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Community service and post-college career choice: A theory-based investigation

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2008, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, Educational Policy and Leadership.
With the phenomenal growth of community service opportunities in U.S. high schools and higher education institutions from the 1990s, there is also a growing body of research evidence documenting the positive influences of community service on its participants’ cognitive, psychosocial and moral development. The student outcome of particular interest to the present study is post-college career choice, which has never been examined within an explicit theoretical framework despite the significant findings from a few empirical studies. There are also nontrivial methodological limitations among prior studies, such as the use of career plan as a proxy for actual occupations entered, the neglect of academic disciplines as a source of influence on career choice, and so on. Built upon both developmental and socialization theories, the current study seeks to understand the unique impact of community service participation on the choice of service-related careers after college, when personality types and important environmental factors are controlled for their influences. It incorporates data from the base-year and four follow-up surveys of the National Education Longitudinal Study (NELS:88), which provide nationally representative information about the original 8th grade cohort’s involvement in community service and their development from high school through college and post-college years. Results from logistic regression analyses suggest that it is continuous volunteering from high school to college, rather than volunteering in college alone, that increases the likelihood of college graduates with non-Social personality preferences to pursue service-related careers. Moreover, there are significant gender and personality differences in terms of the impact of community service on post-college career choice, as indicated by the results of separate analyses on the subgroups of the sample. The present study both contributes to theoretical knowledge about the socialization dynamics of community service, and to empirical studies of college impact on career outcomes. Importance of the study and implications for future research and policy are also discussed.
Leonard Baird (Advisor)
178 p.

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Citations

  • Yao, J. (2008). Community service and post-college career choice: A theory-based investigation [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1197391509

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Yao, Jie. Community service and post-college career choice: A theory-based investigation. 2008. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1197391509.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Yao, Jie. "Community service and post-college career choice: A theory-based investigation." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2008. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1197391509

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)