Occupational and educational aspirations and attainment of young adults with and without LD 2 years after high school completion

A national longitudinal database was used to compare the aspirations and attainment of individuals with and without learning disabilities (LD) 2 years after high school completion. Analyses revealed that individuals with LD reported lower graduation rates, were more likely to aspire to moderate- (men) or low-prestige (women) occupations, and were more likely to be employed and less likely to be enrolled in some type of postsecondary education program than their nondisabled peers. High educational aspirations in Grade 12 and successful completion of an academic or college-prep high school program were equally important in predicting 2-year postsecondary status for adolescents enrolled in postsecondary education regardless of disability status. However, depending on disability status, different predictors were identified for individuals who were either employed or out of the workforce. These results point to a continued need for transition planning and support for young adults with LD and suggest ways in which professionals can anticipate and adjust for identified differences in aspirations and postsecondary attainment.

Transition into adolescent problem drinking: the role of psychosocial risk and protective factors

OBJECTIVE

To establish the role of psychosocial risk and protective factors in cross-sectional variation in adolescent problem drinking, and in the transition into problem drinking over time.

METHOD

The data were from a four-wave (1989-1992) longitudinal study of 1,591 adolescents in a large, urban school district. School district officials selected schools for the study with an aim toward maximizing representation of minority students from inner-city areas. At Wave 1, all students in Grades 7, 8, and 9 were asked to participate.

RESULTS

Both psychosocial risk factors (such as low expectations for success, peer models for substance use, and poor school performance) and psychosocial protective factors (such as intolerance of deviance, peer models for conventional behavior, and involvement in prosocial activities) account for significant cross-sectional variation in adolescents' involvement in problem drinking, as indicated by more frequent drunkenness and more numerous instances of alcohol-related problems. They also account for significant variation in the timing of transition into problem drinking during adolescence. Higher risk and lower protection are each associated with greater problem use of alcohol. Among adolescents who are not problem drinkers, higher risk and lower protection accelerate the likelihood of becoming a problem drinker in subsequent years. Protection also moderates the impact of risk in the cross-sectional account of involvement in problem drinking, but protective factors appear not to play a moderating role in the longitudinal account of the transition into problem drinking. Findings were similar for males and females and among white, black and Hispanic adolescents.

CONCLUSIONS

Protective factors play an independent role in accounting for adolescent involvement in problem drinking and in the transition into problem drinking in adolescence. Intervention efforts to enhance protection, especially for adolescents who are exposed to risk, should supplement efforts to reduce risk.

Motivation and future temporal orientation: a test of the self-handicapping hypothesis

Self-handicapping motivation refers to the likelihood a person will project personal ambition into the future, make a pessimistic judgement, and then mobilise effort in the present to avoid an anticipated negative outcome. It should, therefore, be a correlate of future time perspective. This study showed for a sample of 120 first-year students that, whilst future time perspective did strongly predict scores on a measure of self-handicapping motivation, neither variable was a useful predictor of outcome.

Why adolescent boys dream of becoming professional athletes

A review of studies which investigated drawings of the ideal man and the occupational aspirations of boys (ages 11-18 years) from several countries indicated that becoming a professional athlete was a popular but unrealistic aspiration for many adolescent boys. Boys who were athletes and nonathletes from diverse ethnic groups and nationalities dreamed of becoming professional athletes. In two additional studies in the United States of America, adolescents were asked why they thought boys most often selected professional athlete as a possible future occupation. Adolescents perceived professional athletes as rich, famous, and glorified. Enhancement of status and financial gain were ranked as more important than the desire to play sports.

The social networks and resources of African American eighth graders: evidence from the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988

This study used data from the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 to examine the relationship of social and cultural resources and teachers' perception of ability to the educational aspirations of African American eighth graders. The results were compared by social class. It was found that discussions with parents about school or careers, participation in activities outside of school, parental involvement, and parents' expectations were positively related to educational aspirations, while poverty status and teachers' perception of low achievement level were negatively related to aspirations.

[Unfulfilled desire for children--what is the grief for men?]

The present paper addresses the topic of involuntary childlessness and its psychological sequelae for the fathers-to-be. There are at least two different psychological stresses men have to cope with: not being able to generate a child, and missing a child as one's life fulfillment. A short review of empirical research on male coping with infertility illustrates that men suffer from involuntary childlessness as do women. Nevertheless, the quality of the psychological burden remains open. Results from the Heidelberg Research Project on Male Infertility are summarized to assess this quality. Involuntary childlessness does not entail psychological sufferings for all patients; indeed, it is only a subgroup that remains fixated to the wish to have a child for psychological reasons. The project data elucidate the motives behind this fixation. They show that the most important psychological burden is not the narcissistic wound not to be able to generate a child, but the frustration of hope invested into the longed--for child on whom many otherwise unfulfilled aspirations are projected.

