High school students’ career decision-making process: A longitudinal study of one choice

This study investigated high school students’ process of choosing a study in higher education, using a longitudinal design. A sample of 535 adolescents participated at the beginning, middle, and end of Grade 12. Latent curve modeling revealed evidence for a mean developmental increase in the career decisional tasks of orientation, exploration, decisional status, and commitment. In general, the growth trajectories were in line with theoretical models in which orientation and broad exploration are important at the beginning of the career decision-making process whereas in-depth exploration and decisional status are considered important later on. Furthermore, the results showed substantial variability between adolescents in their initial levels of career decisional tasks and in the rate of change. Finally, growth in orientation related to growth in environmental and self-exploration, and growth in environmental exploration related to progress in commitment and decisional status.     

Predictive validity of the medical specialty preference inventory

Medical schools can assist students by providing them with quality career counseling to help them choose a medical specialty. Many schools use interest inventories to help identify students’ specialty interests. This study examined the predictive validity of one such inventory, the Medical Specialty Preference Inventory (MSPI). In a longitudinal design, we used discriminant function analysis to examine how well students’ scores on the MSPI fit their chosen medical specialty one year later. The MSPI correctly predicted students’ future medical specialty choice 58.1% of the time. These results can help career advisors interpret MSPI scores, and identify students’ most likely medical specialty choice, as well as their second most likely choice.     

Personal and social support factors involved in students’ decision to participate in formal academic mentoring

In this study, we examined the role of personal and social support factors involved in students’ decision to participate in formal academic mentoring. Three hundred and eighteen students completing Grade 11 and planning to study sciences in college filled out a questionnaire and were then asked to participate in an academic mentoring program during their first year of college. A total of 150 students agreed to take part in this program (volunteers) and 168 declined the offer (non-volunteers). The overall findings support the hypothesis that academic mentoring is more attractive for some students than others depending on their personality, help-seeking attitudes, academic dispositions, perceived support from friends, and support available during the transition to college. These findings were discussed in light of the different mechanisms proposed by mentoring and social support literatures.     

The Double Cohort retention and academic success comparison: are students in the new Ontario secondary school program disadvantaged?

In September 2003, Ontario universities accepted a double cohort of new students resulting from the Ontario government’s decision to eliminate Grade 13. The admission to university of two categories of students distinguished by their age and high school program raised a number of questions, not only in terms of admission infrastructure but mostly in what concerns the sum of student retention, academic success, and graduation. Factors associated with success and with the maintenance of university studies are numerous: stress, socioeconomic status, parents’ education, intellectual capacities, motivation, social abilities, and social support (Olds & Papalia, 2000). Therefore, the objectives of this study were: (1) to test the hypothesis of a double cohort effect on student academic success during the first year of university, (2) to verify the hypothesis that high school academic history, socioeconomic variables related to stress and perceived stress predict academic success and retention at the end of first year university. In September 2003, 300 first year students answered questionnaires inquiring about their high school program and high school GPA, their socioeconomic characteristics, and their perceived stress. These measures were then used to predict drop out, final GPA, number of credits attempted, passed and failed in June 2004. Results showed that school persistence and first year university academic achievement are mostly predicted by gender, high school GPA, type of financial resources, and number of hours worked at a paid job. Although not significant, we have found a higher proportion of Grade 12 students who dropped out during first year at university, suggesting a possible long-term effect of high school program on academic achievement.     

Indecisiveness: Specificity and predictive validity

This study investigated the specificity of indecisiveness compared to trait anxiety. In addition, the predictive validity of indecisiveness for postdecisional problems with regard to choosing a major was examined. A sample of 539 adolescents participated at the beginning of Grade 12 and was followed until the first year in higher education. Factor analyses showed evidence for a differentiation between indecisiveness and trait anxiety. In addition, indecisiveness at the beginning of Grade 12 predicted less commitment to the choice of a major in higher education, which, in turn, predicted less choice stability. The effect of indecisiveness on these postdecisional problems remained significant after controlling for trait anxiety, providing further evidence for the specificity of indecisiveness. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

