Self‐Construal,Career Decision Self‐Efficacy,and Perceived Barriers Predict Mexican American Women's Life Satisfaction

This study used the social cognitive theory of well‐being (SCTW; Lent, 2004 ) to examine the role of career decision self‐efficacy (CDSE), perceived educational barriers, and independent self‐construal on the life satisfaction of 176 Mexican American college women. A 3‐step hierarchical regression analysis indicated that independent self‐construal, CDSE, and fewer perceived educational barriers significantly predicted greater life satisfaction among Mexican American college women above and beyond the influence of socioeconomic status and generational status. These findings are consistent with SCTW and highlight the need for counselors and researchers to be aware of the role that self‐construal, CDSE, and perceived educational barriers can have on Mexican American women's life satisfaction. Implications for practice at the secondary‐school and university levels are discussed.     

Career Aspirations and Expectations of Black,Mexican American,and White Students

The career aspirations and expectations of Black, Mexican American, and White college freshmen were examined. In addition, students' career expectations were compared to the jobs available in the labor market. Results suggested that (a) there seem to be more gender than ethnic differences in students' career aspirations and expectations, (b) differences in the career aspirations and expectations among Mexican American and White students followed traditional gender patterns, and (c) with some exceptions, the career expectations of students resembled the distribution of jobs in the labor market.     

Breaking New Ground: Diverse Routes to College in Rural America*

Abstract Rural communities pose a challenge to status attainment models that explain children's educational attainment primarily in terms of the parents' education and professional status. Alongside the rural professional class are farmers of similar social status but with less education and other families that lack the status and resources of both professional‐class and farm families. The prolonged agricultural crisis in the American Midwest has turned rural youths toward college and has raised questions about the educational value of resources provided by farm parents and other rural parents. We classified youths from the Iowa Youth and Families Project into three SES groups: professional‐managerial, farm, and lower‐status. We compared these groups on resource levels and on the extent to which the resources predicted enrollment in a four‐year college one year after high school. Findings indicated three distinct routes to four‐year college. Professional‐managerial youths tended to follow the traditional path from parents' educational and other resources and support to their own academic involvement and aspirations for higher education. Successful farm youths, in lieu of parental educational advantages, drew on parents' community ties. Resourceful lower‐status youths, in the absence of family background advantages, generated educational attainment through early educational ambition and varied community and school involvements. Even relatively low levels of involvement were valuable to these youths' educational attainment.     

Economic Disadvantage,Family Dynamics,and Adolescent Enrollment in Higher Education

This study applies a family process model to the linkage between early economic disadvantage and later enrollment in higher education. Using two waves of data on low‐income youth, the authors found that the attitudes and behaviors of their parents, mostly mothers, mediate the impact of disadvantage on enrollment. Economically disadvantaged parents are less optimistic about their adolescents' educational chances and, in turn, engage less in the proactive parenting that promotes enrollment. The authors also found that parents' perceived efficacy buffers against the more negative consequences of disadvantage that can influence their adolescents' educational trajectories. Group comparisons reveal few differences by gender or ethnicity.     

Rural Latino Youth Career Development: An Application of Social Cognitive Career Theory

This study used social cognitive career theory (Lent, Brown, & Hackett, 1994 ) to investigate the career development of 9th‐grade students living in 2 rural communities with large numbers of Latino immigrants. Participants (55.3% Latino) responded to measures of vocational skills self‐efficacy, career decision outcome expectations, career aspirations, and barriers to postsecondary education. Contrary to previous findings, results indicated that Latino students in these communities reported higher self‐efficacy beliefs than did White students. Latino students also reported higher perceived barriers, but this did not seem to relate to their career aspirations. Results suggest that school and career counselors should focus on programming that attends to Latino students' self‐efficacy and outcome expectations, as well as efficacy for overcoming barriers. Doing so could prove useful for increasing career achievement among rural Latino youth.     

Making something of the sacrifice: gender,migration and Mexican children's educational aspirations

Transnational families often use international migration as a strategy not only for survival, but also for social mobility. Migrant parents hope their sacrifices via migration will translate into educational benefits for non‐migrant children. In this article, we use mixed methods to explore the success of parents' efforts by considering the relationship between gender, family migration patterns and the educational aspirations of children in the Mixteca region of Mexico. Analysis of surveys collected from 1273 students show that mothers' migrations affect children's educational goals in different ways depending on whether they migrate alone or with their husbands. Fathers' lone migrations have no significant impact on children's educational aspirations. Interviews with 51 children of migrants suggest that children of unmarried migrant mothers are motivated academically because they invest in their mothers' migrations as a sacrifice, whereas the emotional consequences of parental absences lower the educational aspirations of children with both parents in the USA.     

Positive Marital Quality,Acculturative Stress,and Child Outcomes Among Mexican Americans

Previous research suggests that the quality of parents' relationships can influence their children's adjustment, but most studies have focused on the negative effects of marital conflict for children in White middle‐class families. The current study focuses on the potential benefits of positive marital quality for children in working‐class first generation Mexican American families using observational and self‐report data. This study examined the links between positive marital quality and child internalizing and externalizing behaviors 1 year later when the child was in sixth grade (N = 134 families). Positive marital quality was negatively correlated with child internalizing behaviors. Parent acculturative stress was found to mediate the relationship between positive marital quality and child internalizing behaviors in sixth grade.     

