Utilizing data derived from 1,602 Appalachian high school seniors from West Virginia and Eastern Kentucky and 1,192 seniors from a commercial farm area in Central Kentucky and an industrialized area in Western Kentucky, the interrelated influences of regional circumstances, local community context, and family socioeconomic background on career selection were analyzed. Dividing the main problematic variable, "career plan", into "educational plan" and "migration plan", an attempt was made to delimit the nature and scope of a youngster's occupational options and life chances. Socioeconomic background was measured in terms of non-manual, manual, and farmer or coal miner categories for the non-mining and the mining regions respectively. Results indicated: Appalachian seniors from blue-collar or farm families had significantly limited access to both the material and non-material resources that facilitate educational achievement; lower class Appalachian girls perceived themselves as having even less of a chance at rewarding careers and/or self-fulfilling life styles than lower class boys; the distribution and allocation of occupational opportunities were linked to a young person's position in the regional social system in both regions (e.g., upper class males living in rural sectors of the coal mining region were less apt to migrate than their subsistance farming counterparts). (JC)