中学生自我评价水平的发展及其与学业成绩之间的关系

目的：考察中学生自我评价的发展及其与学业成绩的关系。方法：使用About me问卷与长处和困难问卷（SDQ）来调查中学生的自我评价水平,选取语文、数学英语和总成绩作为学业成绩的指标,对自我评价和学业成绩进行了相关和回归分析。结果：（1）初中生的学业自我评价要好于高中生;（2）中学生自我评价的学业努力程度和学业能力与学业成绩间存在正相关,尤其是自我评价的学业能力对各种学业成绩的正向预测作用都较大。长处和困难方面只有总分对数学成绩的负向预测作用较大。结论：不同年级学生在自我评价的不同方面表现出不同特征,初二年级在学业自我评价和长处困难上的得分都较高;学业自我评价对学业成绩的预测作用较明显,本研究中发现对困难方面的自我评价与学业成绩间的关系较弱,但困难总分对于数学成绩有一定的负向预测作用。     

Children’s effortful control and academic achievement: do relational peer victimization and classroom participation operate as mediators?

Given that early academic achievement is related to numerous developmental outcomes, understanding processes that promote early success in school is important. This study was designed to clarify how students’ (N = 291; M age in fall of kindergarten = 5.66 years, SD = 0.39 year) effortful control, relational peer victimization, and classroom participation relate to achievement, as students progress from kindergarten to first grade. Effortful control and achievement were assessed in kindergarten, classroom participation and relational peer victimization were assessed in the fall of first grade, and achievement was reassessed in the spring of first grade. Classroom participation, but not relational peer victimization, mediated relations between effortful control and first grade standardized and teacher-rated achievement, controlling for kindergarten achievement. Findings suggest that aspects of classroom participation, such as the ability to work independently, may be useful targets of intervention for enhancing academic achievement in young children.     

Emotional and personality-related aspects of persistent career decision-making difficulties

This study focused on examining the persistent aspects of career decision-making difficulties, using the Emotional and Personality-related Career decision-making Difficulties scale (EPCD; [Saka, N., Gati, I., & Kelly, K.R. (in press). Emotional and personality-related aspects of career decision-making difficulties. Journal of Career Assessment]). The contribution of four personality measures—general indecisiveness, self-esteem, trait anxiety, and identity status—to the prediction of persistent career decision-making difficulties was tested on 747 students, using a longitudinal design. Results indicated that individuals with high EPCD scores at the beginning of the academic school year had less confidence in their choice and were less close to making a decision about the major into which they wanted to be admitted at the end of the year. The moderate correlations between the EPCD score and the four personality measures supported the validity of the EPCD. Implications for counseling and future research are discussed.     

Emotional and personality-related aspects of persistent career decision-making difficulties

This study focused on examining the persistent aspects of career decision-making difficulties, using the Emotional and Personality-related Career decision-making Difficulties scale (EPCD; [Saka, N., Gati, I., & Kelly, K.R. (in press). Emotional and personality-related aspects of career decision-making difficulties. Journal of Career Assessment]). The contribution of four personality measures—general indecisiveness, self-esteem, trait anxiety, and identity status—to the prediction of persistent career decision-making difficulties was tested on 747 students, using a longitudinal design. Results indicated that individuals with high EPCD scores at the beginning of the academic school year had less confidence in their choice and were less close to making a decision about the major into which they wanted to be admitted at the end of the year. The moderate correlations between the EPCD score and the four personality measures supported the validity of the EPCD. Implications for counseling and future research are discussed.     

Longitudinal relations of self-efficacy to outcome expectations, interests, and major choice goals in engineering students

We examined the nature of the temporal relations among the core person variables in the social cognitive model of academic and career choice [Lent, R. W., Brown, S. D., & Hackett, G. (1994). Toward a unifying social cognitive theory of career and academic interest, choice, and performance [Monograph]. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 45, 79-122.]. Participants were 209 students taking beginning level engineering courses at either a predominantly White or a historically Black university. They completed measures of self-efficacy, outcome expectations, interests, and goals near the end of two consecutive semesters. Path analyses indicated support for a model in which self-efficacy served as a temporal precursor of outcome expectations, interests, and goals. There was less support for a model in which the latter variables produced reciprocal paths to self-efficacy. Implications for future longitudinal research on SCCT’s (social cognitive career theory’s) choice hypotheses are discussed.     

