SECOND-ORDER GROUP INTEREST FACTORS BASED ON SEX-BALANCED ITEMS: FACTORIAL VALIDITY OF THE COPSYSTEM OCCUPATIONAL STRUCTURE

A consistently found structure of eight group factors based on oc-cupational activity interest items has been presented (Roe, 1956). The present study was undertaken to determine whether a similar second-order, structure of interests would result from factor analysis based on responses to sex-balanced items. Analysis based on 280 un-selected high school students representing various regions through-out the country yielded seven clearly defined factors which corre-spond to those obtained in previous analyses: Art, Science, Technology, Business, Outdoor, Service, and Communication. An eighth factor identified as Service-Skilled also emerged. Results of the present analysis generally support the group interest structure obtained in previous analyses based on non-sex-balanced items. EDUCATIONAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL MEASUREMENT 1980, 40 THE classification of job activity interests in terms of psychologi-cally meaningful clusters has been replicated through many factor analytic researches. Thurstone (1931) and Guilford, Christensen, Bond, and Sutton (1954) among others have reported structures simi-lar enough in content to form a classification system by groups that has been based on focus of activity, which has been hypothesized by Roe (1956), and that has been empirically demonstrated and refine