Vocational indecision among high school students in Newfoundland

Abstract

A smooth and efficient transfer of young people between school and work seems to be of vital importance to our society. However, an almost anomalous situation seems to exist: Breton and McDonald (1967) report that 33.7 percent of the boys and 19.7 percent of the girls in Grade Eleven in Newfoundland had not made a career choice. -- This study attempted to bring together some of the correlates of vocational indecision and incorporate them into a theoretically meaningful causal scheme. The procedure used in the quantification of the causal model is a generalization of multiple linear regression known as path analysis. The sample consisted of the some 1,600 Grade Eleven students who were part of the Career Decisions Project carried out by Breton and McDonald in 1965-66. -- While this study explained only a small proportion of the variance in vocational indecision, it did result in some elucidation of the complex process of vocational decision-making as it applies to the youth of Newfoundland.