ROLE OF THE FAMILY IN ADULT READINESS FOR SCHOOL-TO-WORK TRANSITION: TWO PERSPECTIVES ON FAMILY CONTRIBUTIONS

• Methodology
• Results and Discussion

The second phase of the present study examined the role of the family in the development of readiness for school-to-work transition among adult learners. These students were enrolled in postsecondary college programs that emphasized preparation for employment.

Methodology

Models and Instrumentation

As shown in Figure 3, the key constructs in the adult models of transition readiness were the same as those in the model of adolescent experiences. Several of the indicators of the constructs, however, were modified to reflect adult development concepts.

Individual Characteristics

Family Characteristics

The family work values scales, adapted from instruments developed by Mortimer
et al. (1986) consisted of ten items reflecting extrinsic and intrinsic work orientations, work autonomy, and work/family harmony values. Study participants responded separately to two identical sets of items: one reflecting family of origin and one reflecting present family work values.

Career development support was similarly assessed using two identical sets of five items for family of origin and present family. Developed for the study, these items reflected financial, emotional, and informational types of support.

The family of origin model also included indicators of parent intentional interactions and work-family stress. Data regarding intentional interactions was collected using a ten-item scale based on the work of Young and Friesen (1992) which was developed and used for the adolescent portion of the study. Work-family stress was assessed using a two-item scale developed for the study which reflected the bidirectional permeability of work/family boundaries (Chow & Berheide, 1988).

Learning Processes

Respondents' learning strategies were assessed using 20 items reflecting four scales of the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ) (Pintrich et al., 1991). These scales assessed extrinsic and intrinsic motivations for learning, self-efficacy, and critical thinking. Two items developed for the study measured the smoothness of respondents' transition from high school to further schooling in terms of time lapse and consistency of study interest areas.

Readiness for Transition from School to Work

The work effectiveness construct was assessed using a three-item scale developed for the study which reflected a self-appraisal of basic work-effectiveness indicators (College Entrance Examination Board, 1978): past work performance, ability to compete for employment, and future capacity for advancement in a chosen occupation. The work readiness construct was assessed using a ten-item scale developed for the study based on the ten workplace competency areas outlined in the 1991 SCANS report, What Work Requires of Schools.

Data Collection

Data collection began in the summer of 1994 and continued through December of the same year. A total of 980 instrument responses was received. Of these, 879 (90%) contained complete datasets which were used in testing the proposed models of family contribution to adult school-to-work transition readiness.

Of the 879 usable responses received, 19.7% were from Arizona, 38.5% from Georgia, 14.8% from Minnesota, and 26.1% from Pennsylvania. The possibility of bias due to varying regional response rates was assessed by comparing mean scores of key dependent and independent variables according to state in a series of one-way analyses of variance. Only two systematic variations according to state were discovered, and neither appeared troubling, since both variables were treated as part of larger composite constructs during model testing. One difference was that Pennsylvania respondents reported greater (p < .05) degrees of vocational identity than respondents in the other three states. In addition, Georgia respondents reported greater degrees (p < .05) of one (extrinsic orientation) of the four family work values in their present family than did respondents in the other three states.

Age and race of the adult respondents approximated that of two-year college students nationally. Of the sample, 16.7% were below 21 years, 25.8% were 21-25 years, 13.8% were 26-30 years, 13.4% were 31-35 years, and 22.1% were 36 years of age or older. Nationally, about 56% of students in two-year postsecondary institutions are 24 years of age or older. Whites comprised 76.7% of respondents and nonwhites, 23.3%. Nationally, 72.1% of students in two-year postsecondary schools are white, and 26.2% are nonwhite (Smith et al., 1994).

More of the adult student respondents were female (75%) than male (25%). Nationally, females do outnumber males in two-year college programs by about 57% to 43% (Smith et al., 1994). However, the study sample does, by comparison, overrepresent females.

In terms of parental status, 50.5% of the present study sample report having children, compared to 49.5% who do not. Nationally, 57.7% of first-time two-year college students report having children compared to 28.8% who do not (Smith et al., 1994). (Note: Percentages reported in Smith et al.'s Condition of Education do not always total to 100% due to missing data.) A total of 58.8% of present study respondents reported being married, and 41.2% reported being single. National figures for first-time two-year college enrollees identify 34.8% of students as married and 59.4% as single (Smith et al., 1994). Thus, although the present study sample appear to represent the parental status of two-year college learners fairly well, it may be that the sample somewhat overrepresented persons who were married.

