Status Aspirations Research Articles

Socio-Economic Status and Educational Aspirations in Uganda

Socio-Economic Status and Educational Aspirations in Uganda

Socio-economic Status and Educational Aspirations in Uganda

Studies of high school students in the United States have found that socioeconomic status (SES) origins exert a decisive influence on educational aspirations (when plans to attend university are interpreted as high aspirations) even when related variables such as gender, intelligence, high school record, neighborhood, and community residence are also examined. By contrast, research in the West African societies of Ghana and Ivory Coast has found a zero to weak influence of SES on educational aspirations. This research note is prompted by these two sets of findings. Data collected during the 1970s while Idi Amin was President of Uganda make it possible to observe whether Ugandan secondary school students resemble more closely the West African pattern or that of the United States. Results indicate that SES is important in determining who will be educated; but this does not show up if one restricts analysis to those in senior secondary school (SS5 and S6)

The Careers of Occupational Therapists Five Years After Graduation: Modified Plans But Satisfying Lives

The fourth survey in a longitudinal study of occupational therapists' career patterns elicited a 66% response rate (N = 49). The percentage employed in the profession had fallen by 21.5% since 1980. Less than half of the 22.4% who were unemployed planned to return to professional work. Job satisfaction remained high among the employed though work values had changed. Pay, job security, chances for promotion and respect received were considered more important than in 1980. The most stressful aspects of work had altered with work pressure and worries about patients being the most stressful. While 53% regarded themselves as specialists, areas of speciality differed from those planned earlier. Some had been promoted (40%), but few had high status ambitions. Many therapists (63%) had married and 24% had children. Most mothers of young children were unemployed. The number of children desired had decreased. There was little evidence of role conflict and therapists were satisfied with most areas of their lives.

Accounting for the Educational Shortfalls of Mothers

Women who become mothers at an early age complete fewer years of education than women who delay childbearing. Using data from the US National Longitudinal Study of the High School Class of 1972 on 11336 females the study examines family formation during the first 4 years after high school. 3123 women had become mothers by October 1976. The mothers especially the earlier groups ranked lower than their classmates in ability class rank and socioeconomic status. Married nonparents were close to the single nonparents in ability and class rank but a much smaller proportion of married nonparents than single nonparents were enrolled in academic programs indicating that most did not plan to go to college. The studys 2 main findings are that: 1) the effects of late-teenage parenthood on young married womens current educational status and long term educational aspirations are less severe than one might infer from comparisons of observed (unadjusted) outcomes for parents and nonparents and 2) parenthood and marriage have separate identifiable effects. The marriage effects are strong for this population of women. Preexisting differences between parents and nonparents would have led to very different educational outcomes in these 2 groups even without parenthood. Many of the effects that might be attributed to early parenthood also show up as effects of early marriage alone. This is not to say that early parenthood has no effects; the mothers do lag behind other married women in both current and expected education. The results show considerable self-selection into early marriage and early parenthood. One problem with the study is that data are limited to women who managed to get to their senior year in high school.

Occupational status, family environments, and adolescents' aspirations: The Laosa model.

Occupational status, family environments, and adolescents' aspirations: The Laosa model.

Socioeconomic Status and Occupational Aspirations of High School Seniors in Nigeria

This study examines the effects of socioeconomic status on the occupational aspirations and motivation for occupational preference of high school seniors in Nigeria. The article suggests ways by which counselors can help students who are less privileged.

Level of career aspiration and strength of career orientation

The relationship between the status of career aspirations and strength of career orientation was examined. A sample of 171 male and 192 female 12th graders completed a Career Orientation Inventory and reported their most preferred occupational aspiration. The results indicated that students with higher status professional aspirations manifested stronger career orientations than students with lower status aspirations.

Social psychological variables and their relevance to the status attainment of teenagers.

In order to examine the role of social psychological variables in the status transmission process, we collected data from 400 teenagers and their parents. The variables considered included the youth's self-concept of ability, the valuation of self-direction/conformity, the preferences of the parents, the father's occupational status, the occupational and educational aspirations, and the educational attainments of the teenager. The model develop suggests some necessary revisions to the basic "Wisconsin model" of status attainment in order to indicate the important roles played by both self-concept of ability and parental aspirations as intervening social psychological variables in this process.

Why employees read company newsletters

The authors of this article, using a “uses-and-gratifications” approach to evaluating readership behavior, have attempted to determine the relationship between newsletter readership and job status and career aspirations. The researchers conducted a content analysis of several publications and a mail survey of employees of a large corporation in the Midwest. They found that employee position in the decision-making hierarchy is not related to higher readership, although level of career aspirations is positively related to readership of company news. In addition, the research team discovered that length of employment is not directly related to readership of employee social-relations content in the company newsletter.

Adult Role Transitions, Parental Influence, and Status Aspirations Early in the Life Course

Adult Role Transitions, Parental Influence, and Status Aspirations Early in the Life Course

The Structure of Significant Other Influence on Status Aspirations: Black-White Variations

Previous research on the social psychological dimensions of status attainment underscores the importance of significant other influence (SOI) as an explanatory variable. However, research to date is characterized by three features requiring further consideration: (1) the continued use of a priori definitions of who are key significant others (SOs); (2) inadequate specification of the relative influence of definers and models; and, (3) the differential effects of SOI on status aspirations for black and white youth. There is a needfor research which directly identifies the structure of SOI, both in terms of role incumbents and mode of influence, for both racial groups. This research addresses this need by analyzing data collected using a modified version of the Wisconsin Significant-Other Battery which elicited from a sample of black and white male youth the identities of SOs. The findings reveal differences between blacks and whites regarding the structure of their interpersonal matrices and identify problems inherent in using a priori measures of SOI.