Conceptions of career choice and attainment: Developmental levels in how children think about careers

Children’s Conceptions of career choice and attainment were evaluated in two studies to test whether reasoning levels varied by grade level (Studies 1 and 2) and perspective-taking complexity (Study 2). Results indicated that younger children (Grade K) were more likely to use reasoning strategies associated with fantasy and magical thinking and older children (Grade 6) were more likely to consider personal interests, abilities, and job requirements. Study 2 replicated these results and also found that children evaluated as able to use more complex perspective-taking reported higher reasoning levels when discussing their Conceptions of career choice and attainment.     

Gender and racial/ethnic differences in body image development among college students

In the present study we used longitudinal methods to examine body image development during the early part of college. Students (N = 390; 54% female) who identified as African American (32%), Latino/a American (27%), and European American (41%) completed surveys during their first, second, and third semesters at college. There were overall gender and racial/ethnic differences in all three aspects of body image, and both stability and change in body image development. Female students’ appearance evaluation became more positive, whereas male students’ appearance evaluation showed no significant change. Individuals’ body areas satisfaction increased over time, but remained stable when controlling for BMI. Appearance orientation did not change, and there were no racial/ethnic differences in body image development. Experiences in the college environment may play a role in these trends.     

The effect of career education on career maturity

According to Hoyt (1974), career education efforts are underway in almost one-third of all school districts in the United States. Indications are that this trend will continue. However, the question of the effects of career education programs remains essentially unanswered. This study was designed to assess the effects of a career education program on students' career maturity as measured by the Career Maturity Inventory (CMI). A pretest/ posttest design was used. The sample consisted of 480 sixth and eighth grade students, one-half of whom participated in a career education program (experimental), with the remaining one-half in a regular school program (control). The career education students consistently displayed higher posttest career maturity levels, four scores being significantly higher. Significant differences were found in occupational knowledge of sixth graders, occupational planning for both the sixth and eighth graders and in the attitude scale score for the eighth graders. It was concluded that the career education program had a positive effect in increasing students' levels of career maturity.     

Occupational knowledge and career development in adolescence

In an effort to extend our knowledge of career development, two indices of career maturity were investigated in a sample of 6029 high school seniors sampled from 57 Texas public school districts. The study investigated both the degree to which late adolescents choose occupations whose educational requirements match their stated educational goals and the degree to which students' vocational interests are compatible with their occupational choices. The correlations between educational plans and educational requirements of the chosen occupations were .41 or less. Of the subjects who claimed to have at least considerable understanding of their first choice career, only about half planned to achieve the amount of education appropriate to enter that occupation. Subjects' perceptions of how well they understood their occupational choices were also negligibly related to the compatibility of their vocational interests and their career choices. Although educational understanding and interest compatibility both contribute to realism of occupational choices, the correlation between these two indices of career maturity accounted for less than 1% of the variance.     

Étude comparative des profils motivationnels d’adolescents scolarisés en lycée d’enseignement général,technologique et professionnel

The present research investigated motivational profiles of high school students following general, technological or vocational education. The French educational system is defined by an implicit hierarchy: the general education is considered as the most prestigious one, while specific education such as technological or vocational education is perceived as more appropriated for students with learning difficulties. Those representations could induce differences in academic engagements’ reasons. Nine hundred and forty-seven French students (552 following general, 222 following technological and 173 vocational education) completed the French version of the Academic Motivation Scale (AMS, Vallerand, Blais, Brière, & Pelletier, 1989). The AMS assesses various types of motivation defined by self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 2002). Cluster analysis revealed three distinctive motivational profiles present in all three types of education. In the first cluster, students’ scores were moderate in autonomous and controlled motivation and low in amotivation (moderate autonomous – controlled profile). The second cluster was characterized by high levels of autonomous and controlled motivation and a low amotivation (high autonomous – controlled profile). Finally, the third cluster was defined by a low autonomous motivation, a moderate controlled motivation and high level of amotivation (controlled profile). In addition, we found an impact of secondary education's type on academic motivation. Technological education was associated with the controlled profile, whereas adolescents involved in vocational education were more numerous in the high autonomous-controlled profile. Students following the general education were over-represented in moderate autonomous-controlled profile. The results presented above might be of a great interest to career counseling professionals and professors, especially if discussed in line with self-determination theory, in terms of motivational remediation.     

