Sociopolitical development and vocational expectations among lower socioeconomic status adolescents of color.

Vocational expectations represent the job or career that individuals believe they will likely attain in the future (Baly, 1989) and play an important role in organizing adolescents' behavior toward the career development process (Super, 1980), such as the development of the occupational self-concept. Additionally, occupational expectations are generally predictive of adolescents' occupational attainment as adults (Hotchkiss & Borow, 1996). From an emancipatory communitarian perspective to career development (Blustein, McWhirter, & Perry, 2005), the sociopolitical context of adolescents also influences their occupational expectations. For example, sociopolitical barriers such as racism (Hellenga, Aber, & Rhodes, 2002) and classism (Hotchkiss & Borow, 1996) have a negative impact upon the occupational expectations of adolescents of color. The influence of sociopolitical barriers is clearly illustrated by the observed differences between occupational aspirations and expectations among adolescents of color (Constantine, Erickson, Banks, & Timberlake, 1998).

Aspirations represent "the statement of a desired career goal given ideal conditions," whereas expectations represent "an individual's consideration of reality factors which may affect the attainment of aspirations" (Baly, 1989, p. 255). Aspirations are one's occupational dreams, whereas expectations are real-world beliefs of what occupation one will attain. Sociopolitical inequities in access to resources, in addition to a range of sociopolitical barriers (Blustein et al., 2005), may explain this discrepancy between aspirations and expectations, which has been labeled the aspiration-expectation gap.

Aspiration-Expectation Gap

Although the occupational aspirations and expectations of White adolescents are similar, a consistent finding in the literature (Arbona & Novy, 1991; Baly, 1989; Constantine et al., 1998; Hellenga et al., 2002) has been that the occupational expectations of adolescents of color are lower than their occupational aspirations. An aspiration-expectation discrepancy has been observed among lower socioeconomic status (SES) adolescents but not among their higher SES counterparts (Bogie, 1976; Chaves et al., 2004), suggesting that social class may also be associated with an aspiration-expectation gap.

Structural racism, oppression, labor market discrimination, and inequitable access to resources facilitative of career development, among other sociopolitical barriers, are theorized to account for this gap (e.g., Constantine et al., 1998; Hotchkiss & Borow, 1996). For example, Chaves et al. (2004) observed that labor market discrimination experienced by family members led urban adolescents to have more negative expectations regarding their occupational future and the world of work. Similarly, Diemer and Blustein (2006) argued that structural oppression and limited access to career-related resources may lead urban adolescents to be less invested in their occupational future. One urban adolescent who participated in Diemer, Kauffman, Koenig, Trahan, and Hsieh's (2006) qualitative study of support for challenging racism, sexism, and social injustice gave voice to the impact of sociopolitical barriers, wondering, "Can racism make you put your dreams down?" (Note. The participant's comment was not published in the Diemer et al., 2006, article but can be found in the transcripts.) These sociopolitical forces may lead lower SES adolescents of color to believe that it is unlikely they will attain the "dream" occupations to which they aspire and, resultingly, expect to attain lower status occupations.

Although the deleterious effects of sociopolitical inequity are well documented, internal resources that may assist adolescents in adaptively coping with these external sociopolitical barriers have received less attention. Because the aforementioned review and related research (Chaves et al., 2004; Diemer & Blustein, 2006) suggest that the barriers that are associated with lowered vocational expectations are primarily sociopolitical in nature, we argue that individuals' capacity to cope with these sociopolitical barriers (i.e., sociopolitical development) may be associated with the vocational expectations of lower SES adolescents of color.

Sociopolitical Development