A sample of 176 Tennessee children and their mothers were studied in 1969 when the children were fifth or sixth graders and again in 1975 when they were eleventh or twelfth graders to determine changes in occupational and educational aspirations and expectations along with possible causes for such changes. Comparison of occupational aspirations…

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…

The project was designed to follow up a specific population of young men from 11 rural counties in eastern Kentucky, who at the time of the study in 1960 had been out of the eighth grade for 10 years. The sample consisted of 307 men taken from eighth grade enrollment lists for the school year 1949-50. The purpose of the study was to investigate…

Questionnaire data gathered from 142 high school students in a rural Montana town were used to identify the sources of influence in setting occupational and educational goals and to analyze the amounts of information transmitted from various categories of significant others. Results showed that for both occupation and education, peers and,…

This report examines the factors that influence the postsecondary enrollment and persistence of rural Pennsylvania students, compared to students from urban and suburban areas. The National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 provided data on 216 rural, 103 urban, and 323 suburban high school graduates from Pennsylvania. Depending on their status…

Analysis of Iowa Youth and Families Project data found three distinct routes to 4-year college attendance: the traditional path of youth with professional/managerial parents; farm youth's use of parents' community ties; and the path of resourceful lower-status rural youth, whose attainment grew from early educational ambition and varied community…

Changes in the occupational and educational aspirations and expectations of fifth and sixth grade children over a 6-year period were studied. In 1969, a questionnaire was administered to 355 students from 4 rural mountain schools and 3 urban schools in low-income areas in 3 Kentucky counties. In 1975, 199 students from the same rural mountain…