Educational and vocational aspirations of minority and female students: A longitudinal study

This study examined the relative importance of school, family, personal/psy chological, race, and sex variables in predicting educational and vocationa l aspirations. A nationally representative sample of 10th-grade students wa s followed through 2 years beyond their high school. Results suggested that sex and race significantly predicted educational and vocational aspiration s of students. The educational aspiration model was shown to be more robust than the occupational aspiration model. Overall, students showed increases in educational and occupational aspirations, regardless of sex and race. C ompared with other groups, Asian Americans had the greatest increase in edu cational aspirations. Female students, on the average, had higher education al and vocational aspirations.