The role of familial values in understanding the impact of social class on weight concern

OBJECTIVE

To examine the role of social class on aspects of weight concern and to assess the possible impact of values on mediating this association.

METHOD

Two hundred fifty-seven girls ranging in age from 13 to 16, from either a fee paying inner city independent girls school (higher class school, n = 135) or a state comprehensive, inner city girls school (lower class school, n = 122) completed a questionnaire concerning their profile characteristics (age, social class), aspects of their weight concern, and their own and their perceptions of their significant others' values (achievement, family life, and physical appearance).

RESULTS

The results showed consistent effects of class on weight concern, with the higher class subjects reporting higher levels of restrained eating, greater body dissatisfaction, and body distortion than their lower class counterparts. The results also showed an effect of class on values, with the lower class subjects placing more importance on family life from both their own perspective and that of their parents and friends, and rating their friends as valuing achievement and physical appearance more than the higher class subjects. In terms of the best predictors of weight concern, the results showed that higher levels of restrained eating were related to being from a higher class, placing greater importance upon physical appearance, preferring a thinner ideal female body, and placing less importance upon family life; greater body dissatisfaction was related to being from a higher social class, placing greater importance upon physical appearance and a lower importance upon achievement, and greater body distortion was related to being from a higher social class and a high value placed upon physical appearance.

CONCLUSION

The results indicate both a direct social class/weight concern link and a relationship which is mediated by values. The results are discussed in terms of developing an improved measure of class values and the relatively stable nature of class boundaries.

Adolescents' ideas of normative life span development and personal future goals

We investigated how 57 adolescents (23 girls and 34 boys), aged 12 to 15 years, compared their idea of normative life span development to their personal future goals. A two-stage study (questionnaire and follow-up interview) included two open-ended "life paths", measures for self-evaluation and self-other comparisons. Overlap of content categories in the life paths supported the relationship between individual goals and normative expectations about life span development, especially when it comes to the life domains of education, occupation, family, property and retirement. The respondents showed an awareness of the accumulation of social problems, reporting that crises (e.g. alcoholism) and negative events (e.g. unemployment) are more likely to occur to the average adult than in their personal future. If adolescents rated their future as better than the future of others, they also regarded that future as different from the normative life span. Self-evaluation was indirectly related with self-other comparisons. Similarity between the normative life span and personal future correlated with higher probability of problem occurrence and possibility to avoid the problems.

Daily goals, life goals, and worst fears: means, ends, and subjective well-being

This study addressed the relations among personal strivings (daily goals) and future life goals and worst fears. Eighty undergraduate participants (62 women, 18 men) listed their daily goals, their ultimate life goals, and their worst fears, and completed questionnaire measures of subjective well-being. Daily goals were content-analyzed for relevance to attaining life goals or avoiding worst fears. Daily goals that were instrumental to life goals or that avoided worst fears were rated as more important but also more difficult by participants. Working on daily goals avoiding one's worst fears was negatively related to measures of subjective well-being, controlling for daily goal progress, difficulty, ambivalence, and importance. Working on daily goals that were instrumental to one's life goals only weakly predicted well-being. The avoidance of worst fears interacted with daily goal appraisals such that individuals who experienced little progress at daily goals that served to avoid their "worst case scenario" experienced the lowest levels of subjective well-being. In addition, progress at daily goals that were relevant to accomplishing one's life goals was significantly more strongly related to subjective well-being than progress at daily goals that were unrelated to one's life goals. Results indicate that daily goals are used to enact life goals and avoid worst fears and that these means--end relations have implications for well-being.

Family capital, children's individual attributes, and adolescents' aspirations: a follow-up analysis

In this follow-up study of an earlier investigation (Marjoribanks, 1992), relationships were examined between family capital, children's individual attributes, immediate family settings, and adolescents' aspirations. There were 500 Australian adolescents (250 girls, 250 boys) and their parents in the sample. The results of this study and of the earlier investigation suggest that (a) family environmental contexts are moderately to largely associated with children's academic performances and adolescents' aspirations; (b) relationships between family contexts, children's individual attributes, and adolescents' aspirations are mediated fully or in part by adolescents' perceptions of their parents' support for learning; and (c) there are gender-related differences in the nature of the associations among family capital, individual attributes, immediate family settings, and adolescents' aspirations.

The empowering of Hong Kong Chinese families with a brain damaged member: its investigation and measurement

This is an increasing recognition of the influential roles played by the families of brain damaged persons in rehabilitation. Although these families are expected to take up the burden of care, they are usually ill-prepared to face this long-term process. This preliminary study of empowerment is aimed at helping Hong Kong Chinese families with a brain damaged member to regain a sense of mastery over the brain damage, their environment and their lives. The impact of brain damage on families was explored in order to propose a model to guide the development of assessment and intervention, as well as for the justification of practice by health care professionals. A 52-item instrument, the empowerment questionnaire, was developed through explorative factor analysis of responses of 211 families that included a brain damaged member. This analysis yielded four interpretable factors: efficacy: knowledge: support and aspiration and they demonstrated high validity reliability.

