Family and High School Experience Influences on the Postsecondary Educational Plans of Ninth-Grade Students

The objectives of this study were to review the current literature on status attainment and student college choice and to develop and test a structural model of predisposition to attend college. Family and student background characteristics, parents’ educational expectations for students, level of student involvement in school, and student achievement were cited as influences on students’ predisposition toward postsecondary education and were the chief components of the model. Data from 2,497 ninth-grade students and their parents were used to test the model using LISREL. Parents’ expectations exerted the strongest influence throughout the model. Parents’ education, student gender, high school GPA, and high school experiences also contributed significantly in explaining students’ aspirations.