Puerto Rican, Black, and Anglo Adolescents' Career Aspirations, Expectations, and Maturity

Influences of Puerto Rican, Black, and Anglo Parents' Career Behavior on Their Adolescent Children's Career Development

“…The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships between Puerto Rican, Black, and Anglo adolescent children's career aspirations, expectations, and maturity and parents' career values and career aspirations for their children. The present study, which has the unique feature of participation by both parents and their adolescent children, extends the study of Puerto Rican, Black, and Anglo adolescents' career expectations, aspirations, and maturity (Dillard & Perrin, 1980). Their career maturity, expectations, and aspirations were examined in relationship to their parents' career behavior (viz., career values and career aspirations parents hold for their adolescent children).…”

“…Following the selection of adolescents, and the acquisition of individual and parental permission to include them in the study, counselors administered the socialclass questionnaire, followed by the ATT-CMI, and then a short questionnaire of career aspirations and expectations. A more detailed description of this procedure for the adolescents is discussed elsewhere (Dillard & Perrin, 1980). Those parents who granted permission for their adolescent children to be included in the investigation were contacted three days later by a letter requesting both husband and wife to participate, too.…”

“…Parents' and adolescents' reported career expectations and aspirations were rated from 1 to 7 according to the Occupational Scale of the Two Factor Index of Social Position (Hollingshead, 1957). Although some errors might exist in these ratings, they distribute randomly and normally, and can be assumed nonsignificant (Dillard & Perrin, 1980).…”

Black-white differences on the Strong Interest Inventory General Occupational Themes and Basic Interest Scales at ages 16 to 65

“…Slaney (1980) and Slaney and Brown (1983) urged that SES/education level must be considered in any comparative studies on racial differences. For example, no differences in Holland types were evident when Black women and White women were matched on SES (Slaney, 1980), and SES emerged as the best predictor of expected career choice in an investigation by Dillard and Perrin (1980). The present study takes into account Carter and Swanson's (1990) major criticisms of previous Black-White Strong investigations: (a) It uses the 1985 Strong Interest Inventory rather than an older version of the inventory; (b) it uses a sample of Blacks that is representative of normal individuals at all SES levels and spans a wide age range from adolescence to retirement age, not a specialized or atypical sample; (c) the sample is composed of women as well as men; (d) multivariate analysis is used, but with a total sample in excess of 800, that type of powerful statistical analysis is warranted; and (e) several within-group variables are addressed in systematic fashion (sex, intelligence level, and educational attainment) to better explain and interpret the between-group racial comparison.…”

The Effects of Television Role Models on the Career Aspirations of African American Junior High School Students

“…Demographic variables related to socioeconomic status (i.e., father's and mother's level of education) were also included in the following hypothesis: H2 African American students with a parent or parents with less formal education will be more likely to be influenced by television role models. In reviewing the literature on students, it was found that career maturity increased with white students, age, and SES (Dillard & Perrin, 1980). Because we examined the role of both age and correlates of SES, we believed it would also be important to explore whether level of career maturity would be related how much a junior high African American student would be influenced by television role models.…”