Using data from the fifteen-year National Longitudinal Study (NLS), a special study examined the interaction of work-related attitudes and subsequent behavior for eight age-sex-race groups. It was found that attitudes do influence subsequent work behavior. Specifically, it was established that individuals who felt they could influence their future through their own efforts later experienced greater success in the labor market than those who were less optimistic. Similarly, the relationship between job dissatisfaction and turnover was clearly marked. The evidence also indicated that dissatisfaction results in extensive costs to workers in terms of increased unemployment, decreased labor force participation, below-average growth in annual earnings, and a lower rate of promotion. For women in particular, their degree of commitment to work, their attitudes toward the propriety of mothers' working, and their husbands' attitudes toward wives' labor force participation all bore a measureable relationship to subsequent work experiences. The findings pointed to the potential significance of instilling "success-prone" attitudes in youth as they proceed from school to their initial work experiences. (Tables of statistical data are appended.) (Author/LMS)