Educational, Occupational, and Residential Plans of Youth in South Dakota

When talking about South Dakota youth it has been popular to contend that their future is the future of South Dakota. Furthermore, newspaper reporters, politicians, and others have contended that young men and women would prefer to live in South Dakota, but that economic conditions push them to seek jobs in other states. It has also been proposed that many rural youth, though they would prefer not to, move to urban areas to seek a living. Even with these contentions, little objective research has been done to substantiate that a relationship exists between job seeking and migration for South Dakota youth. Accordingly, it would be appropriate to test the associations among status-seeking and residential plans of South Dakota youth. An understanding of the migration patterns of young adults, and the reasons for their migration, will be helpful in dealing with the problems brought on by young adult migration. Sociologists, demographers, and others have insistently proposed that migration has a profound affect on both donor and acceptor communities. Among the effects on the donor are a decrease in tax revenue and a decline in both social and economic services. Contrary to this, t he acceptor community can expect increased demands on their educational, governmental, and economic institutions. However, these communities can also expect to see increases in tax revenue. If patterns of migration are known, community influentials can compare them to the social and economic characteristics of their communities, and by doing so can determine how best to abrogate those problems brought on by migration. It might be noted that this research takes a different approach than most researchers. Instead of focusing on the characteristics of communities that push and/or pull migrants, the focus of this study is on the association between migration and personal characteristics of individuals. The personal characteristics of most concern are status-seeking plans and the factors associated with them.More specifically, this research is concerned with the following research problem. To what extent are selected social factors associated with the educational, occupational, and residential plans of high school students in South Dakota? Objectives of the Study The research will attempt to distinguish: 1. Which of the selected social origin factors are associated with youth\u27s educational and occupational plans.2. Whether educational achievement factors mediate between social origins and plans. 3. To what extent plans vary by sex. 4. To what extent educational and occupational plans are associated with residential plans

Measures of Student Effort as Predictors of Student\u27s Grades

Astin (1984) has argued that college students\u27 academic successes vary positively with the quality and quantity of their academic efforts. Despite this claim, empirical research has demonstrated that time spent studying-a prime example of student effort-is only a weak predictor of grades. It is argued in this article that this finding does not refute Astin\u27s claim that effort and grades are related, because academic effort is more than just studying for exams; it is multidimensional. A cross- sectional, correlational research design was used in this study to test the relationship between academic success and the many dimensions of student effort. It was found that present semester grades vary positively with academic commitment, setting and honoring priorities, and time spent studying, but vary inversely with alcohol usage, partying, number of hours spent socializing with friends, absences due to boredom with classes, and absences due to the fatigue associated with excessive socializing and partying

The Importance of College Student Academic Goals: A Symbolic Interactionist Approach

A cross-sectional study of a sample of first and second year students attending a moderately-sized, Great Plains university is used to demonstrate the correlation between academic self-conceptions and academic goals. Multiple regression analysis shows that academic self-conceptions, academic role-taking, job goals, being a parent, and having a Job are excellent predictors of academic goals. The authors recommend that the symbolic interactionist perspective used in the study should be used to study how academic goals link academic self-conceptions with academic behaviors and outcomes

A Social Disorganization Theory of County Crime Rates in Minnesota

This analysis is an application of social disorganization theory for understanding variations in county crime rates in the state of Minnesota. Social disorganization is seen as the breakdown of community institutions of social control, where indicators of breakdown included such things as family disruption and over-crowding. With few exceptions, measures of social disorganization were found to he correlated with county crime rates, with three variables as showing up as especially important; these are percent of children not living with both parents, per capita alcohol tax collected in the county, and net-migration. Three variables—percent of persons with incomes less than $5000, median income, and percent of adults with a high school education—were correlated with crime in directions opposite than what was predicted. Limitations and suggestions for further research are also provided

Structural Conditions and Migration in the Dakotas

This study examines the influence of selected structural conditions on the county-level net-migration trends of North Dakota and South Dakota. Key principles from Lee’s Theory of Migration (1966) and Wallerstein’s World Systems model (1974) were integrated to explain how geographic context, economic dependency, and pace of economic development combine to serve as the main catalysts behind the migration patterns in these two states. Results indicate that commuting patterns, the percentage of workers employed in extractive industries, the percentage of workers employed in manufacturing, and job change rates were significant predictors of county migration patterns

A Day at the Morgue: Student Interpretations of Death and Reality

This study involved the reflections of 15 college students six months after a visit to a morgue. After witnessing the various aspects of death at the morgue (e.g. morgue intake of bodies, significant time spent in a very large storage cooler for corpses, as well as an autopsy) a qualitative inquiry was conducted to determine whether or not the participants’ experiences were “real” or “surreal.” Analysis revealed that most determined their experience to be surreal. The students’ lack of experience with death, to the extent they experienced it at the morgue, no doubt resulted in more subjects determining the experience to be surreal

