Latina/o College Students' Perceptions of Career Barriers: Influence of Ethnic Identity,Acculturation, and Self‐Efficacy

Path analysis was used to explore the tenets of social cognitive career theory with a sample of 357 Latina/o college students. A modified path model revealed that career decision self‐efficacy (CDSE) mediated the influence of ethnic identity and acculturation level on the perception of career barriers. The findings point to the role of ethnic identity in augmenting Latina/o college students' CDSE and increasing awareness about career barriers. Implications for theory, research, and practice are discussed.     

The influence of social comparison on career decision-making: Vocational identity as a moderator and regret as a mediator

This study investigated the influence of social comparison on career choice certainty and its potential mechanisms: regret as a mediator and vocational identity as a moderator. Before the formal experiment, 30 pairs of vocational values representing typical conflicts in career decision-making for Chinese university students were obtained. The formal experiment adopted a single-factor (social comparison VS no comparison) between-subject design with vocational identity as an independent covariate. Ninety-eight junior and senior undergraduate students and graduate students in a university in China were invited to participate in the computer-controlled experiment, which involved vocational identity assessment, social comparison manipulation, and analogue career-choice scenario tests. Path analysis showed that: (a) Social comparison significantly and negatively predicted career choice certainty; (b) Regret partially mediated the effect of social comparison on career choice certainty; and (c) Vocational identity did not moderate the path between social comparison and regret, but significantly moderated the negative effect of regret on career choice certainty. These results indicated that in the collectivistic Chinese culture, individuals' career development trajectories may not be totally independent and are subject to influences by other people's choices, while emotion of regret and vocational identity development all play significant roles in this intricate process.     

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.     

Relation of person-environment fit to career certainty

This study examined the person-environment fit-career outcome relation by observing interests, self-efficacy and parental support as person aspects and major and occupational choice as separate indicators of the environment. Career certainty was selected as a career outcome. Two dimensional fit indices (People-Things and Data-Ideas) were examined as was the incremental validity of adding prestige fit indices. In addition, we examined the moderation of these PE fit-outcome relations by ethnicity (Anglos vs. Latino/a’s). Results revealed that the PE fit predictors were moderately related and none of the two dimensional PE fit predictors significantly related to career certainty, while nearly all of the Prestige PE fit-certainty relations were significant. Support was found for the spherical structure of work types and person variables [Tracey, T. J. G., & Rounds, J. (1996b). Contributions of the spherical representation of vocational interests. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 48, 85-95].     

Calling and career adaptability among undergraduate students

The present study examined the relation of calling and career adaptability with a sample of 330 undergraduate students. The presence of a calling weakly to moderately correlated with the four components of adaptability — concern, control, curiosity, and confidence. A moderated, multiple mediation model was used to test the potential mediating effects of the four components of career adaptability on career decision self-efficacy (CDSE) and how these relations differed according to strengths use. Using bootstrapping techniques, concern and confidence were found to be significant mediators in the calling–CDSE relation. Additionally, strengths use was found to moderate the relation between curiosity and CDSE, with curiosity being a significant mediator at high levels of strengths use. After including the mediators in the model, the relation of calling to CDSE was weakened, but still significant, indicating partial mediation. These results suggest that calling relates to greater levels of CDSE in part because of increased concern, curiosity (when strengths use is high), and confidence. Directions for future research are discussed.     

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.     

Social cognitive career theory and the prediction of interests and choice goals in the computing disciplines

We tested the fit of the social cognitive choice model [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] to the data across gender, educational level, and type of university among students in a variety of computing disciplines. Participants were 1208 students at 21 historically Black and 21 predominantly White universities. They completed measures of self-efficacy, outcome expectations, interests, goals, and social supports and barriers with respect to computing majors. The SCCT model yielded adequate fit to the data across each of the grouping variables. Implications for future research on SCCT’s choice hypotheses in the context of science and engineering-related fields are discussed.     

Relation of interest and self-efficacy occupational congruence and career choice certainty

A sample of 2145 adults completed the Personal Globe Inventory (PGI) as well as indicating their occupational choice and the certainty of this choice. The PGI yielded interest and self-efficacy scores and these were used with the occupational choice to calculate a congruence score for interests and one for efficacy. The prediction of career certainty by each congruence measure and their interaction was examined using hierarchical regression. The results indicated that while both interest and efficacy congruence were related to career certainty, efficacy congruence did not add to prediction above that obtained using interests congruence alone, however there was a substantial interaction. The agreement of interest congruence and efficacy congruence was related to a strong positive relation between congruence and certainty; whereas low agreement between interest and efficacy congruence was related to a non-significant relation between congruence and certainty. The results demonstrate the need to focus on both interest and efficacy and their agreement in our assessments and interventions.     

