University Students: A Change in Expectations and Aspirations Over the DecadeAuthor(s): Mary C. Regan and Helen Elizabeth RolandReviewed work(s):Source: Sociology of Education, Vol. 55, No. 4 (Oct., 1982), pp. 223-228Published by: American Sociological AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2112674 .Accessed: 20/07/2012 09:13

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UNIVERSITY STUDENTS: A CHANGE IN EXPECTATIONS AND ASPIRATIONS OVER THE DECADE

MARY C. REGAN HELEN ELIZABETH ROLAND

University of California, Davis

Sociology of Education 1982, Vol. 55 (October):223-228

This longitudinal study examines patterns of change in life goal aspirations and educational expectations of 2, 786 women and men graduating from a major research university between the years 1968 and 1979. To ascertain specific patterns of change, the relationships among each goal, sex and decade were explored using log-linear contingency table analysis. Findings indicate that life goal aspirations and educational expectations have changed over the decade of the 1970s. Women are now aspiring to combinations offamily and career. Though men do show currents of interest in family, their movement away from career is concomitant with an increased involvement in leisure pursuits. These trends suggest a conflict between marriage/family and career goals for women and men.

During the past decade, dramatic changes have occurred in the values surrounding work, life and leisure. These changes include the questioning of the institutionalized division of labor between the sexes (Mason, Czajka and Arbor, 1976; Bielby, 1978; Almquist, Angrist and Mickelsen, 1980), the growing legitimacy of women's right to work in high commitment careers (Epstein, 1980), and the abandonment of the view that men necessarily find work a major source of life satisfaction (Van Maanen, 1977; Yankelovich, 1981).

A university education provides opportuni- ties for students to gain requisite knowledge and attitudinal and behavior preparation (i.e., anticipatory socialization) for entrance into professional occupations. Thus, measures of the importance of life aspirations for graduat- ing seniors indicate the strength of their life priorities and commitments, and may predict life-long allegiances. Undergraduates' ap- proach to their university experience is indic- ative of the statuses to which they aspire, and achievement of educational goals and occu- pational aspirations reflect anticipatory so- cialization (Merton, 1957). Consequently, an assessment and comparison of female and male students' life goals, educational expectations and occupational plans over the decade of the 1970s should provide a solid indication of fu- ture career and family allegiances, and should thus indicate the likely degree of institutional conflict between family and work.

This study focuses on university senior women and men at their first step toward pro-

fessional careers. Utilizing baseline data from 1970, we examined how educational goals, oc- cupational and life aspirations of university seniors have changed over the last decade. In particular, we investigated how changes in women's attitudes about family, career and lei- sure compare over time with changes in men's attitudes.

DATA SOURCE

These data were collected as part of a large, on-going longitudinal study of patterns of stability and change of young adults over a period of two decades. The study environment is the University of California, Davis, a large, highly-selective public research university. The baseline sample includes students who entered as freshmen and graduated in 1968- 1970 (N = 1,699). The second sample consists of students who entered as freshmen and grad- uated in 1979 (N = 1,087).

Students' life goals were assessed using the following item from the Cornell Values Study (Goldsen, Rosenberg, Williams, and Suchman, 1960): "Which things or activities in your life do you expect will give you the most satisfac- tion? Please select the most important to you and the next most important." The six possible response choices were as follows: career or occupation; family relationships; leisure time, recreational activities; religious beliefs or ac- tivities; participation in community affairs; and participation in activities directed toward national or international betterment.

Students were also asked, "What is the most important and second most important (goal) for you to attain during your college career." The six possible response choices were as follows: provide knowledge and techniques directly ap- plicable to your career; develop the ability to

Our thanks to two anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments. Address correspondence to the authors at the Department of Applied Behavioral Sciences, University of California, Davis, California 95616

223

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224 REGAN AND ROLAND

get along with different people; prepare for a happy marriage and family life; develop social poise; develop a sense of responsibility to par- ticipate in community and public affairs; and provide a basic general education and appre- ciation of ideas.

The first three response options in each of the above lists were of primary interest. For each of those response options a value of two was assigned if the goal was ranked most im- portant, and one was assigned if the goal was ranked second most important. Zero was as- signed if the goal was of lower importance.

