Societal Needs and Personal Characteristics in the Choice of Farm, Blue Collar, and White Collar Occupations by Farmers' Sons.

All farmers' sans attending the eleventh and twelfth grades in a Wisconsin county were studied using questionnaire and school record data. Boys choosing to farm are compared with those choosing blue collar and white collar occupations in respect to family socioeconomic position, family structure, work roles and values and financial responsibility, educational experience and aspirations, personality, and occupational information and reference groups. The findings are analyzed in relation to findings of similar studies done in three other states, and the conclusions drawn are based on all four studies. These findings reveal a series of circumstances and processes which tend roughly to match the social and psychological characteristics of farm boys to the social and psychological characteristics of the occupations they prefer to enter. However, most of those preferring to farm will not be able to do so. The occupational training, values, and aspirations acquired by this group may be functional for the role of farmer, but inhibit optimum placement in the nonfarm occupational world and, therefore, impede rational talent allocation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]