Participation in post-compulsory physics is a matter of longstanding concern from both economic and equity perspectives. In considering this issue, this study draws upon Bourdieu's theory of social practice, particularly notions of the 'cultural arbitrary', to explore what insights into post-compulsory physics choice might be provided by students…

Background: The purpose of this study was to assess the protective influence of individual, family, and community assets from the initiation of sexual intercourse (ISI) for adolescents living in one-parent households compared with adolescents living in two-parent households. Methods: Five waves of data were collected annually over a 4-year period…

Adolescent aspirations have been extensively researched, particularly in the contexts of higher education and the workforce. This paper extends research by exploring how the educational and career aspirations of rural adolescent girls relate to their other future goals. It demonstrates how exploring aspirations, both within and outside of the…

This article examines the role of rapid social change for human adaptation, focusing in particular on uncertainty in educational and career-related goals of young people born between 1970 and 1990. A review of the research evidence suggests that although most young people want to continue in higher education, more young people in the later-born…

Sociologists have long used educational expectations to understand the complex mental processes underlying individuals' educational decision making. Yet, little research evaluates how students actually formulate their educational expectations. Status attainment theory asserts that students adopt their educational expectations early based on family…

In this brief, authors Michael Staunton and Eleanor Jaffee review the key findings and recommendations from research conducted in the first half of the Coös Youth Study, which began in 2008 and is planned to continue through 2018. The study explores young people's decisions about their educational and job opportunities in rural northern New…

This chapter examines development through different life transitions, such as educational transitions and transition to parenthood during adolescence to adulthood in the context of the life-span model of personal goals. According to the life-span model of motivation, four key mechanisms--channeling, choice, co-regulation, and compensation--play a…

The Juvenile and Adolescent Substance Abuse Prevention Program (JASAP) is a curriculum-based prevention and health promotion program for youth between the ages of 13 to 18 years in Fulton County, Georgia. The program was established in 2007 to promote healthy decision-making skills that would eventually lead to informed choices and decisions…

Two factors regarding the helpfulness of parents, school personnel, and peers to students with different educational aspirations are studied: (1) whether students of different aspirations talk with the same people about school problems, and (2) how helpful are the persons with whom the students do talk. The data were obtained from questionnaire…

Examined the influence of family relationships and support, religion, and education on the Puerto Rican pregnant teenager's decision to carry or to abort. Found girls who carried were more significantly influenced and supported by family and friends, especially by mothers, than were those in abort group. Abort group girls reported greater…

Adolescents at the ninth grade level or its equivalent in three small communities answered a questionnaire which asked them to list as many occupations, free-time activities, and acquaintances as they could. (Author/JM)

Targeted to teens at-risk for early motherhood and dropping out of school, as well as to teachers, counselors, and parents, this video encourages teens to delay motherhood by underscoring the link between goal-setting and education. The 24-minute film features seven urban high school students speaking about the importance of education and the…

The United States portion of a crossnational study of coping styles suggests that children may have coping strategies that support their value systems. Participants were two random samples of equal numbers of ten- and fourteen-year-olds, boys and girls, upper-middle class and upper-lower class in communities near Chicago, Illinois, and Austin,…

This study investigated the utility of the self-regulation model of decision making for explaining and predicting adolescents' academic decision making. Measures included an assessment of decision-making skill; academic goals; select scales of Learning and Study Strategies Inventory; and teacher ratings of achievement behavior. Adolescents'…

In times of dramatic social change, new career options emerge and old options may become obsolete. We investigated predictors of change in general career aspirations and of plans to attend a university of East German adolescents from 1989 (before German unification) to 1991 and 1995, respectively, after German unification. Higher pre-unification…