The relationship between Jordanian high school students' career choice attitudes and certain census characteristics

The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between the career-choice attitudes of a sample of Jordanian secondary-school students, as assessed through the Career Maturity Inventory Attitude Scale, Form A-I (CMI) and certain census characteristics, and to draw implications from the findings regarding their meaning for teachers, counselors and administrators in high schools in Jordan. The census characteristics are gender, habitat, environment (rural or urban), socio-economic status (educational level of parents), type of school attended (public or private), grade level (10th, 11th or 12th). Five hypotheses were developed and tested. Each pertains to the relationship between the Career Maturity Inventory (dependent variable) Attitude Scale, Form A-I (CMI) score and a census variable (independent variable). Study subjects were 841 high school students enrolled in grade 10, 11, or 12 in Jordan. They were selected from 28 schools in the three largest metropolitan areas in the following regions: Irbid; Amman; and Al Karak. Two instruments, the CMI (translated into Arabic) and Personal Data Inventory were used to obtain data for hypotheses testing. Data collection was undertaken in the spring of the 1988-1989 academic year. Study hypotheses were tested utilizing the analysis of variance statistic through the Statistical Package for Social Science Program. The standard set for significance was.05. Of the five study hypotheses, four were confirmed indicating a significant relationship between the career choice attitudes and each, the grade level, the type of school attended, the urban or rural location of the school, and the educational level of parents of the sample of Jordanian students. These findings when compared with those of studies reviewed in the development of the research (which concerned mainly American high school students) would seem to support the conclusion that there is a notable resemblance between Jordanian and American high school students with regard to patterning of career choice attitudes. A number of implications regarding career guidance in Jordanian high schools are included in a discussion of study findings.