Predicting Educational and Vocational Attitudes Among Rural High School Students.

Abstract

Given the paucity of literature addressing the experiences of rural youth, this study investigated the ability of assessed levels of social support, perceived parental involvement, academic self-efficacy, and perceived educational barriers to predict school engagement and work role attitudes among rural high school students. The authors specifically intended to test the generalizability of M. E. Kenny, D. L. Blustein, A. Chaves, J. M. Grossman, and L. A. Gallagher's '(2003) findings with a rural population and within a social cognitive career theory (R. W. Lent, S. D. Brown, & G. Hackett, 2002) framework. Results supported the hypothesized importance of contextual factors (social support and parent involvement) and self-efficacy in predicting the work and school attitudes of rural students.