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Sampson Lee Blair
Department of Sociology
The State University of New York
Abstract
Previous studies on the occupational aspirations of adolescents have noted that contemporary teenagers tend to have somewhat materialistic desires in regard to their future jobs and careers. Using data from a nationally representative sample of high school seniors (The Monitoring the Future Project), this study examines how such aspirations have varied over recent years. The responses of high school seniors are examined for each year from 1990 through 2010. While adolescents do appear to have placed greater emphasis upon the extrinsic (e.g., income), intrinsic (e.g., self-satisfaction), and influence (e.g., authority) characteristics of future jobs, there has also been an increase in adolescents’ desires to obtain jobs great altruistic rewards (e.g., helping others). The analyses suggest that the relative influence of familial characteristics on adolescents’ occupational aspirations has waned over the years, and that individual traits bear greater influence in the development of such aspirations. Furthermore, notable differences are also evident between the occupational aspirations of adolescent females and males. Teenage girls report having a substantially stronger preference for obtaining a professional job, as compared to teenage boys. Adolescent girls also appear to have a stronger preference for occupations which allow them the opportunity for both social and altruistic rewards. The analyses are presented within the framework of a life-course paradigm, and the implications for both adolescent development and the structure of the paid labor force in the future are discussed.