ANALYSIS

The data in Tables 1 and 2 are in the form of a product-multinomial sampling model in which the fixed marginal totals correspond to explanatory (independent) variables of sex and decade, and in which the importance of each life is a polytomous response variable. The data thus reduce to six three-way tables, one for each of the selected life/educational goals.

Each log-linear model was constrained to fit the two-way marginal sex by decade (Feinberg, 1980; Duncan and Duncan, 1978). All models were tested in order to find the model that fit the data with the most parsimony-the model which could not be simplified without signifi- cantly increasing the likelihood ration (G2) and could not be significantly improved upon by fitting additional marginals (Goodman, 1972).

In order to examine specific patterns of change, the relationships among each goal score, sex and decade of graduation were ex- plored using log-linear contingency table analysis (Goodman, 1978; Davis, 1975; Fein-

berg, 1980). Statistics for all models tested are presented in Table 3. The model specifying independent effects of sex and decade pro- vided the most parsimonious explanation for the distribution of choices on the goal variable, leisure and recreational activities. The satu- rated model was required to explain the ob- served response choices for the other two life goals and all three educational goals. Thus, changes in the importance of these goals over the decade can only be viewed within sex, since these changes are different for the two sexes. Having ascertained the model most par- simonious with the data, the expected frequen- cies generated under that model were used to calculate the conditional ratios (Knoke and Burke, 1980).

FINDINGS

Three spheres, career, family and leisure, constitute highly salient life values for men and women. Value shifts over the decade are evi- dent for each of these spheres.

The importance attributed to career or occu- pation as a life goal underwent a major transi- tion over the decade, but this transition dif- fered for the two sexes. The proportion of men who saw career as providing primary satisfac- tion in life actually declined over the decade. A third fewer men (1980:1970 .699) saw career as the most important life goal. For women the change was much more dramatic. Twice as many women in 1980 as in 1970 (1980:1970 2.032) indicated that their careers would con- stitute the most important life satisfaction. Furthermore, comparing women and men within each decade highlights the changing

Table 1. Student's Ratings of Life Goals by Sex and Decade.* Percentage of Students Rating Each Goal as Most Important, Second Most Important or Low Importance

Percentages 2nd

Most Most Lowt Life Goals Year Sex Important Important Importance Career or occupation 1970 Male 28 39 33

1980 20 39 41 1970 Female 12 42 46 1980 24 39 37

Family relationships 1970 Male 44 25 31 1980 42 28 30 1970 Female 72 14 14 1980 53 29 18

Leisure time, recreational 1970 Male 9 15 76 activities 1980 17 19 63

1970 Female 2 14 84 1980 6 16 78

* Males 1970 (N = 833) Females 1970 (N = 560) Males 1980 (N = 527) Females 1980 (N = 500)

t Not ranked as most or second most important life goal.

UNIVERSITY STUDENTS: A CHANGE 225

Table 2. Student's Ratings of Education Goals by Sex and Decade.* Percentage of Students Rating Each Goal as Most Important, Second Most Important or Low Importance

Percentages 2nd

Most Most Lowt Educational Goals Year Sex Important Important Importance Develop the ability to get along with different 1970 Male 17 19 64

types of people 1980 17 28 55 1970 Female 20 26 54 1980 16 29 55

Prepare for a happy marriage and family life 1970 Male 10 13 78 1980 2 4 94 1970 Female 18 16 65 1980 1 5 94

Provide knowledge and techniques directly 1970 Male 31 26 43 applicable to career 1980 43 22 34

1970 Female 21 19 60 1980 40 26 34

* Males 1970 (N = 833) Females 1970 (N = 866) Males 1980 (N = 527) Females 1980 (N = 560)

t Not ranked as most or second most important educational goal.

career goals between sexes over the decade. In 1970, only two-fifths as many women as men (W:M .421) indicated career would be prime in their lives, but in 1980, a higher proportion of women than men (W:M 1.224) considered career to be the major source of future satis- faction in their lives.

The importance of family relationships to life satisfaction has also undergone major shifts over the decade. The pattern of change for this goal is also more dramatic for women than for men. Fewer women in 1980 than in 1970 looked to family relationships as their primary source of future satisfaction (1980:1970 .746), whereas for men there was no change over the decade (1980: 1970 .963). However, the women in 1980 did express strong interest in family relation- ships. Twice as many women in 1980 as in 1970 indicated family relationships to be their sec- ond most important goal (1980:1970 2.097). Looking at the importance of family between the sexes within each decade emphasizes the trend in sex differences.

