The purpose of this study was to determine whether the career development process was the same for hearing-impaired and normally-hearing adolescents. Subjects included 71 deaf and 318 nonhandicapped adolescents and their parents. A literature-based causal model of career maturity (Model 1) was developed that was designed to explain career maturity in terms of background variables, family characteristics, and individual characteristics. The inclusion of these variables was based on family systems theory, social learning theory, and the empirical literature on the career maturity of nonhandicapped adolescents. The regression of career maturity on the eight predictor variables in Model 1 explained about 20% of the variance in career maturity for the hearing group, and 28% for the deaf. Family cohesion was the strongest predictor of career maturity for both groups. Despite several similar patterns of influence among the variables, a number of relationships among the variables differed for the two groups. Furthermore, differences were noted between the groups in terms of the total effects for some of the eight predictor variables such as age and achievement. A second model was developed to describe the career development of the deaf. Model 2 included all of the variables in Model 1 as well as five additional variables specific to the experiences of the deaf. Model 2 explained 31% of the variance in the career maturity of the deaf subjects. The increase in variance explained was not great enough to be considered significant. The degree of the subject's hearing loss and the degree of mother-child communication were influential in describing the career development process for the deaf in Model 2. The results suggest that there are similarities and differences in the development of career maturity for deaf and hearing adolescents. The process is more reliant upon background characteristics, such as age, for the hearing. For the deaf, family variables intervene to influence career maturity to a greater extent than for the hearing. For both groups, higher family cohesion scores were associated with greater career maturity. The inclusion of deaf-specific variables contributed to the explanatory power of the basic model, although not to a significant degree. / Ph. D.