Purpose is a concept receiving increasing attention in the developmental sciences. Making sense of your place in the world and finding meaning--a process fundamental to purpose--support positive development in adolescence and beyond. Using traditional ethnographic strategies, this article examines the development of purpose among a small group of…

The hypotheses to be tested by this study were (1) that Negro youth are more positively oriented toward participation in military service than white youth and (2) that lower class youth with high aspirations are more positively oriented toward military service than other youth. Respondents were male high school sophomores from 3 schools located in…

PRESENTED ARE ABSTRACTS AND EVALUATIVE COMMENTARIES OF 47 PUBLISHED, EMPIRICAL RESEARCH FINDINGS ON OCCUPATIONAL STATUS ORIENTATIONS OF RURAL YOUTH. THE ANNOTATIONS ARE LIMITED TO ONLY THOSE ASPECTS OF THE FINDINGS BEARING DIRECTLY ON OCCUPATIONAL ASPIRATION, OCCUPATIONAL EXPECTATION, AND ANTICIPATORY DEFLECTION FROM OCCUPATIONAL GOALS. EACH…

The status projections of high school sophomores residing in rural East Texas were surveyed in spring of 1972. Focus was on their aspirations and expectations for status attainment in occupation, education, income, and type of place of residence. In each area, four elements of status projections were examined: aspiration level, expectation level,…

The 66 annotations given in this bibliography are from status projection literature resulting from U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Regional Research Project S-61 "Development of Human Resource Potentials and Mobility in the Rural South" completed by the summer of 1971. Most of the studies reported conform to the following…

Identical instruments and procedures were used to collect data on military orientations from 98 Black boys who attended predominantly Black high schools in nonmetropolitan East Texas and 111 Blacks attending an all-Black high school in Houston, Texas, during the spring, 1966. The hypotheses tested were (1) that nonmetropolitan Black boys have more…

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 purpose of this paper is to examine some factors which may have an effect on occupational choice and perceived goal-blockage of high school students in 2 selected geographical areas. The factors examined are residence, race, education, and self-concept. Group I consisted of 264 male and female black high school seniors in Louisiana. The rural…

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 study reports on levels of achievement among rural black and white Southerners of relatively low socioeconomic status. The 262 persons who were the objects of the study were reared in Millfield, North Carolina. They were first studied by Baughman and Dahlstrom (1968) in the early 1960s when they were in the eighth grade. Ten years later, this…

The purpose of this study was to identify and explain factors which account for rural youths having lower attendance records and lower educational attainment than urban youths. The major objectives were: (1) to determine the factors affecting the school attendance and attainment of rural youths; (2) to determine the life aspirations of rural…

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…

Rural youth are a diverse group not only geographically, but socioeconomically, ethnically, and culturally as well. Historically, the rural student has not achieved as well as his urban counterpart in high school or in post secondary education. There is evidence that this is beginning to change and that rural students are doing as well or better…

A study designed to determine aptitudes, skills, and sociological and personal factors characterizing rural youth analyzed educational and personal differences of 2,929 students in eight rural Illinois counties during 1963-64. From data obtained through academic tests and personal questionnaires, it was concluded that although three-fourths of…

One of a series on selected topics, this bibliography of resource materials and research findings is drawn from ERIC documents; the 42 citations on rural youth cover expectations and aspirations about education, occupation, residence, marriage, and procreation (several are historical change studies), and focus on such influences as race, sex,…