Instrument Reliability

Factor Structures for Adult Model Construct Indicators

For both present family and family of origin, a factor labeled proactive functioning emerged. Proactive functioning is characterized by traits such as family expressiveness, cohesion, an active/recreation orientation, an external locus of control, and democratic decision-making. In addition, the adult respondents saw their present families in ways that were labeled reactive and inactive in functioning style compared to their families of origin, where functioning style factors labeled indifferent and suffocating emerged. Reactive families are characterized by a lack of organization and leadership in setting family functioning guidelines and limits. Indifferent families not only lack organization, leadership, and rules to live by, but also seem to have members who are casual to the point of being disengaged from one another with respect to their day-to-day activities. Inactive families lack capacity for action because they either cannot set guidelines for family living (laissez-faire) or are overly tied to the present family system (enmeshed).

Suffocating families are those characterized primarily by enmeshment, which has been described elsewhere as "a familial environment [where] members are undifferentiated from or overly dependent on [one another]" (Minuchin, Montalvo, Guerney, Rosman, & Schumer, 1967, p. 309).

The underlying structures of the proactive and inactive family functioning factors for the adults' present family are identical to the factors that emerged for family functioning in the adolescent portion of the study. However, the other family functioning factors based on adult perceptions have structures that vary from the adolescents. Prior research has shown that adults and adolescents may view the same aspects of family functioning within their families differently. Penick and Jepsen (1992) found, for example, that different subcomponents of family functioning were significant predictors of vocational identity among 11th-grade students when perceptions of students, mothers, and fathers were compared. It may be, however, that the fundamental nature of family functioning is actually conceptualized differently by adolescents and adults, and that adults may also conceptualize family functioning differently in their present families and in their families of origin as well. The derived family functioning factors outlined in Table 8 were used in the subsequent testing of the adult transition models in the present study.

Analysis

Results and Discussion

Means and standard deviations for the observed variables in the adult models are presented in Table 9.

Respondent Characteristics

As expected, the adult respondents reported higher levels of vocational identity and lower levels of career indecision than the adolescents (see Table 3).

Family of Origin Contributions to Adult School-to-Work Transition Readiness

Total Effects

The direction of the effects of the family functioning styles were in the expected directions and consistent with the findings for adolescents in the study. Proactive functioning exerted a positive effect on transition readiness, while indifferent and suffocating functioning styles in the family of origin exerted negative effects on adult school-to-work transition readiness. In contrast to the adolescent findings, sex and family of origin work values did not exert significant total effects on transition readiness for adults in the hypothesized model of family of origin influences.

These findings provide evidence that a relational view of development is appropriate for understanding the process by which learners achieve readiness for school-to-work transition. They also support a convincing body of developmental literature focusing on how family relationships can promote or impede later developmental competence during adulthood. In a study of 604 undergraduate and graduate students, for example, Kinnier
et al. (1990) found that enmeshment (feeling pressured to spend most of one's free time with one's family) in the family of origin was significantly associated with difficulty in making career decisions. Penick and Jepsen (1992) also found that enmeshment in the family contributed negatively to the development of vocational identity.

Direct Effects

Another direct link shown in the model is the interaction between a suffocating family functioning style and a smooth transition from high school to higher education. A possible explanation may be that a suffocating family style may contribute to unquestioned decisions about further education for individuals who accept the advice they receive.

Sex

Race

Socioeconomic Status

Indirect Effects

Other significant indirect links in the model included those between race and learning strategies and between socioeconomic status and post-high school education transition smoothness. Being nonwhite was negatively associated with development of motivated strategies for learning through an indirect path, while socioeconomic status was positively and indirectly associated with smoothness of the post-high school educational transition (Table 11). In contrast to the adolescent model, there was no significant indirect link between socioeconomic status and transition readiness in the adult family of origin model.

Present Family Contributions to Adult School-to-Work Transition Readiness

Total Effects

Direct Effects

Race

Socioeconomic Status

These findings are suggestive of some particularly interesting questions about the role of socioeconomic status in adult life course career development. Why, for example, does present family socioeconomic status directly affect adult transition readiness, but not that of adolescents? What is the relationship between adult socioeconomic status, work-family stress, and participation in adult work-related education?

Marital Status

Indirect Effects