Attachment to parents and peers in late adolescence and their relationship with self-image

This paper examines older adolescents' (ages 16-18) perceived levels of attachment to parents and peers and explores their relationship with self-image. Four high school samples were the source of 167 questionnaires. Levels of attachment were measured using the Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment, and self-image was assessed using the Offer Self-Image Questionnaire. An ANOVA identified significant gender differences, and a multiple regression was used to measure the relationship between attachment and self-image. It was found that attachment to parents continues to remain strong into late adolescence for males and females. Females had significantly stronger attachment to peers. Males had a significantly higher level of self-image in a variety of areas of functioning. Attachment to parents was found to have a significant relationship with coping aspects of self-image, while peer attachment had a strong effect with self-image particularly in areas that gain prominence during this developmental period, such as body-image, vocational goals, and sexuality attitudes. In examining how institutional groups can enhance attachment relationships, it was found that, especially among females, groups that stress self-expression and self-discovery may enhance attachment relationships and self-image.

The development and validation of the Children's Hope Scale

Assuming that children are goal-oriented, it is suggested that their thoughts are related to two components--agency and pathways. Agency thoughts reflect the perception that children can initiate and sustain action toward a desired goal; pathways thoughts reflect the children's perceived capability to produce routes to those goals. Hope reflects the combination of agentic and pathways thinking toward goals. A six-item dispositional self-report index called the Children's Hope Scale is introduced and validated for use with children ages 8-16. Results suggest that the scale evidence internal consistency, and is relatively stable over retesting. Additionally, the scale exhibits convergent, discriminant, and incremental validity. Limitations and uses of the scale are discussed.

Stimulating adolescents' decision-making

The aim of the present study was to investigate the relationship between adolescents' decision-making and their sense of control over the future. In order to raise their knowledge of decision-making, 98 lower-middle class junior high school pupils, 11- to 14-years-olds, participated in a training programme "Pros and Cons". The programme presented themes such as responsibility, plans, choice and alternatives. The experimental group was compared with 122 junior high school pupils who did not participate in the programme, within a quasi-experimental design. Results of the study indicated that increased knowledge of decision-making raises pupils' sense of control over their achievements and their perception of school as an instrument for their future career.

Occupational aspirations of black South African adolescents

The present study provides a description of the occupational aspirations of 216 black high school students in a special program by the amount of training required (status) and Holland's 1973 typology as well as by gender, age, socioeconomic status, knowledge of self, and occupational knowledge. Analysis indicates that most adolescents aspire to Social and Investigative occupations, and occupations with a high status. Most of this select sample displayed low self- and occupational knowledge. Aspirations appear unrealistic in terms of trends within the labor market, but might be more realistic with effective and relevant guidance programs in schools.

The academic achievement of adolescents from immigrant families: the roles of family background, attitudes, and behavior

The goal of this study was to determine the relative impact of family background, parental attitudes, peer support, and adolescents' own attitudes and behaviors on the academic achievement of students from immigrant families. Approximately 1,100 adolescents with Latino, East Asian, Filipino, and European backgrounds reported on their own academic attitudes and behaviors as well as those of their parents and peers. In addition, students' course grades were obtained from their official school records. Results indicated that first and second generation students received higher grades in mathematics and English than their peers from native families. Only a small portion of their success could be attributed to their socioeconomic background; a more significant correlate of their achievement was a strong emphasis on education that was shared by the students, their parents, and their peers. These demographic and psychosocial factors were also important in understanding the variation in academic performance among the immigrant students themselves.

Intelligence, personality, and interests: evidence for overlapping traits

The authors review the development of the modern paradigm for intelligence assessment and application and consider the differentiation between intelligence-as-maximal performance and intelligence-as-typical performance. They review theories of intelligence, personality, and interest as a means to establish potential overlap. Consideration of intelligence-as-typical performance provides a basis for evaluation of intelligence-personality and intelligence-interest relations. Evaluation of relations among personality constructs, vocational interests, and intellectual abilities provides evidence for communality across the domains of personality of J. L. Holland's (1959) model of vocational interests. The authors provide an extensive meta-analysis of personality-intellectual ability correlations, and a review of interest-intellectual ability associations. They identify 4 trait complexes: social, clerical/conventional, science/math, and intellectual/cultural.

