The relationship between selected undergraduate status characteristics and factors pertaining to job status twenty-two months after graduation: A study of deaf university graduates

This study examined the relationship between selected undergraduate status characteristics (general work and cooperative internship experience) and certain factors pertaining to job status on the initial full-time job held 22 months after graduation (job satisfaction, level of employment, and job growth potential) as assessed through the Alumni Employment Survey (AES), a self-report type instrument developed by the writer. The subjects were 121 deaf male and female 1991 Gallaudet University bachelor of science and bachelor of arts graduates who responded to a mail survey in spring 1993. All were employed part-time or full-time 22 months after graduation. A cross-tabulation chi-square statistical procedure was used to test six hypotheses that predicted a significant relationship between each of the undergraduate status characteristics (general work experience and cooperative education experience) and factors of postgraduation employment (job satisfaction, level of employment, and job growth potential). None of the hypotheses was confirmed at the $p \leq .05$ confidence level. These findings agree with research on job satisfaction (Crammatte, 1987; Center for Career Programs, 1992) and job growth potential (Center for Career Programs, 1992) for deaf persons of all educational levels and for hearing college graduates (Bisconti & Solmon, 1977; Lunneborg, 1982). They suggest the possibility that deaf college graduates are more vocationally mature than previously believed. Also, they run contrary to previous employment studies on deaf persons (Birnbaum, 1982; Rawlings, King, Karchmer, & Brown, 1985) that reported deaf persons of all educational levels to be underemployed. In general, it is concluded that, in this sample of deaf university graduates, undergraduate status characteristics of general work experience and cooperative education experience are not significantly related to perceptions of job satisfaction, level of employment, and job growth potential on the initial full-time postgraduation job.