The Effects of Purpose Orientations on Recent High School Graduates' College Application Decisions

• In Event: 14.046 - Poster Session 1
  In Poster Session: 14.046-7 - Factors Influencing High School and Postsecondary Vocational and Career Choices

Abstract

Committing to a purpose significantly predicts grit and encourages students to achieve their long-term aims (Hill et al., 2014). Apart from a general sense of purpose, the specific nature or type of purpose strongly influences students’ developmental outcomes (Hill et al., 2009). In this presentation we will discuss the effect of different types of life purpose (purpose orientations) on high school graduates’ college application decisions using the Educational Longitudinal Study 2002. Knowledge about the adolescents’ different types of purpose and their effects on college application could help school counselors to promote high school students’ college-related decisions that align with their sense of purpose in life, which research shows helps them to persist in post-secondary education (Allen & Nora, 1995).

Authors

• Gitima Sharma, California State University - Fresno

• Jungnam Kim, Ball State University

• Julia Bryan, The Pennsylvania State University - University Park