Document Type

Thesis - Open Access

Award Date

1982

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department / School

Sociology and Rural Studies

First Advisor

Donna J. Hess

Abstract

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's 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.

Library of Congress Subject Headings

Migration, Internal
Vocational interests -- South Dakota
Youth -- South Dakota

Format

application/pdf

Number of Pages

136

Publisher

South Dakota State University

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