Expectations/Aspirations
Developed for the Pittsburgh Youth Study (Loeber,
Stouthamer-Loeber, van Kammen & Farrington, 1991) which was adapted
from instruments developed by the staffs of the Institute of Behavioral
Science and of the Rochester Youth Development Study. Pittsburgh Youth
Study, The Department of Psychiatry of the University of Pittsburgh
School of Medicine, 3811 O'Hara Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15213.
Abstract
The Expectations/Aspirations measure is a 22-item scale
which assesses children's feelings about their goals and activities
in life. Specifically, the measure contains questions regarding
children's views of how important specific goals are, how far they
would like to go in school, how far they think they will go in school,
and how likely it is that they will meet specific goals. Each item
in the measure which addresses the importance of specific goals
ranges from 1 (very important) to 4 (not important at all); each
item in the measure which addresses the likelihood of meeting the
specific goals ranges from 1 (very likely) to 4 (not likely at all).
For two items about schooling the children were offered a range
of eight choices from 1 (8th grade or less) to 8 (other). There
are two responses for "What kind of job would you like to get
when you grow up?": 1 indicated that the child mentioned a
job and 2 indicated that the child responded, "I don't know."
Scoring procedures were used to create three scales for this measure.
The first scale, Current Importance, measures the importance an
individual places on meeting specific goals. The second scale, Future
Expectations I, measures the individual's beliefs in how likely
he/she will be in achieving the same goals included in the Current
Importance scale. The third scale, Future Expectations II, measure
the individual's beliefs in how likely he/she will be in achieving
these goals. The responses to "Do you think when you are a
grown-up, you will be in trouble with the police?" were reversed
to be consistent with the direction of the scale.
Analysts should be aware that the scoring for "Do you think
that when you are a grown-up, you will be in trouble with the police?"
is in the opposite direction than the scoring for the other items.
In addition, analysts should be aware that in the scoring for "What
kind of job would you like to get when you grow up?", a 1 indicates
that the child mentioned a job and a 2 indicates that the child
responded, "I don't know." Also be aware that the subscale
Current Importance Scale contains six items for current importance
and subscale Future Expectations I Scale contains the corresponding
six items for future expectations.
Keywords: Goal Orientation, Educational Objectives, Work Ethic,
Values
Administration History
See study
years administered.
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11 October 2004
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