The social condition of a cohort of peasant farmers in rural community in southwest Nigeria

This study focused on the psychosocial condition of a cohort of rural farmers, highlighting the social condition of their children, their life style, life events in the past year, the extent of their involvement in farming, the sufficiency of material sustenance from their products, their unmet needs and social aspirations, difficulties encountered in farm work, satisfaction with farming, and psychological distress. In 1992, 186 farmers were interviewed during health education visits at farm villages in Idere town, Oyo State. There were 161 (87%) males and 25 (13%) females mean age 49.9 (sd 11.7) years: who were illiterate, mainly polygamous, with 4-6 children per household. Only two families had a child each in institutions of higher learning. The general picture that emerged was that of a peasant, hardworking (six-day per week) farmer who relaxes with a game of cards in the evenings. His greatest problem is that of transportation and hiring extra hands for work. He is impressed by the yield from his farm. Compared with urban junior civil servants, the farmers had significantly lesser life events and GHQ-12 (psychological symptoms) scores. They had unmet social needs and were not satisfied with their condition of living. Meeting some of the basic needs of these farmers will boost their morale, enhance yield, and lower prices of food for the general population.

Agency, communion, and achievement motivation

This study examined the relationship among (1) two aspects of college students' self-concept--the degree to which they reported an agentic or communion orientation, (2) two views of intelligence they might hold--entity and incremental, and (3) students' tendencies to report adopting attitudes and behaviors consistent with a mastery or learned-helpless orientation. Results from a survey of a sample of 306 Introductory Psychology students indicate that: (1) an incremental view of intelligence was associated with the adoption of mastery-oriented achievement attitudes and behaviors, while an entity view of intelligence was associated with the adoption of learned-helpless attitudes and behaviors; (2) both agentic and communion orientations were associated with a mastery orientation; (3) an agentic orientation was also associated with lower levels of learned-helpless attitudes and behaviors while a communion orientation was associated with higher levels of learned-helpless attitudes and behaviors; and (4) patterns in the correlation between agency and communion, on the one hand, and several indices of students' self-confidence in academic arenas, on the other, further supported this asymmetry in the role agency and communion orientations appear to play in determining college students' adjustment to academic challenges.

The self-fulfilling nature of positive illusions in romantic relationships: love is not blind, but prescient

It is proposed that satisfying, stable relationships reflect intimates' ability to see imperfect partners in idealized ways. In this study of the long-term benefits (or possible costs) of positive illusions, both members of dating couples completed measures of idealization and well-being 3 times in a year. Path analyses revealed that idealization had a variety of self-fulfilling effects. Relationships were most likely to persist-even in the face of conflicts and doubts-when intimates idealized one another the most. Intimates who idealized one another more initially also reported relatively greater increases in satisfaction and decreases in conflicts and doubts over the year. Finally, individuals even came to share their partners' idealized images of them. In summary, intimates who idealized one another appeared more prescient than blind, actually creating the relationships they wished for as romances progressed.

Achievement motivation and involvement in sport competitions

213 pupils (M = 17.2 yr.) were tested on the motive to achieve success, the motive to avoid failure, future time orientation, perceived instrumentality of cognitive and physical tasks at school, and the involvement in sport competitions. Analysis shows a significant positive correlation between the scores on motive to achieve success and the amounts of competitive involvement in sport. Conversely, the motive to avoid failure was negatively correlated with the involvement in sport. Further, a positive significant correlation for the involvement in sport competitions with perceived instrumentality of physical or sport tasks at school appeared. The relations were similar for both girls and boys. An hypothetical model based on hierarchical regression of the data showed that all independent variables affected involvement in sport competitions directly or indirectly.

Ethnicity, family achievement syndrome, and adolescents' aspirations: Rosen's framework revisited

Relationships between the achievement syndrome of families from different Australian ethnic groups, family social status, and adolescents' educational and occupational aspirations were examined. The investigation was generated from a particularly significant set of studies of family environments conducted by Rosen (e.g., 1956, 1959, 1961, 1962, 1973). Longitudinal data were collected from 16-year-olds (N = 465) and their parents from Anglo-Australian, Greek, and southern Italian groups in Australia. The findings suggest that (a) there are substantial ethnic group differences in the dimensions of the family achievement syndrome and more modest group variations in aspirations for adolescents from different Australian ethnic groups, (b) family social status and the dimensions of the family achievement syndrome have a restricted set of modest to moderate associations with adolescents' aspirations, and (c) ethnic group variations in adolescents' aspirations are mediated largely by differences in measures of the family achievement syndrome and family social status.

[Life change event--life history--life plant: psychopathologic and forensic aspects]

The life history approach-obsolete in biological psychiatry but given a new lease of life in psychology-embraces perspectives for the future. In clinical psychopathology it is advisable to limit consideration of the life history to past events and processes. Readiness for the future and development are more appropriately dealt with in the framework of the life plan, where life movement are concentrated and where most disturbances occur. The criminal life plan and the effect of life events are used to illustrate this point.