Stepmother Self-Role Incongruency in the Newly Formed Family: An Analysis of Stepmothers in the Great Plains

This study is a cross-sectional analysis of stepmothers from a Midwestern community in South Dakota. In this study, the relationships among six sets of variables are analyzed. The dependent variable is stepmother self-role incongruence index. The independent variables along with the strength of relationship in regards to stepmother self-role incongruence, are as follows; role ambiguity index (.393), anticipatory socialization index (-.203), wicked stepmother index (494), stepfamily/stepparent unfavorability index (.288), and a spousal disagreement index (.241). Hypothesis testing supported the hypotheses introduced in this study. Multiple regression analysis identified wicked stepmother beliefs as the best predictor of stepmother self-role incongruence (Beta = .355). Elaboration analysis revealed that the greater stepmother\u27s anticipatory socialization the lesser the belief the wicked stepmother, and the lower the level of self-role incongruence

Tenure of Girl Scout Volunteer Leaders: An Issue of Self-Role Merger

Past and present Girl Scout Volunteer Leaders (GSVLs) in a regional Girl Scout council were sampled to determine the factors that theoretically lead to self-role merger as a GSVL. Self-role merger as a GSVL exists when interacting with others, as a GSVL, is important in sustaining one\u27s sense of worth as a person. The relationship between self-role merger and tenure as a GSVL was also examined. A test of hypotheses shows that the following variables are strongly related with self-role merger: a sense of achievement gained through role performances, the friendships developed through volunteering, and the extent of activities performed by the GSVL and her troop. A moderate, positive association was found between self-role merger scores and tenure; however, the strength of the relationship was much stronger for GSVLs whose daughters had previously left scouting. These findings support the structural symbolic interactionist theory of GSVLs developed in this article. Regional Girl Scout councils should consider these findings when developing strategies to retain GSVL

A Systems Analysis of Senior Center Structures, Environments, and Impacts

This research analyzed the basic assumption that bigger, more comprehensive, more centralized senior center delivery systems produce better results - increased availability, increased accessibility, increased scope, and higher utilization rates. An open systems theory of senior center efficiency was developed. Open systems theory, as developed herein, explains senior center efficiency in terms of the environmental factors associated with inputs (resources), in terms of the structural aspects associated with the actual delivery of programs, and in terms of consequences and impacts that these structures have for target populations. Hypotheses were tested using Pearson correlation coefficient, analysis of variance, and multiple discriminant analysis. A sample of three senior center types in Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota was drawn. These types are senior clubs, service centers, and multipurpose senior centers. The tests demonstrated that the delivery of senior center programs to target populations can be viewed from a systems theory. Indeed, with certain qualifications, the tests revealed that: (1) Environmental complexity of senior center catchment areas varies directly with size, structural differentiation, and technological complexity of senior centers. (2) Scope of senior centers varies by population size of the catchment area. (3) catchment areas of different sizes vary in availability of senior center programs. (4) There is a direct relationship among structural characteristics of senior centers and their impacts. (5) Senior center types differ in size, structural differentiation, technological complexity, scope, and accessibility. Moreover, measures of structural differentiation and impacts are discriminators of senior center type. One important contribution of this research is the application of systems theory to the understanding of how senior centers work, how structures are influenced by the environment, and what impact distinctive structures have on target populations. Another contribution is a more detailed specification of structural characteristics of senior citizen center types based upon analysis of variance and discriminant analysis

and the Challenge of Constructing a Positive Identity”: A Critical Analysis

Garbage collectors. Sanitation workers. Coal miners. Oil drillers. Funeral home directors. All seem to share a common trait; they are what Ashforth and Kreiner (1999) would call “dirty workers”, a term originally coined by Everett Hughes (1958) to refer to those individuals who perform tasks and/or occupations that are frequently perceived as disgusting or degrading. Performing these tasks, in turn, leads to stigmatization of these individuals as dirty themselves, personifying the dirty work that they perform. Ashforth and Kreiner, in their article “’How Can You Do It?’: Dirty Work and the Challenge of Constructing a Positive Identity”, attempt to investigate the relationship between society’s stigmatization of these “dirty workers” and the surprisingly positive self-identity these workers possess – not the negative self-image one might expect of such stigmatized groups, but a self-identity and solidarity that refutes society’s stigmatization of the roles they perform. Dirty work is a necessity; it is essential for societies to function adequately. This work, however, is frequently belittled and maligned. Dirty workers act on society’s behalf, performing these undesirable, albeit necessary, tasks, and society returns the favor by then stigmatizing these groups as “dirty workers”. Such stigmatization would seem to make construction of a positiv