The relationship between career maturity and commitment to work in alternative and regular high school students

The present study examined the relationship between several career readiness variables of alternative and regular high school students. Specifically, the relationship between career maturity as measured by the Career Development Inventory (CDI) and measures of the relative importance of work and study as assessed by the Salience Inventory (SI) were investigated and compared between two high school groups.; In this study data were collected from 184 high school students, 80 of whom attended an alternative high school and 104 of whom attended a regular high school. Correlations and variance analyses were done to examine differences between career maturity and work and study salience in the two groups.; Alternative high school students were more career mature and more committed to work and study than were the regular high school students. Although not a part of any hypothesis, gender differences were noted. Considerable gender differences were found on both instruments. Female students scored significantly higher than male students on all three summative scales of the CDI. Female students were also more committed to work and school than were male students.; The fact that the alternative high school students were more committed to their roles as both workers and students was explained by the difference in the overall maturity level of this group. Nonetheless, this study clearly showed that students who attended this alternative high school were more motivated than were regular high school students in the career readiness attitudes and behaviors investigated and compared. Two hypotheses received full support, one was partially supported, and two were not supported.