ERIC Number: EJ825913
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2009-Feb
Pages: 9
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0001-8791
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
Adaptive Adjustment of Vocational Aspirations among German Youths during the Transition from School to Work
Tomasik, Martin J.; Hardy, Sam; Haase, Claudia M.; Heckhausen, Jutta
Journal of Vocational Behavior, v74 n1 p38-46 Feb 2009
The transition from school to work is a central developmental task with long-term implications for the financial and social status of individuals. We argue that dynamic adjustments of aspirations play a decisive role for a successful outcome of the school to work transition, particularly in the context of the German vocational training system. Latent growth curve analyses conducted on the self-reported occupational aspirations of German adolescents (N = 414) surveyed in a 5-wave longitudinal study during their senior school year support this assumption. Based on expectancy-value-models of achievement, we delineated an adaptive trajectory of aspirations as starting off with relatively high aspirations and subsequently gradually downgrading them until s is attained. Such a trajectory of adjustment should maximize both expectancy (i.e., probability of obtaining an apprenticeship position at all) and value (i.e., training position with promotion potential). Finally, we showed empirically that the trajectory conceptually proposed as most adaptive was characteristic for youth who reported phase-adequate goal engagement strategies as suggested by the life-span theory of control. (Contains 3 tables.)
Descriptors: Promotion (Occupational), Social Status, Occupational Aspiration, Education Work Relationship, Developmental Tasks, Probability, Foreign Countries, Vocational Education, Adolescents, Longitudinal Studies, Lifelong Learning, Apprenticeships
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Opinion Papers
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Germany
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A