Comparing the men and women in 1970, women were much more adamant than men about the prime importance of family relation- ships (W:M 1.619). By 1980, however the gap between men and women had dwindled sub- stantially (W:M 1.415), and men and women were almost identical in their valuation of fam- ily as their second most important life goal (W:M 1.031). The data do suggest a possible trend toward an "equal partners" attitude.

The increased importance of recreation and the enjoyment of leisure time also has implica- tions for priorities of quality of life experi- ences. Twice as many students of both sexes in 1980 as in 1970 indicated that leisure time and

recreational activities would constitute their most important life goal (1980:1970 2.213). This source of life satisfaction was more important for men than for women in both decades (W:M .312).

While the development of a more egalitarian life valuation of family is of major significance, an even more dramatic change has taken place in the role of college as preparing for happy marriage and family.

Preparing for a happy marriage and family life as an educational expectation was valued differently by men and women in 1970. Twice the proportion of women as men indicated this to be their most important goal in 1970 (W:M 1.936) and one-third more women than men indicated marriage to be their second most im- portant educational goal (W:M 1.295). Change over the decade for both women and men is highlighted by the fact that almost six times as many women in 1970 as in 1980 indicated that marriage and family constituted their first or second most important educational goal, and three and a half times as many men in 1970 as men in 1980 considered marriage among their top two goals. In 1980, men and women were in total agreement in selecting marriage and fam- ily as of low importance as an educational goal (W:M 1.002). Though marriage did have edu- cational meaning for men and more particularly for women in 1970, by 1980 this goal was seen as academically irrelevant or of low priority by 94 percent of both sexes.

Concomitant with the sharp decline in the importance of marriage as an educational goal was the dramatic increase in the educational expectation achieving knowledge and tech- niques directly related to careers. Over the

226 REGAN AND ROLAND

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UNIVERSITY STUDENTS: A CHANGE 227

decade, women experienced a two-fold in- crease in prime educational commitment to obtaining knowledge and techniques directly applicable to careers (1980:1970 1.942), while men experienced an increase of almost 40 per- cent (1980:1970 1.397). In addition, by 1980 more women ranked this goal as "second most important" (1980:1970 1.350). Thus consistent with the change in life goals, the 1980 women showed a substantially higher expectation than 1970 women for academic preparation- preparation which would support aspirations about their own professional futures. Men, rather inconsistent with shifting life goals, also became more pragmatic in their approach to undergraduate education.

Developing ability to get along with different types of people as an educational expectation was seen as most important more frequently by women than by men in 1970 (W:M 1.202). Conversely, in 1980 this goal was more fre- quently listed as most important by men than by women (W:M .952). The change was mainly due to a decrease over the decade in the fre- quency of women viewing this goal as most important.

To ascertain if women are truly aspiring to careers that demand a high level of profes- sional commitment, seniors were asked to specify their long range vocational plans. Re- sponses were dichotomized into professional plans or others. Professional plans reflected high-status occupations, generally requiring both post-baccalaurate training and a commit- ment to the solidarity of the profession.*

Table 4 presents the percentages of men and women in each decade espousing professional and other vocational goals. Log linear tech- niques were applied also to these data. Again, only the saturated model fit the data. In the 1970's women were highly over-represented among seniors aspiring to non-professional oc- cupations (2.042) and men were over- represented among those seeking professional careers. Only one-fourth as many women as men were committed to professional careers in 1970 (.274). By 1980, women were almost as likely as men (.928) to report professional aspi- rations. Congruent with the trends in life and educational goals, women graduating in 1980 were almost three times more likely than women in 1970 to expect employment in high prestige professional occupations (2.706).

Table 4. Percentage of Students' Vocational Choice by Sex and Decade*

Percentages Vocational Choice

Professional Other Year Sex Plans Plans 1970 Male 59 41 1980 48 52 1970 Female 16 84 1980 44 56 * Males 1970 (N = 833) Females 1970 (N = 866)

Males 1980 (N = 527) Females 1980 (N = 560)

COMPARISONS WITH THE 1952-1974 CORNELL STUDY

To obtain a more comprehensive view of value shifts over time and to provide additional validation of these findings, data from the study are presented alongside comparable data from Cornell in 1952 and 1974 (Goldsen et al., 1960; Hoge, 1976; Farley, Brewer and Fine, 1977).

