RELATION OF STUDENT DEMOGRAPHICS TO THEIR DEGREE OF INTEREST
IN SELECTED OCCUPATIONAL OBJECTIVES
The conducted study examined whether differences in the student demographics of age, gender, religion, and family yearly income were associated with differences in junior and high school students' degree of interest in each of 18 vocational objectives.
According to Ornstein and Hunkins (1993), there have been several challenges confronting vocational educators regarding the determination of students' interest in occupational objectives. In other words, distinguishing between students who are interested in different vocational objectives is difficult.
One way in which researchers have attempted to determine differences in students' degree of interest in various vocational objectives has been to examine whether their interests differ in relation to student demographics. Unfortunately, these studies have yielded somewhat mixed findings. For example, Webb (1988) found that college choice and college major were systematically related to the personal and background characteristics of a sample of high school juniors. Similarly, Thomson (1992) found that the ethnicity of high school seniors was related to their degree of interest in the health profession.
Demographics were not, however, found to be a determining factor in the perceptions of students toward vocational objectives in a study conducted by Smith (1998). The purpose of this study was to examine perceptions of students enrolled in vocational education courses toward work and career-related issues. Specific research objectives of the study were to: (a) survey the perceptions of comprehensive high school students enrolled in vocational education courses toward work and career-related issues, and (b) examine the effect of selected variables on student perceptions toward work and career-related issues. Subjects in the study were eleventh and twelfth grade students dr...