Economic Development and the Effects of Family Characteristics on Mathematics Achievement

This article explores the relationship between nations' level of economic development and the influence of adolescents' social backgrounds on their academic achievement. Using data from the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), the authors found that the positive effect of higher parents' education on middle‐school students' mathematics test scores is remarkably consistent among the 34 nations examined. In contrast, the relative advantage of living in a traditional family for mathematics achievement varies systematically between nations, being significantly greater in those with stronger economies. Although the influence of socioeconomic status on educational stratification does not appear to change, the deepening academic disadvantage of living with only one natural parent in more developed nations may result from marginalization of families in these societies.     

Perceived Parental Role Satisfaction and Daughter's Sex Role Attitudes and Aspirations

Abstract

The effects of measures of perceived parental role satisfaction on daughter's personal aspirations and sex role orientation, controlling for parents' status characteristics, are examined using data from a random sample of college women. Perceived parental role reactions are found to have a moderate independent effect on daughter's educational, occupational, marital and parenting plans, and sex role orientation. Perceived dissatisfaction by the mother with the roles of mother and housewife and by the father with his job contribute to the development of feminist sex role attitudes. Perceived dissatisfaction with role of mother and father's job contribute to aspiring to a lifestyle that includes advanced education, an atypical professional occupation, uncertainty about marriage and few or no children. Perceived responses to the housewife role and mother's job are related to occupational and marital aspirations, mother's working to marriage, and parenting plans. Mother's employment affects the impact of perception variables on personal aspirations.     

Students' dreams for the future and perspectives on resilience-building aspects of their lives: The view from East Greenland

This study explores how perspectives from students can increase knowledge of how teachers and school authority can support students in building up resilience as a response to social challenges in the community. A locally flexible methodology using structured drawings (including classroom observation), semi-structured interviews, and semantic coding and situated analyses in a case study in East Greenland provided the following results: The students' aspirations were mostly about getting an education and a job and becoming socially successful. The students' motivation for attending school and doing educational assignments often depended on the social interaction with their teachers, and the students requested more involvement in decision-making processes at school to create more meaningful educational practices. If schools are to support the processes of building resilience and motivation for education, schools should include students' perspectives and encourage students' agency by listening to what they have to say.     

State‐mediated Brokerage System in China's Self‐funded Study Abroad Market

The thriving of China's self‐funded study abroad market is marked by the tremendous increase of students who use the services of educational intermediaries to facilitate their transnational journeys. This is largely due to the marketization of China's higher educational system and the liberalization of state policy towards commercialized brokerage services. Based on multi‐sited fieldwork in China and Italy, this paper examines the intersections between the regulatory, the commercial, and the social dimensions of the educational migration infrastructure in China. It identifies a tension between the neoliberal ideas of individual autonomy and freedom, which are promoted by the state and private intermediaries, and the self‐perpetuating nature of the educational migration infrastructure, which facilitates and constrains different groups of parents' and students' desire for international education.     

Career‐Related Parent Support and Career Barriers: An Investigation of Contextual Variables

The authors used social cognitive career theory (Lent, Brown, & Hackett, 1994 ) as the basis for examining the person and contextual variables of gender, ethnicity, educational and career barriers, and career‐related parent support for incoming 1st‐year African American, Asian, Latino, and White college students. Women, as compared to men, perceived significantly higher levels of career barriers but similar levels of coping efficacy in dealing with these barriers. Women also reported receiving more career‐related emotional support from parents than did men. For all participants, career‐related parent support accounted for a significant portion of the variance for perceptions of educational and career barriers and coping efficacy with educational and career barriers.     

The Role of Social Capital in Educational Aspirations of Rural Youth*

Drawing on a recent national survey of rural high school students, this study investigated the relationship between social capital and educational aspirations of rural youth. Results showed that various process features of family and school social capital were important for predicting rural youths' educational aspirations beyond sociodemographic background. In particular, parents' and teachers' educational expectations for their child and student, respectively, were positively related to educational aspirations of rural youth. In addition, discussion with parents about college was positively related to educational aspirations of rural youth. On the other hand, there was little evidence to suggest that number of siblings and school proportions of students eligible for free lunch and minority students are related to educational aspirations of rural youth, after controlling for the other variables. We highlight unique features of rural families, schools, and communities that may combine to explain the complexity of the role of social capital in shaping educational aspirations of rural youth.     

