ERIC Number: ED170074
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 1978-Dec
Pages: 137
Abstractor: N/A
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
An Investigation into the Prestige Structure of Agricultural Occupations.
Frank, Lianne Melody
Using a mailed questionnaire, 2,392 undergraduate agriculture majors in 14 Southern universities were surveyed to determine how they would rate a set of agricultural and agriculturally-related occupations and whether their sex and past farming experience were responsible for divergent responses. Questionnaire items and scaling techniques closely paralleled those used in the National Opinion Research Center Study (North-Hatt Scale). Data analysis revealed that the agriculture students rated agricultural occupations similarly to the way others have rated the general occupational hierarchy. Professional, managerial and scientific occupations were at the top of the scale and manual labor was at the bottom. There were more variations in the certainty of the rankings in the middle of the scale of sixty occupations. Respondents' sex and farm background proved to be insignificant as variables. In addition it was found that significant factors in determining prestige were specific training or education and ownership of the means of production. This research is significant because it was the initial investigation of the prestige of agricultural occupations. It also gives insight into the occupational structure of agriculture and can be useful in educational planning. (SB)
Descriptors: Agricultural Occupations, College Students, Masters Theses, Occupational Clusters, Occupational Surveys, Off Farm Agricultural Occupations, Organization, Place of Residence, Rating Scales, Regional Attitudes, Sex Differences, Socioeconomic Background, Status, Student Attitudes, Surveys, Undergraduate Students
Publication Type: Dissertations/Theses; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A