expectations and others do not. For example, one very important characteristic of the youths that heavily
influences their future planning is age. The average age of youths who have aligned expectations is 14.4
years. The average age of the youths with unaligned aspirations is 13.0 years. Thus, youth who have aligned
expectations for the future are typically older than youth with unaligned expectations. However, there are
young respondents who are in the process of aligning their expectations and older youth who appear to
consider educational, occupational, and family goals separately. While age likely influences the ability to
plan congruent educational, occupational, and family goals, we describe how the youths arrive at these goals,
rather than focus on age as an explanation for why some youths’ goals are aligned and others’ not.
Aligned Expectations
The necessity of education for a particular career
The youths who have aligned career and educational expectations generally recognize the education
that is required for the careers they want to pursue. Many of these youths talk about the specific length or
focus of education they need in order to be trained in their careers. Jennifer is an 11 year-old female who
wants to be a lawyer, and she discusses needing to go to college for at least six years in order to achieve this
goal. Despite her young age, Jennifer is already factoring education into her ideas about her future career. Of
course, one cannot expect that she will necessarily maintain the same career expectation as she grows up, but
it is significant that she is already thinking through the fact that different careers require different types and
amounts of training. Lisa is another example of a very focused youth who has her educational and career
plans strategically planned. She is a 17 year-old junior and is in a nursing program at her high school. She
plans to get her LPN then go to college for her RN degree. Lisa has a “Goals” sheet hanging on her bedroom
door that lists her goals and her accomplishments. Under goals, she listed the following things: graduate from
her nursing program, pass her nursing exams, get a good job, go to college, get her own place to live and get
a car. She says:
Yeah, I’ve been wanting to be a nurse for a long time, since like…I, you know how some people,
like when they’re little they say they want to be a lawyer and then next couple of years it’s a teacher,
they just can’t make up their minds…I always wanted to be a nurse.
Lisa links her career path to her mom, who got her GED and then worked as a CNA:
7
Convention