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Digest of Education Statistics
2005 Tables and Figures All Years of Tables and Figures Most Recent Full Issue of the Digest


Table 383. Percentage of 1972 high school seniors, 1992 high school seniors, and 2004 high school seniors who felt that certain life values were "very important," by sex: Selected years, 1972 through 2004
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
                            |          Percent of 1972 seniors          |    Percent of 1992 seniors  |
                            |___________________________________________|_____________________________|
                            |           |     1974      |    1976       |           |      1994       |
                            |           |(2 years after |(4 years after |           |  (2 years after |
                            |    1972   |  high school) | high school)  |    1992   |   high school)  |      Percent of 2004 seniors
                            |___________|_______________|_______________|__________ |_________________|________________________________
Life value                  |Male|Female|  Male |Female |  Male |Female |Male|Female|Total|Male|Female|    Total |     Male |    Female
____________________________|____|______|_______|_______|_______|_______|____|______|_____|____|______|__________|__________|__________
1                           |   2|     3|      4|      5|      6|      7|   8|     9|   10|  11|    12|        13|        14|        15
____________________________|____|______|_______|_______|_______|_______|____|______|_____|____|______|__________|__________|__________
Being successful in work ...|86.5|  83.0|   81.2|   74.9|   80.3|   69.7|89.0|  89.6| 90.1|89.9|  90.3|91.3(0.33)|89.7(0.49)|92.9(0.40)
Finding steady work ........|82.3|  73.7|   74.7|   59.9|   79.3|   62.1|87.1|  88.6| 89.7|88.7|  90.7|87.3(0.40)|85.6(0.55)|89.0(0.49)
Having lots of money .......|26.0|   9.8|   17.8|    9.1|   17.7|    9.4|45.3|  29.4| 35.2|39.5|  30.9|35.1(0.58)|42.7(0.80)|27.6(0.69)
Being a leader in the       |    |      |       |       |       |       |    |      |     |    |      |          |          |
   community\1\ ............|14.9|   8.0|    8.5|    4.4|    9.2|    4.2|--- |  --- | --- |--- |  --- |41.7(0.57)|35.2(0.77)|48.1(0.74)
Correcting inequalities ....|22.5|  31.1|   16.6|   18.2|   16.2|   17.1|17.0|  23.6| --- |--- |  --- |19.7(0.46)|18.1(0.60)|21.2(0.67)
                            |    |      |       |       |       |       |    |      |     |    |      |          |          |
Having children ............|--- |  --- |   --- |   --- |   --- |   --- |39.0|  49.2| --- |--- |  --- |49.3(0.55)|45.4(0.75)|53.2(0.78)
Having a happy family life .|78.6|  85.7|   83.1|   86.7|   84.2|   86.4|--- |  --- | --- |--- |  --- |81.0(0.46)|80.1(0.63)|81.9(0.64)
Providing better opportu-   |    |      |       |       |       |       |    |      |     |    |      |          |          |
   nities for my children ..|66.6|  66.2|   59.5|   61.6|   59.8|   58.8|74.5|  76.5| 90.5|90.3|  90.8|82.5(0.45)|82.1(0.64)|82.9(0.58)
Living closer to parents    |    |      |       |       |       |       |    |      |     |    |      |          |          |
   or relatives ............| 6.8|   8.2|    8.3|   12.4|    7.7|   11.9|15.2|  18.7| --- |--- |  --- |---   (†) |---   (†) |---   (†)
Moving from area ...........|14.3|  14.6|    8.3|    7.4|    6.7|    6.4|20.7|  20.1| --- |--- |  --- |---   (†) |---   (†) |---   (†)
                            |    |      |       |       |       |       |    |      |     |    |      |          |          |
Having strong friendships ..|81.2|  78.7|   76.5|   74.7|   76.1|   72.1|79.8|  80.0| 87.6|88.1|  87.0|85.5(0.41)|84.9(0.56)|86.1(0.57)
Having leisure time ........|--- |  --- |   60.9|   55.1|   65.4|   60.1|65.3|  62.0| --- |--- |  --- |69.0(0.55)|70.2(0.69)|67.8(0.74)
____________________________|____|______|_______|_______|_______|_______|____|______|_____|____|______|__________|__________|__________
---Not available.
†Not applicable.
\1\In 2002 and 2004 the question was "Importance of helping others in the community."
NOTE: Standard errors appear in parentheses.
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, National Longitudinal Study of the High School Class of 1972, "Base Year" (NLS:72), "Second Follow-up" (NLS:72/74), and "Third Follow-up" (NLS:72/76); The National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988, "Second Follow-up, Student Survey, 1992" (NELS:88/92) and "Third Follow-up, 1994" (NELS:88/94); and Education Longitudinal Study of 2002, "First Follow-up" (ELS:02/04). (This table was prepared November 2005.)


2005 Tables and Figures All Years of Tables and Figures Most Recent Full Issue of the Digest