Abstract

Many school districts devote the majority of their transition resources to those students that are graduating and continuing their education through college. However, only about 15% of ninth grade students go on to graduate high school and obtain a 4-year college degree within six years of their high school graduation. Schools focus their resources and curriculum on the college bound minority instead of the work bound majority. This contributes to ineffective transition planning for those students going directly from school to work; and is especially true for students with Emotional/Behavioral disabilities (ED/BD). These students are leaving school unprepared to be gainfully employed because of a lack of knowledge about themselves, their abilities, and the abilities needed to be successful in a chosen career. Many of these adolescents have not had the opportunity to explore career options through school sponsored work experiences or self motivated exploration, which contributes to their indecisiveness about their futures and the lack of a clearly formed identity. This study investigated the role of identity diffusion and career indecision in effective transition planning for students with emotional and behavioral disturbances (ED/BD). It was hypothesized that ED/BD students will have more career indecision and identity diffusion than students who are not receiving special education services.

Library of Congress Subject Headings

Students with disabilities--Employment--United States; School-to-work transition--United States--Psychological aspects; Identity (Psychology); Career education--United States; Vocational guidance--United States; High school graduates--Employment--United States

Publication Date

2007

Document Type

Thesis

Student Type

Graduate

Degree Name

School Psychology (MS)

Department, Program, or Center

Department of Psychology (CLA)

Advisor

Scott P. Merydith

Advisor/Committee Member

Jennifer Lukomski

Comments

Physical copy available from RIT's Wallace Library at LC4169 .G37 2007

Campus

RIT – Main Campus

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