Rural youth face challenges when planning for the future, since plans to attend college or obtain a professional occupation may necessitate moving away from the home community. Previous research has examined the educational,... [ view full abstract ]
Rural youth face challenges when planning for the future, since plans to attend college or obtain a professional occupation may necessitate moving away from the home community. Previous research has examined the educational, occupational and residential aspirations of rural youth, where each is treated separately as an outcome, and sometimes with one aspiration as a predictor of others.
However, few studies have focused on change in these aspirations over time. Aspirational instability has been associated with lower wages in early adulthood and inability to attain personal goals. Setting goals for the future, and understanding the links between different aspirations- such as the educational requirements for a particular occupation- can make youth more likely to be able to realize their aspirations.
This study uses panel data from the Rural Youth Education Study (Snyder et al. 2006) to (1) describe the predominant patterns of change in educational, occupational and residential aspirations from 7th to 9th to 11th grade, (2) assess the order of change in aspirations, and (3) examine how parent, peer, and community influences are associated with change or stability in educational, occupational and residential aspirations. We use Latent Transition Analysis to cluster subgroups of respondents based on hidden, ‘latent’, statuses, and model individual respondents’ transitions from one status to another over time.
Preliminary results suggest the emergence of four distinct latent statuses based on the combination of youth aspirations and other plans for the future. While there is a fair amount of stability in status membership over the three waves of data, there is also significant variation. We continue to examine the extent of change in the aspirations of youth over time and to identify key factors linked to these changes.
