living in isolated, relatively small nonmetropolitan places. The two separate, but…

This paper examines the influence of community context on the attitudes of rural and nonrural adolescents toward their own future geographic and social mobility. Part of a national sample in a longitudinal study of career development, the 1,060 subjects were public school students in grades 6, 8, 10, and 12 from 3 contrasting Illinois communities.…

In contrast to persistent "culture of poverty" explanations, studies of seemingly irrational risk-taking behaviors among West Virginia adolescents found that early pregnancy and dropping out of school were related to lack of economic opportunity and decline of traditional community cultural patterns without acceptable alternatives.…

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…