Influence of Financial Need on the Vocational Development of College Students

ACT RESEARCH REPORTNo. 3636September, 1970INFLUENCE OF FINANCIAL NEED ON THE VOCATIONAL DEVELOPMENT OF COLLEGE STUDENTSAllen R, Vander WellTHE AMERICAN COLLEGE TESTING PROGRAM ABSTRACTThere is some evidence that financial need influences vocational development To explore the relationship, four research issues were developed and related hypotheses were tested. The issues were as follows:Students with financial need form earlier crystalized occupational choices than those w ithout financial need, (Supported.)Students with financial need persist with their early occupational choice commit­ment whereas those w ithout need tend to alter their objectives and later specify more crystalized choices. (Partially supported.)Students with financial need narrow their objectives and thus lim it their participation in other curricular and extracurricular areas whereas those without need participate more actively and broadly. (Not supported.)Students with financial need perceive their educational experience and their relationship with the institution less favorably than those without financial need. (Not supported.)The sample, drawn from four state supported institutions, consisted of 291 students in the second semester of their second year of college. The American College Testing Program's Management Reporting and Analysis Service, which provided summaries of the financial aid programs for the institutions, was used to define the two financial need groups. All students listed in these reports were financial aid applicants. The Financial Aid Group was defined in terms of individuals who received assistance adequate to meet their financial need. The Unmet Need Group were those who did not receive sufficient assistance to meet their need. The third group, individuals who had not applied for financial assistance, was defined as the group without financial need, the Nonappficant Group.The students with full financial aid tended to have a greater crystalized choice of their educational major and vocational goal than was true of students in the other two groups. Differences regarding college goal preferences among the research groups were not significant All groups showed a strong preference toward vocationally oriented goals. The hypothesis that groups with financial need would prefer vocationally oriented goals more than those w ithout need would prefer academic goals, was not supported. Statistical analyses failed to support the theoretical expectation that individuals with financial need participate less in extracurricular activities and have poorer college attitudes. ©Copyright, 1970, The American College Testing Program INFLUENCE OF FINANCIAL NEED ON THE VOCATIONAL DEVELOPMENT OF COLLEGE STUDENTS1Allen R. Vander Well2This paper studies the impact of financial need on vocational decision-making. Ginzberg, Ginsburg, Axelrad, and Herma (1951) have suggested that "the process of occupational determination among the lower income groups. . . with a few notable exceptions. . . can be characterized by two terms: passive and stunted."The contention is that individuals with finan­cial need cling tenaciously to a narrow choice perspective and devote themselves more exclusively (not necessarily beneficially) to the pursuit of this objective. In so doing they cut themselves off from much of the potential benefit of the total college experience. In the original samples used by Ginzberg et al. they did not include a college sample for the lower socioeconomic group. Theirwriting merely suggests divergence from the essen­tial occupational choice theory for this group and offers some impressions explaining how and why this divergence occurs.The determinants of vocational development according to the Ginzberg theory are not at all clear. The theory stresses the association of voca­tional development with biological development, at least through the tentative period. In addition, there are allusions to other factors, including emotional needs, psychological needs, character­istics of learning, and environmental influences. However, there is little to indicate the relative importance or independence of any of these factors.The ProblemThis study presupposed an influence on voca­tional development of a reaction to an environ­mental pressure of a specific nature, financial need. Holland (1962) suggested that vocational develop­ment is more dependent upon the individual's personality than upon the direct effect of financial need. Cooley (1964) noted, however, that the environmental influence may be related to choice behavior