Critics of the college-for-all ethos argue that it encourages low-achieving adolescents to develop unrealistically high expectations. This argument posits that low-achievers waste time and money, and risk disappointment and self-recrimination, pursuing college when they are unlikely to complete it. The present study uses two national data…

Using prospective, longitudinal data spanning 10 years (age = 10-20) from a study of 295 economically disadvantaged males, the current investigation evaluated a developmental model that links early family environment and later educational aspirations, extracurricular activities, and educational attainment to substance use in early adulthood. The…

As with earlier social disparities in educational achievement, re-enrolment in college education can depend on parental social background. We link this finding with gender differences using data from the US National Longitudinal Study of Youth 79 and ask if the decision to re-enrol in college is influenced by parental social class in a…

This study used an ecological, person-centered approach to identify subgroups of families who had similar profiles across multiple dimensions of Mexican-origin mothers' and fathers' occupational characteristics (i.e., self-direction, hazardous conditions, physical activity) and to relate these subgroups to families' sociocultural…

The past few decades have witnessed international pressure to get more children in the world educated, for longer. The view that school education is core to definitions of good childhoods and successful youth transitions is increasingly widespread, globally and locally. However, structural inequalities persist and migration for education has…

This longitudinal study explored adolescents' future-oriented cognitions, current activities, and later educational attainment using data from 317 adolescents (55% female; mean age = 14.98 years, SD = 0.85) followed into early adulthood. Aspirations and expectations regarding work and education showed modest stability from year to year.…

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…

Despite decades of research on the benefits of educational expectations, researchers have failed to show that unrealized plans are consequential for mental health, as self-discrepancy and other social psychological theories would predict. This article uses two national longitudinal studies of youth to test whether unrealized educational…

Drawing from an ethnographically grounded longitudinal study on educational transitions, the aim of this article is to analyse young people's reflections about their educational choices at different ages. Consistencies and breaks in their plans and actual choices are explored and reflected in relation to the economic, social, cultural and…

What do recent trends toward increasingly ambitious educational expectations and rising college completion rates mean for the stratification of higher education? This article shows that the odds of achieving expectations for a bachelor's degree increased across 15 cohorts of young adults, and to a lesser extent, for expectations to attend…

Examines career orientations in young women from high- and low-SES backgrounds, using a longitudinal data set collected from 1973 to 1982 which was analyzed using LISREL modeling. SES distinctions emerged in political attitudes, occupational interests, senior school achievement, and professional attainment, as well as motivational tendencies and…

The correlation between educational aspiration and educational achievement was investigated in 6 Southern states via a longitudinal study (1965-1972). Approximately 1,200 rural youth, stratified by race, sex, and socioeconomic status, were contacted when sophomores, when seniors, and when 4 years beyond high school graduation. Findings revealed…

Project S-114 (1977-1983) consisted of three objectives which dealt with rural Southern youth and focused on educational and occupational aspirations and attainment results for males and females, blacks and whites. Each objective involved utilization of a distinct dataset. In 1979 Objective 1 was completed; the fourth wave of a longitudinal panel…

Research objectives were to present and analyze a causal model of educational attainment and to include with parental socioeconomic status the number of siblings as an intervening social origin variable impacting on attitudes and attainment. Data were obtained from a three-wave longitudinal study (1966, 1968, and 1972) of 221 white nonmetropolitan…

In this longitudinal study, relationships were examined between educational aspirations and educational attainment for Australian young adults from different ethnic and social status backgrounds. Participants included 6,811 (3,547 women and 3,264 men) young adults (mean age = 20.3 years) who were in Year 9 when the study began. In the analysis,…