Integrating person and situation perspectives on work satisfaction: A social-cognitive view

Social cognitive career theory (Lent, Brown, & Hackett, 1994) was originally designed to help explain interest development, choice, and performance in career and educational domains. These three aspects of career/academic development were presented in distinct but overlapping segmental models. This article presents a fourth social cognitive model aimed at understanding satisfaction experienced in vocational and educational pursuits. The model posits paths whereby core social cognitive variables (e.g., self-efficacy, goals) function jointly with personality/affective trait and contextual variables that have been linked to job satisfaction. We consider the model’s implications for forging an understanding of satisfaction that bridges the often disparate perspectives of organizational and vocational psychology.     

A Longitudinal Study of the Effectiveness of Business Ethics Education: Establishing the Baseline

This paper is the first phase of a longitudinal study of the class of 2014 on the effectiveness of ethics education at a business university. This phase of the project establishes the baseline attributes of incoming college freshmen with a pretest of the students’ ethical proclivity as measured by Defining Issues Test (DIT-2) scores. The relationship between the students’ ethical reasoning and their behavior in experimental stock trading sessions is then examined. In the trading simulations, randomly selected students were provided with the option of receiving privileged insider information about the final payoff of several stocks. The students could either accept or reject such information, with acceptance considered illegal insider trading. The results of the pretest indicate that moral reasoning as measured by the DIT-2 is related to insider trading behavior, with students with higher DIT-2 scores being less likely to accept insider information. The paper also presents demographic differences across DIT-2 scores and trading behavior as a foundation for the longitudinal examination of changes in students’ moral cognition characteristics and behavior during their undergraduate career.     

Les troubles des comportements alimentaires chez des étudiants de première année : une étude prospective multigroupes

There is increasing use of the phrase “campus eating symptoms” to describe regular binge eating (together with frequent exercise, and occasional reliance on vomiting or laxatives), concerns about body image, depressive symptoms, stress, and university adjustment problems among students. Incidence of eating disorders in the early grades of university is increasing, and the period from age 17–19 years (peak of bulimia) which corresponds to the beginning of study at university is critical. Given the stressful environment that is the 1st academic year, it is useful to consider eating disorders risk factors.

Method

Our study is longitudinal. At the beginning, the participants consisted of 1110 freshmen. Data regarding adjustment to university, gender, body image, BMI, transactional variables (perceived stress and coping) and eating disorders (EAT-26) were collected. At T2 (end of academic year), 556 students were recruited to reassess their eating behaviours. The aim of the study was to test gender invariance of a theoretical eating disorders model including all these variables and eating disorders measured a year apart from a mixed population integrating the university for the first times. This model assumes that these variables exert direct effects on eating disorders as measured in time one who in turn will affect the stability of these troubles a year later. Although very little research include boys in the study of eating disorders, the results of our multi-group analysis support the idea of the existence of sex differences in eating disorder predictors: the only common predictor of eating disorders among girls and boys was the use emotion-focused coping. Among boys, the best predictors of eating disorders were problem-focused coping, and seeking social support. Among girls, our results revealed that body mass index, body image, and academic adjustment and stress were the predictors of eating disorders. Finally, we found a temporal stability of eating disorders. This study showed that personal and contextual aspects have a direct impact on students’ eating behaviour. However, among boys, neither body image nor perceived stress affect the eating behaviour but how they cope with stress. The gender gap in the explanation of eating disorders suggest to not exclude the male population in this type of study and to treat the data separately.     

When earning is beneficial for learning: The relation of employment and leisure activities to academic outcomes

The present study investigates the joint effect of the quantity and quality of out-of-school activities (i.e., employment and leisure) on academic outcomes (i.e., well-being, study attitude, and academic performance) among 230 undergraduates. A series of hierarchical regression analyses show that spending too much time in both employment and leisure activities has negative relations with undergraduates’ academic outcomes. Work-study interference fully mediated the effect of time engagement in student employment on students’ reported well-being. These findings support a conflict perspective on multiple role engagement. However, results also show positive effects of activities depending on job demand and autonomy and level of autonomous motivation to engage in these activities. We conclude that out-of-school activities can be beneficial for students’ academic outcomes and preparation for the labor market when perceived as relevant for their academic study and performed in a balanced, autonomous way.