In order to better understand the thoughts and aspirations of Indiana teenagers, this study surveyed 5,187 eighth-, tenth-, and twelfth-grade students, their parents and their school counselors. Samples were drawn from the state's major cities, suburbs, rural areas and the state as a whole. The report includes a variety of topics affecting…

This paper examines rural high school students' educational and occupational expectations and their relationships to personal, educational, school, and family characteristics. Questionnaires were distributed to all 10th and 12th graders in four small rural high schools in diverse geographic regions of Ohio. Almost all of the 491 respondents were…

This study examines the effect of one social milieu factor (Israeli kibbutz versus urban lifestyle) on Israeli adolescents' future orientation. Responses of 114 kibbutz and 112 urban adolescents to an open-ended Future Orientation Questionnaire are grouped into nine life domains: school and matriculation, military service, higher education, work…

This study investigated achievement attitudes of young, mathematically able adolescents in order to examine differences between boys and girls equated for ability, and to explore relationships between self-perceptions, aspirations, and extra-curricular activities related to mathematics, science, or computers. The research was guided by the…

A longitudinal study of educational variables and drug use was conducted by interview with 635 young Puerto Rican adults. Half had been selected as representing a "high risk" population, half a "normal risk" population. Correlational analyses revealed that the use of all drugs was associated with a negative attitude toward…

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 research assumes a relatively stable lifeworld for young people. For example, it assumes that the meaning of volunteering or service is sufficiently similar across multiple contexts to remain a valid and stable indicator. By extension, it also assumes that the lifeworld of young people today is not undergoing a period of rapid, and perhaps…

Reviews the literature on the career development of young Black females, and concludes that their unique dilemmas are often ignored, forgotten, or subsumed under the headings of minorities or females in general. (Author/ST)

Nine Mexican American mother, daughter, and grandmother triads were interviewed and administered questionnaires concerning academic aspirations for themselves and their daughters. Major factors associated with daughter's level of aspiration were mother's encouragement, importance of daughter's education to mother, and mother's aspiration for…

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…

"Shortchanging Girls, Shortchanging America," a report about the interrelationships among self-esteem, education, and career aspirations in adolescent girls and boys in today's society, received widespread attention on its release. The American Association of University Women asked the Academy for Educational Development to review the…

A study looked at how a science and mathematics intervention program for middle school girls, the "Voices" program, affected African American students and their families. Effects of the program on academic achievement and participation and persistence in school were also studied. The Voices program was implemented in one urban and one rural county…

Examined academic and social defensive pessimism and optimism strategies and adolescents' future orientation in the domains of education and military service. Found that academic strategies were significantly linked to prospective education components and social strategies to military service components. Found that investment in prospective…

Used panel study of representative community sample to compare volunteer and nonvolunteer adolescents and identify effects of volunteerism on development. Found that volunteers had higher educational plans and aspirations, grade point averages, academic self-esteem, and intrinsic motivation toward school work than did nonvolunteers. Volunteerism…