Across time and place: The development of educational and occupational expectations from adolescence to adulthood in relation to gender, racial/ethnic group, and parental and neighborhood socioeconomic status

Adolescents' expectations for future schooling and work are potentially important precursors of educational and occupational attainment in adulthood. Understanding how expectations develop from adolescence to adulthood by membership in demographic groups can provide information to researchers, educators, and policy makers, who seek to address inequalities in attainment. To this end, the purpose of this study was to systematically describe the development of educational and occupational expectations from adolescence (age 14) to adulthood (age 26) by gender, racial/ethnic group, and parental and neighborhood socioeconomic status (SES).;Data came from NELS:88 spanning twelve years (1988 to 2000) and the restricted access residential data set, which included the SES of participants' resident zip-code in 1990. Multilevel growth curve modeling analyses (i.e., HLM; Raudenbush & Bryk, 2002) indicated several findings: (1) individuals' average educational and occupational expectations were largely high and stable from ages 14 to 26, in which the majority of participants expected to attend or complete college and to obtain a professional occupation, (2) females reported higher expectations than their male counterparts, (3) educational expectations were highest among African Americans and occupational expectations were highest among African Americans and Asian Americans, compared to their counterpart racial/ethnic groups, after controlling for SES and academic achievement, (4) parental SES had the largest influence on expectations relative to other demographic variables, and (5) neighborhood SES was not associated with expectations.;This study drew from developmental psychological and sociological theoretical perspectives. The development of educational and occupational expectations referred to age-related changes in expectations. Developmental psychological perspectives suggested that, with age, individuals' expectations would change due to an increased emphasis on the future, exploration of educational and occupational roles, and information about future schooling and work (Arnett, 2000; Erikson, 1968; Jacobs & Klaczynski, 2002; Lewin, 1939). Sociological perspectives indicated that such development would be shaped by demographic group membership and neighborhood-level SES (Burton & Jarrett, 2000; Leventhal & Brooks-Gunn, 2000). Through the perception of barriers, individuals in low-SES and racial/ethnic minority groups would report lower expectations and a decline in expectations from adolescence to adulthood compared to their counterparts (Gottfredson, 1981; Lent, et al., 2000).