Writers: : HELENS. FARMER NA YEREH TOHIDI and ELISABETH R. WEISS
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
ABSTRACT. The zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA purpose of the study was to investigate somefactors thought to influence sex dtfferences in the Career Motivation of Iranian high schoolstudents. Subjects (n = 206) were balanced on sex, ages 17-18 and attending schools in Tehran. Iran. Measures included the criterion career motivation andsixpredictors: Sex. Social Class, Early Family Socialization, Religious Orientation, Community Resources and Community Discrimination against women S careers.
Multivariate regression analyses with partial correlations were used to test hypotheses. Hypotheses were that males would score higher than females on career motivation; upper middle class students wouldscore higher than lower middle class students on career motivation; Scores on Early Family Socialization, Community Resources and Religious Orientation would be positively correlated with Career Motivation: and Community Discrimination would be negatively correlated with Career Motivation. Interactions were expectedfor Sex, Religious Orientation and Social Class.
Main effects found in the regression analyses supported hypotheses reIated to Sex, Social Class, Community Discrimination and Early Family Socialization. It remained for the interpretation of three sign&ant interaction effects to shed light on the contribution of Religious Orientation to Career Motivation. The three significant interactionsfound were Sex X Social Class: Sex X Religious Orientation: and Religious Orientation X Community Discrimination.
It appeared that the religion measure was confounded by the new movement within Islam led by the Mojahedin KhaIgh group that is supportive of women S careers, in contrast to the dominant Shia Islam group. The Community Resources measure was significantly (p < .05) andpositively related to career motivation but it did not contribute important1.v to zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA the prediction equation.
The equation derived including interaction terms accountedfor 41% of the variance. It was concluded that the analysis used provided an important addition to understanding complex phenomena such as career motivation in a changing social context.