Perceived Paternal and Maternal Acceptance and Rural African American and European American Youths' Psychological Adjustment

This study explores the following question: Are rural African American and European American youths' experiences of paternal and maternal acceptance equally related to their self‐reported psychological adjustment, or do youths' experiences of paternal acceptance account for an independent portion of the variance in psychological adjustment, over and above the portion of variance explained by their experiences of maternal acceptance? This study also explores possible social‐class, age, gender, and paternal‐residence differences in perceived paternal and maternal acceptance and youths' psychological adjustment. The research is based on a proportional, stratified, random sample of 281 African American and European American families in a poor, rural, biracial county of Georgia, U.S.A. Results of multiple regression analyses indicate that only perceived paternal acceptance is significantly related to European American youths' self‐reported psychological adjustment when controlling for the influence of perceived maternal acceptance. In African American families, both perceived paternal acceptance and perceived maternal acceptance are significantly related to youths' self‐reported psychological adjustment. Finally, results of analyses indicate that relationships between perceived paternal and maternal acceptance and youths' psychological adjustment within the ethnic groups are not related significantly to youths' age, gender, paternal residence, or social class.     

Religion,Spirituality, and Career Development in African American College Students: A Qualitative Inquiry

The authors explored through semistructured interviews the interrelationships of religion, spirituality, and career development in a sample of 12 African American undergraduate students. Using consensual qualitative research methodology (C. E. Hill, B. J. Thompson, & E. N. Williams, 1997), they identified 6 primary domains or themes related to these students' experiences in this regard, including (a) degree of identification as religious and/or spiritual, (b) parents' influence on religious and spiritual beliefs, (c) roles of religion and spirituality in participants' career development, (d) challenges in dealing with academic and career‐related issues, (e) religious and spiritual strategies to deal with academic and career‐related challenges, and (f) indicators of success in future career or occupation.     

Homeland (Dis)Integrations: Educational Experience,Children and Return Migration to Albania

Based on empirical research conducted in Albania, this article reports that educational experience and performance, and hence, integration of the children of (returned) migrants in their parents' homeland is obstructed by structural factors linked to the educational system. A finding such as this challenges the centrality of an essentialized notion of ethnicity in models of “second generation” integration and evidences the centrality of the nation‐state, and the education system as one of its pillars, in the integration of migrants and their children. Comparative integration context theory appears to apply to the integration of children of returned migrants; yet it needs to take into account the mobile lives of migrants and their children, the transnational disjuncture between different educational systems, and the role of locality within the nation‐state. Moreover, including children in analyses of integration, in the context of education, calls for the inclusion of life‐course and scale in integration theories.     

Assimilation,Ethnic Competition,and Ethnic Identities of U.S.‐Born Persons of Mexican Origin

Processes governing the ethnic identification of second and later generations of Mexican immigrant descendants are explored empirically using the Latino National Political Survey, 1989–1990. With multinomial logit regressions, I test hypotheses based on three contrasting perspectives, namely, that ethnic identification, or identification other than “American,” arises directly from: a) cultural continuity and a lower level of assimilation; b) an experience of ethnic competition; and c) both processes. The results from the LNPS support the view that both processes are at work. For example, consistent with the presence of an assimilation process, the chance of “Mexican” identification (as opposed to “American” identification) declines to half in the third generation and to one tenth in the fourth and later generations, relative to the chance in the second generation. Consistent with the presence of an ethnic competition process, (perceived) experience of discrimination doubles the respondent's chance of “Mexican” identification. Also, a level rise in the darkness of skin color is associated with a 60 percent increase in the chance of Mexican identification.     

An empirical test of a model of academic expectations among youth in residential care

In the last decade accumulating evidence across many countries points to the poor educational outcomes of youth formerly placed in care and their under-representation in higher education. Academic expectations in late adolescence are considered a key marker for educational attainments in young adulthood. Although these expectations were studied extensively, they have seldom been examined among youth in substitute care. The goal of the present research was to develop and test a model to predict academic expectations of Israeli adolescents placed in residential facilities. The study sample consisted of 1360 adolescents from 34 youth villages who responded to self-report questionnaires tapping their academic expectations, current academic achievements and various aspects of their family, school and facility's environment, expected to be associated with their academic expectations.Structural equation modeling indicated that parents' level of education was indirectly related to youths' expectations, an association mediated by youth's current academic achievements and parents' aspirations for their children's educational success. Higher levels of teacher and staff support were also found to contribute to higher academic expectations; however, whereas teacher support effects were mediated by youth achievements, staff support was found to have direct, as well as moderating effects, on achievement-expectations relationship.The findings suggest the importance of an integrative approach in the efforts to promote educational expectations among adolescents in residential facilities. Such an approach, encompassing the multiple adult functions responsible for youth development within such settings, could be an important step in enhancing the chances for future academic success of this vulnerable group.     

Why Parents Pay for College: The Good Parent,Perceptions of Advantage,and the Intergenerational Transfer of Opportunity

This article asks how parents think about the cost of a college education for their children. Based on data from more than ninety in‐depth interviews with upper‐middle‐class parents and children, it is clear that grooming children for college and then paying for their education is intimately linked with ideas about being a “good parent.” We present data on three related aspects of parents' consciousness about paying for college. First, data are presented on how parents view the benefits of college for their children. Second, data illustrate how parents think about the obligations associated with paying. Third, we report on what parents expect in return for their efforts and expenditures. Data also indicate that parents' views are contingent on their perceived ability to pay for the increasing costs of higher education. We conclude by considering how the implicit contract between upper‐middle‐class parents and children may change as new economic and structural uncertainties increase parents' anxieties and challenge their abilities to see themselves as good parents.