No description available.

Scholars have consistently showcased the need for more research dedicated to Black adolescents on educational aspirations and depression. Within this population, there is a gap in the literature about how college preparatory students and career and technical education (CTE) students are different and similar on educational aspirations and depression. The National Survey of American Life-Adolescent Supplement (NSAL-A) is a data set that is often used to evaluate the onset of mental health issues in adolescents of African descent. This data set is unique in that it only includes responses from African American and Caribbean Black adolescents. The NSAL- A allows researchers to develop research agendas that cater to Black adolescents. The concepts in this dissertation, educational aspirations and depression, have been separated into two manuscripts to allow for a more thorough analysis. A subset of the NSAL-A (n=491) was used for both manuscripts. The first manuscript uses univariate and bivariate analyses to test the relationship between personal mastery and racial centrality on educational aspirations. The findings from this study revealed that college preparatory students and CTE students had different levels of personal mastery and that personal mastery increased educational aspirations. No significant findings were revealed for the influence of racial centrality on educational aspirations. The second manuscript in this study uses univariate and bivariate analyses to investigate the relationship between discrimination and the John Henryism coping style on depression in college preparatory and CTE students. John Henryism is characterized by having a strong commitment to achieving success while facing social and economic barriers. college preparatory and CTE students were not uniquely different in their levels of perceived discrimination or John Henryism. Discrimination increased depression, and John Henryism reduced depression. The manuscripts developed in this dissertation will help Extension professionals better advocate for Black youth and encourage program evaluators to investigate ethnic differences in health outcomes. This work may also encourage 1890 Land-grant universities in working with primarily Black communities.

This investigation is concerned with change in school-directed aspirations of middle and upper-middle-class Jewish public high school students over a fifteen-year period of time.

<p>This thesis consists of two essays on rural youth in Kenya. Both of these essays come from data collected to evaluate the impacts of a randomized controlled trial in Eastern Kenya where rural youth were trained in business concepts and linked with agricultural input suppliers to become resellers of post-harvest inputs to smallholder farmers. The first essay evaluates the impacts of the intervention on material economic outcomes such as income and expenditure. The second essay evaluates the effects of the intervention on psychological outcomes such as aspirations.</p>

This research explored variables that influence community college student degree aspirations and students purpose for enrolling and pursuing specific degree types. The study was conducted using secondary data for students pursuing Associate in Arts, Associate in Science, and Bachelor of Applied Science degrees at a single community college. A logistic regression test was used to test graduate and baccalaureate degree aspirations of the entire sample of students and separately by degree type. Significant predictors of degree aspirations included age, gender, credits enrolled in, participation in student groups, academic course planning, receipt of scholarship, and college GPA. In general, community college students had high degree aspirations. Younger students tended to be on the collegiate transfer track and older students tended to want to pursue baccalaureate degrees locally. In addition to having high degree aspirations, a large proportion of students attended the college for occupational purposes and created intermediate and long-term goals related to their academic aspirations. The findings of the research confirm findings of previous studies on college student degree aspirations, and add to the understanding of variables contribute to students' educational goals. Recommendations for practice and future research are presented.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which Tinto's model of the dropout process applied to a national sample of community college students. Strict definitions of persistence were used in applying a Tinto-based model to both 2- and 4-year student samples from the High School and Beyond (HSB) data set. The primary focus of the study was to determine the relative effects of social and academic integration, in relation to student background characteristics, on two measures of persistence: persistence in the institution, and persistence in higher education. The data were analyzed using path analyses procedures. Results only partially supported Tinto's theory. Major findings revealed that: 1) background variables directly affected persistence, no matter how defined, 2) the ability of Tinto's model to explain persistence may be highly dependent on the criteria used in defining persistence, 3) the model may better explain institutional persistence than persistence in the system of higher education, 4) student background characteristics may be more influential than institutional characteristics in explaining the long term persistence behavior of students, 5) results indicated that the Tinto model's ability to explain persistence was dependent upon the criteria used for defining persistence/dropout. / Ed. D.

Education is one key to economic prosperity and a predictor of overall life satisfaction. The further one progresses through the educational pipeline, the more likely it is that she may prosper. However, in a society bolstered by patriarchal systems, economic and educational inequalities exist among the genders. Educational aspirations are influenced by students' socialization experiences. Faculty teach students about their discipline. Families influence educational pursuits. Peers serve as reinforcements or challenges to academic progress. All three groups are socialization agents to students pursuing higher education. Research indicates that various socialization agents influence whether students pursue an undergraduate degree. However, there is little literature specifically focused on women and less on the relationship between women's undergraduate socialization experiences and their decision to enroll in graduate studies. The purpose of this study was to determine whether certain collegiate experiences (with family, faculty and peers) predict undergraduate women's expectation to enroll in graduate study and to determine if the experiences influence expectation to enroll by race. The sample included women who completed the College Student Experiences Questionnaire (CSEQ) Fourth edition. The study employed logistic regression to explore the relationship between undergraduate women's educational aspirations and family, faculty and peer influences. In addition, I examined whether the associations between family, faculty and peers differed by race/ethnicity. The results of the logistic regression revealed that academic ability (GPA) and peer experiences influenced advanced degree aspirations. In addition, race/ethnicity does matter, i.e., being of African-American or Latina decent is associated with a higher level of advanced degree aspiration. Also, as frequency of interactions between faculty and African-American women increase — aspiration decreases. These findings suggest that it is important to consider the various factors that influence advanced degree aspiration. This is especially important since advanced degrees can be elemental to economic prosperity. / Ph. D.