High School Students' Career Plans: The Influence of Others' Expectations.

One of the most important tasks in school counseling is to facilitate students' educational and vocational development. High school students are in a critical stage of making educational and vocational decisions-they must decide whether to enter the work force immediately after high school or further their educational training. To be effective in helping students make the transition from school to work or from school to school, counselors need to be aware of students' level of educational aspirations, their immediate plans, and their perceived expectations from influential persons. Specifically, counselors need to be sensitive to the differences in students' racial/ethnic backgrounds and genders. The purpose of this study is to examine high school students' postsecondary plans and what they perceive to be the counselors' and other influential persons expectations of them. Research on educational/ vocational behaviors of high school students has been fragmented. Most studies on educational/ vocational perception and aspiration have examined either a single group-female students (Davey & Stoppard, 1993; Mau, Domnick, & Ellsworth, 1995), at-risk students (Farrell, Sapp, Johnson, & Pollard, 1994), urban, lower socio-economic students (Pollard, 1989)-or compared African Americans with White Americans (Harris, 1970; Hauser & Anderson, 1991; Kerckhoff & Campbell, 1977; Mahoney & Merritt, 1993; Pollard, 1993; Smith, 1991). Other related studies have compared cross-sectional samples. For example, Smith (1991) studied seventh and ninth graders, Davey and Stoppard (1993) surveyed 10th and 12th graders, while Wilson and Wilson (1992) and Mahoney and Merritt (1993) examined only 12th graders. Counselors play a significant role in shaping students' career goals. Understanding students perceptions about counselors' attitudes and how these perceptions compare to other influential persons provides valuable information for counselors. Examining students' perceptions of their significant others would give clues to identifying key persons who may have a strong influence on students' career plans. Comparing differences in perceived counselor expectation among racial and gender groups may also give clues to potential bias in guidance counseling. In contrast to expectations, aspirations refer to a desire or wish, with no constraints on financial, intellectual, or other resources (Rehberg, 1967). Comparing students' perceived expectations and their own aspirations would help to identify potential conflicts. Lack of agreement among significant others about what they think is right for the student may create dissonance. Examining differences in aspirations among various cultural groups would also help to identify underrepresented groups for planning effective counseling interventions. In the present study, a more comprehensive approach than prior studies was taken to include major U.S. racial/ethnic groups with a 2-year period longitudinal follow-up, surveyed in 1990 and 1992. Data used in this study are based on the most recent series of longitudinal studies sponsored by the National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES). Because the data contain survey information collected from a nationally representative sample of lOth and 12th grade students, findings from this study can be generalized to high school students with confidence. Specifically, the present study attempted to answer the following research questions: 1. What are high school students' perceptions of their counselors' expectations about their post-secondary career plans? Do the perceptions differ by race and gender? How do the perceptions change from 10th-grade to 12th-grade? 2. How do students' perceptions of counselors' college expectations differ from their perceptions of other influential persons' expectations? Do the perceptions also differ due to race and gender? How do the perceptions change from 10th-grade to 12th-grade? …