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Open Access Thesis

Keywords

Clothing trade--Study and teaching; Fashion; Fashion--Vocational guidance;

Abstract

This exploratory study was conducted to survey and compare students who chose a four year university oriented textiles and clothing in business program and students who chose a two year vocationally oriented fashion merchandising program. Comparisons were made between the two samples in selected demographic information: family and educational backgrounds, personal orientation to a fashion retailing career, and personal professional goals. Comparisons were also made in students' knowledge of current fashion awareness, interest in clothing, and values assigned to clothing. Participants for this study were from a state university and a state area school. Twenty-eight junior and senior majors in Home Economics in Business, Textiles and Clothing at the University of Northern Iowa, and 54 first and second year students in Fashion Merchandising at the Merged Area VI, Ellsworth Community College, were participants for this study. Seven null hypotheses were developed for this research. No significant difference was predicted for the measurement of selected demographic background, educational background, professional goals, factors influencing a career choice in clothing and textiles, clothing values, clothing interest, and current fashion awareness of students who choose a two year vocationally oriented fashion merchandising program and those who choose a four year university oriented clothing and textiles in business program. A four-part survey questionnaire measuring demographic information, values assigned to clothing, interest in clothing, and current fashion awareness was administered to the participants during Februrary 1972. The survey instrument included two sections the researcher developed: 2 selected demographic informatian and current fashion awareness. The instrument also included Creekmore's Eight Relative Clothing Values and Sharpe's Interest in Clothing. Data was tabulated with means and standard deviations computed. The fashion awareness instrument was also analyzed for reliability, item analysis, item difficulty and discrimination. A reliability of .18 was found for the University of Northern Iowa group and .27 for the Ellsworth Community College group. The Chi Square test or the t-test for differences in means were used to determine if there were significant differences at the .05 level in selected demographic background information, values assigned to clothing, interest in clothing, and current fashion awareness. Significant differences did occur for ages of students, location of the home community, and for reasons for selecting an educational institution for career training. No significant difference was observed in parental educational or occupational backgrounds, or in other community information. Students' educational backgrounds were also similar although there were significant differences observed in the high school curricula taken, and attendance at public or non-public high schools. Similarities were found in professional goals of the participants as well as influences affecting a career choice in clothing and textiles. Only one of the eight values assigned to clothing was found to be significantly different for the participants, the Theoretical value. Similar weightings and rankings of values were observed for all groups. A significant difference was not observed for interest in clothing, although a wide range of scores did occur. A significant difference was determined for the measurement of current fashion awareness of students who choose a university oriented career program and of students who choose a vocationally oriented career program. Although the fashion awareness instrument was judged to have good face validity, the reliability was low. Therefore, the significant differences that were observed should be looked at in light of this low reliability. This exploratory study is the only one known that has sought to determine the similarities and differences in selected backgrounds of students who choose a similar career but different educational institutions for the career training. Similarities and differences between participants were obtained by more than one instrument in order to have a more realistic understanding of the students.

Year of Submission

1972

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Department

Department of Home Economics

First Advisor

Marilyn Story

Second Advisor

Joan Laughlin

Third Advisor

Gaylon L. Halverson

Comments

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Date Original

1972

Object Description

1 PDF file (129 leaves)

Language

en

File Format

application/pdf

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