Whatever the limitations in deriving broad generalizations, the results of this study are useful in evaluating the general validity of several broad theoretical propositions. In the first place, the broad generalization that adolescents of all ethnic types (from both rural and metropolitan areas) maintain high occupational and educational goal levels offers strong support for Merton's contention that high-level success goals are widely diffused among the various segments and strata of our society. Given this ethnic commonality, at a less abstract level of analysis our data indicate some patterned variations among ethnic groups: Negro youth apparently more often hold high educational goals than other youth, and Spanish-speaking minorities more often maintain low-level goals.
Merton's thesis that youth structure their goals in terms of a hierarchy of importance receives support from the finding that, among the respondents considered here, intensity of aspiration for education was stronger than that associated with occupation (Merton, 1957). The fact that the ethnic groups demonstrated similarity in respect to this differential valuation of education and occupation, provides a basis for extending Merton's proposition to indicate that this aspect of the projected frame of reference is patterned and cuts across ethnic and class boundaries. This may prove to be a very fruitful hypothesis for future research, for it has been suggested that the intensity aspect of aspiration may be at least as important as the level of aspiration for prediction of future attainments (Kuvlesky and Bealer, 1966).
In the same measure that these findings support Merton, they support the more specific hypothesis of Gordon (1961) that ethnic minorities in our society have become acculturated in terms of the values of the larger society and the related idea of Antonovsky (1967) that Negroes are in the process of dissociating themselves from the negative status of their ethnic identification. What is more, the results would indicate that Mexican American youth are also beginning this process. The evidence produced in this analysis may indicate that Mexican American youth have not progressed in this process of "dissociation" to the same extent as Negroes. Consistent patterns of difference indicate that Mexican American youth are Consistently, although in many cases only slightly, distinguished from the other two ethnic types: Mexican Americans more often held low-level goals, experienced a greater frequency of negative anticipatory deflection, and were less certain about attaining their expectations. One possible inference that can be drawn from these data is that a somewhat larger number of Mexican American youth, as compared with Negroes, are willing to conform to their negative status position, relative to Anglos, or that more of them perceive greater restrictions to desired mobility (in accordance with Stephenson's hypothesis). On the other hand, the fact that the Mexican American youth maintained consistently stronger attachments to their goals than the other two groupings does not fit this pattern and is difficult to explain.
The results on status expectations would appear to strongly support Stephenson's hypothesis that expectations are more variable than aspirations relative to social class. However, the theoretical rationale for this proposition is that lower class youth perceive less opportunity for attainment of their aspirations than more fortunate youth and, therefore, anticipate lower levels of expectation (Stephenson, 1957). The results reported here apparently challenge this thesis! Negro respondents indicated higher level expectations than either Mexican Americans or Anglo groupings, which were similar in their expectation levels. Considering the fact that Negroes are more disadvantaged relative to SES indicators than either of the other two ethnic groups, it would appear that the difference in expectations that was observed is in direct contradiction to Stephenson's thesis. Furthermore, the results on anticipatory goal deflection indicate relatively similar rates of goal-expectation divergence for all three ethnic groups. This is interpreted to mean that both ethnic minorities experience the same degree of aspiration-expectation incongruity as the dominant Anglo group, which also conflicts with Stephenson's thesis.
As far as we know, no empirical evidence has been reported to question Rodman's thesis of the lower class value stretch (Rodman, 1963). The findings on rural Negro and Mexican American youth from the South and Southwest indicate that they maintain goal profiles similar to the dominant Anglo group. This brings into question the general validity of Rodman's thesis that greater variability exists among the goal specifications of lower class youth as compared with others. His related thesis that the "major lower class value change ... is a stretched value system with a low degree of commitment to all the values within the range, including the dominant middle class values" is directly challenged by our findings on intensity of aspiration. Likewise, our findings bring into question Yinger's (1960) proposition pertaining to the development of contra-cultures among lower class groups, particularly his specific proposition that Negro youth in the South would demonstrate a contra-culture. It may be that Rodman's and Yinger's related propositions regarding lower class culture may be applicable to only a certain segment of the lower class and not to low-status groups generally.
While our evidence has been interpreted to indicate a lack of substantial ethnic differentiation relative to most elements of youth's projected frames of status reference, another interpretation is possible. This relates to the selective homogeneity involved in the selection of the ethnic populations under investigation. In the context of the larger society, particularly the dominant metropolitan areas, all three ethnic groups considered here would be ethnic minorities. This could be one reason for the broad similarities observed despite the obvious differences in status and socioeconomic rank of the three ethnic groups relative to their local communities of residence. It may be that elements involved in communities of residence-in this case rurality and economic deprivation-are more significant determinants of variations in value orientations than being a Negro or of Mexican descent. In our judgment, this interpretation is questionable in that findings from other studies, including those of metropolitan youth, support those reported here (Antonovsky, 1967; Stephenson, 1957).