Early Transition into Adult Roles: Some Antecedents and Outcomes

The transition to adult roles usually occurs within a normative age span. By focusing on preadolescence to late adolescence using 2-wave panel data, this research seeks to develop a more informed picture of how "early" exit from the student role and "early" entry into the adult role of parent or spouse reflect factors operating prior to adolescence. The short term consequences of adult role transition on teenage status aspirations, life plans, other psychological orientations, and parental influence are also examined. Even though multiple role transition is frequently observed, only leaving school early appears to be related to preadolescent career decisions and academic performance in high school. The determinants of early transition to the role of parent or spouse do not appear to be socioeconomic origins, parental child rearing techniques or other specific influences, academic ability or performance, or preadolescent aspirations, as has generally been hypothesized in the literature. Research dilemmas and policy implications are discussed.

Job Status Aspirations and their Determinants for Middle and Lower Stream Pupils in an Urban, Multi‐Racial Comprehensive School

AbstractThis paper is based on an intensive questionnaire and interview study of about 800 middle and lower stream children in a large, urban, multi‐racial, comprehensive school in the West Midlands. It presents data on the nature and extent of career aspirations and shows that childrens' horizons are, to a large extent, limited to the possibilities available in their local environment. The data are analysed using correlation and stepwise regression procedures and the major determinants of career aspirations are discussed. Comparisons are made between the sexes and between the children of different ages. Doubt is cast on a number of popular theories of occupational aspirations and implications for careers guidance are suggested.

Family timing in late adolescence and early adulthood: the case of southern males.

Social science research and theory about familial orientations and reproductive ideals have largely neglected males' attitudes. Drawing on demographic and status attainment perspectives, this study applies a model of processes underlying marriage and family timing to longitudinal data on 288 young adult males from the Southern Youth Study. Several posited influences of family of origin factors, significant others, and adolescent status and familial aspirations on marital timing and early family growth are assessed.

Student Status aspirations

Student Status aspirations

The Impact of Vocational Training on Speech Pathology Students

A survey of 35 final year speech pathology students showed that since entering the course their self concepts had become more androgynous and their career commitment had increased. Students were less likely to plan to leave the work force but many wanted part-time employment. Career status aspirations had not risen. More students had steady relationships and they continued to want large families. Students were very satisfied with their career choice and few wanted to change their occupation. However, many had had marked misperceptions of speech pathology when they commenced the course raising the question of the adequacy of the careers advice received. Career choice dissatisfaction was not related to misperception of career but was associated with change in self concept during the course.

Race, Sex, and Aspirations: Evidence for the `Race Convergence' Hypothesis

The ascriptive properties of and sex in structuring the formation of status aspirations have recently been analyzed and typically reveal that models do not work for blacks as compared to whites. A recent interpretation, termed here the race convergence hypothesis, suggests that gross SES differentials between races found in most samples yield the greater advantages observed for whites, and that blacks whose situation most closely approximates that of whites will construct aspirations and reach attainments in a similar manner as whites. Using data collected in 1975 from a sample where gross differences in SES are reduced by design, the present analysis assesses this hypothesis for high school students of low socioeconomic background. The most general findings are that many differentials in the aspiration-formation process disappear, and even reverse, at this level of the socioeconomic distribution. Where differences in status origins are nil, blacks, rather than whites, enjoy parental status advantages in educational decisions. Blacks are encouraged for further schooling by parents on the basis of performance in school as much as are whites. The socialization model generally yields equal predictive power for both races, and sex differences reported elsewhere are not as pronounced. The hypothesis is moderately supported.

Professionalism and the nature of nursing reward

This paper examines the relationship between the rewards that feature in the ideology of professionalism and those that inspire nurses. A core feature of a wider thesis, which examined the congruence between the status aspirations held by nurses and the aspirations to status recognized and rewarded by nursing's professional leaders, this paper reveals both that professionalism is not all of a piece and that nurses’ expectations of work rewards are characterized by segmentation. No association was found between the expectation of the reward of professional membership and other intrinsic and extrinsic work rewards associated with professionalism. It was found that nurses, for the most part, desired intrinsic rewards for their work and that the high appeal of intrinsic rewards had not been translated into a high desirability for extrinsic rewards‐a dynamic common to many professional groups. Finally, this examination of expected work rewards reveals the segmentary nature of nursing. Not only do factors of biography, mobility, work context and dominant work orientation profoundly influence the expectation of given rewards, only very minimally are the extrinsic rewards currently promulgated as legitimate for the profession as a whole by nursing's professional leaders, reflected in the work reward expectations of this sample of nurses.

Some Plan to Become Teachers: Determinants of Career Specification Among Rural Youth in Norway, Germany, and the United States

This comparative study deals with the selection of teaching as a career goal. To comprehend the meaning of observed differences in the relative popularity of teaching vis-a-vis other professional career alternatives, the general patterning of status ambitions is also explored. Sex and class differentials hold cross-nationally and are maintained with other variables controlled. A career in teaching is an important means for lower status youths and girls in general, to achieve a modest degree of upward social mobility. As entree into teaching becomes more competitive, this traditional escape valve for rural young people will become increasingly less accessible and, consequently, may lead to a decline in the proportion of rural youth seeking college educations.

Status and familial orientations of rural Mexican-American youth: Integration and conflict within aspirational frames of reference

Studies regarding status aspirations among Mexican-American youth have presumed that life goals are integrated and congruent. In the present paper, after reviewing cultural and structural explanations of low Mexican-American attainment, an alternative line of inquiry is suggested which questions these assumptions and specifies types of conflicts that may arise among occupational, educational, and familial orientations. Using data from a survey of South Texas high school students, the prevalence of such conflicts are observed by sex, and implications for future attainment patterns are discussed.