Table 5 provides a 30-year perspective in changes in "most important" life goals for men and women undergraduates. The overall trend from 1952 to 1980 indicates men have actually decreased 33 percent in their expressed com- mitment to career or occupation while women have increased 300 percent over the same pe- riod. In fact, in 1980 more women than men actually saw careers as offering primary life satisfaction. The major drop in men's commit- ment to career or occupation came after 1974. Over the long haul, women experienced a drop in primary commitment to family relationships-a drop from 87 percent to 53 percent in 30 years. A similar pattern, a drop from 60 percent to 43 percent, was evident for men. While men's commitment to both career and family declined, their commitment to lei- sure and recreational activities increased more than 300 percent over the thirty-year span. Consequently, the decline in men's commit- ment to their careers does not necessarily mean more interest and involvement directly in family and family related responsibilities. In- stead, men are increasingly committed to en- joying leisure time.

SUMMARY AND DISCUSSION

This study documents emerging patterns of values and aspirations surrounding work, life and leisure. Long-range trends from 1952 to 1980 indicate that for university-educated women family relations are becoming rela- tively less important and career more impor- tant. In contrast, for men career and family became less salient and leisure more central.

* Thus, while aspiring doctors, professors and en- gineers were classified as having professional plans, nurses and public school teachers were not.

MiguelRealce

228 REGAN AND ROLAND

Table 5. Percentage Ranking Each Life Goal as Most Important Across Three Decades by Sex of Respon- dents and Institution

Percentages Men at Cornell and UCD Women at Cornell and UCD

Life Goals *C'52 D'70 C'74 D'80 C'52 D'70 C'74 D'80 Career or occupation 31 28 29 20 6 12 23 24 Family relationships 60 44 48 43 87 72 57 54 Leisure time, recreational ac-

tivities 4 9 11 17 3 2 9 6 Religious beliefs or activities 3 4 5 10 1 4 6 10 Participation in community

affairs 1 1 2 0 1 0 1 1 Participation in activities di-

rected toward national and international betterment 1 7 5 4 2 3 3 2

Literature, art or music - 7 - 6 - 7 - 4 Total 100 100 100 100 100 99 99 99 (Sample size) (632) (833) (647) (527) (237) (866) (330) (560)

* C = Data were collected on Cornell undergraudates. D = Data were collected on University of California, Davis undergraduates.

The in-depth analyses of long-range life goals and short-range educational expectations pre- sented in this paper show that in the 1980s, as contrasted to earlier periods, young women are aspiring to combinations of family and career. They consider their undergraduate education as a first step to a high prestige professional career. When today's undergraduate women choose professional careers and also have high expectations for satisfactions from family, they are selecting a lifestyle in which career de- mands may conflict with family demands.

The data presented here suggest that this conflict may be complicated further by men's dramatically increasing desire for leisure ful- fillment. If women's future aspirations are based on the expectation that men will play a more active role within the family, men's trend toward leisure rather than family portends an increase in the strains and stresses of profes- sional couples.

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Davis, J. A. 1975 The log linear analyses of survey rep-

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1980 The new women and the old establishment: Wall Street lawyers in the 1970s. Sociology of Work and Occupations 7:291-316.

Farley, J., B. Brewer and S. Fine 1977 Women's values: Changing faster than

men's? Sociology of Education 50:151. Feinberg, S. E.

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Article Contentsp. 223p. 224p. 225p. 226p. 227p. 228

Issue Table of ContentsSociology of Education, Vol. 55, No. 4 (Oct., 1982), pp. i-v+183-228Front Matter [pp. i-v]Scientific Consensus and Academic Status Attainment Patterns [pp. 183-196]Classroom Social Relationships: Exploring the Bowles and Gintis Hypothes [pp. 197-212]The Effects of Task Structure on Beliefs About Competence and Participation in Small Groups [pp. 212-222]Research NoteUniversity Students: A Change in Expectations and Aspirations Over the Decade [pp. 223-228]

Back Matter