Career adaptability and academic satisfaction: Examining work volition and self efficacy as mediators

The present study examined the relation between the four components of career adaptability – concern, control, curiosity, and confidence (Savickas & Porfeli, 2012) – and academic satisfaction. Drawing from a diverse sample of 412 undergraduate students, all four components moderately correlated with academic satisfaction. In an effort to explain these relations, work volition and career decision self-efficacy (CDSE) were examined as potential mediator variables. Using structural equation modeling, work volition significantly mediated the control to satisfaction relation and CDSE significantly mediated the concern, control, and confidence to satisfaction relations. After including all variables in the model, none of the career adaptability components significantly related with academic satisfaction. These results suggest that for undergraduate students, feeling adaptable in one's career may link to greater levels of academic satisfaction due, in part, to greater feelings of control and confidence in one's career decision making.     

Critical ingredients of career choice interventions: More analyses and new hypotheses

Recent meta-analyses of the career choice intervention literature (Brown & Ryan Krane, 2000; Ryan, 1999) identified five intervention ingredients that were individually associated with career choice outcome, and collectively were linearly related to increases in career choice effect sizes. In this article, we summarize these meta-analytic findings, present analyses that further confirm these ingredients’ importance, and present some hypotheses to define each of the critical ingredients and suggest how they might be implemented to maximize their effectiveness.     

Precursors of learning experiences in Social Cognitive Career Theory

This study extended the research on Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT; [Lent, R. W., Brown, S. D., & Hackett, G. (1994). Toward a unifying social cognitive theory of career and academic interest, choice, and performance. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 45, 79-122]) by examining the contributions of 3 person inputs (personality, gender, and conformity to gender role norms) to career-related learning experiences for each of Holland’s [Holland, J. L. (1997). Making vocational choices: A theory of vocational personalities and work environments (3rd ed.). Odessa, FL: Psychological Assessment Resources] 6 RIASEC themes. Participants (144 female and 113 male college students) completed measures of personality, conformity to feminine and masculine role norms, and learning experiences for Holland’s RIASEC themes. Results of path analyses indicated that the combination of person inputs explained a significant proportion of variance in each of the RIASEC-based learning experiences. Results supported 9 of 13 hypothesized relations involving personality, and suggested that for some personality traits, the relation to RIASEC-based learning experiences is both direct and indirect, via conformity to gender role norms. Results also revealed that gender predicted learning experiences for 5 of the 6 Holland themes; however, 4 of those relations were partially or completely mediated by conformity to gender role norms. Finally, findings supported 5 of 12 hypothesized relations involving conformity to gender role norms, and suggested that gender role conformity may be most relevant to learning experiences in the Realistic and Social domains.     

Testing social cognitive interest and choice hypotheses across Holland types in Italian high school students

Several hypotheses emanating from social cognitive career theory (SCCT) were tested. Participants (796 Italian high school students) completed measures of self-efficacy, outcome expectations, interests, social supports and barriers, and choice consideration related to occupations representing Holland’s (1997) six RIASEC types. Findings indicated general support, across Holland types, for the hypotheses that self-efficacy and outcome expectations jointly predict interests, and that interests mediate the relations of self-efficacy and outcome expectations to choice consideration. However, the specific nature of the mediation effect (i.e., full versus partial) varied somewhat across the RIASEC types. In addition, contrary to SCCT’s predictions, social supports and barriers related to choice consideration mostly indirectly (through self-efficacy) rather than directly. We consider the implications of these findings for further research on SCCT’s choice and environmental hypotheses.     

金融危机背景下家庭社会地位对大三学生择业动机的影响：社会支配倾向的中介作用

以504名来自5所高校三年级大学本科生为被试,采用问卷法收集数据,探讨了家庭社会地位对大学生择业动机的影响。结果表明：（1）家庭社会地位对大学生内部择业动机具有显著的预测作用,家庭社会地位越高,内部择业动机越强;（2）社会支配倾向对家庭社会地位与内部择业动机之间的关系起中介作用,家庭社会地位通过社会支配倾向对内部择业动机产生间接影响;（3）未发现家庭社会地位、社会支配倾向与外部择业动机之间的显著相关。     

职业认知、社会支持对农民择业倾向的影响

以社会认知职业理论（SCCT）为框架,建立了职业认知（职业自我效能、职业结果预期）和社会支持（积极支持和消极支持）对农民职业兴趣和择业倾向影响的假设模型。在深度访谈和对419名农民试测的基础上,编制了基于霍兰德RIASEC职业分类的测量问卷。采用结构方程技术对628名农民的正式测试结果进行测量模型和结构模型的建构与检验。研究结果验证了SCCT有关职业兴趣和职业选择的核心假设。在环境变量方面,社会支持主要通过职业自我效能对农民的择业倾向产生间接的影响,其中E型和C型的自我效能在积极支持和择业倾向间起完全中介的作用,C型的自我效能在消极支持和择业倾向间起部分中介的作用。这些结果为改善农民就业状态的途径提供了一定的参考,也为SCCT的中国化研究和跨文化整合提供了一些实证依据     

Vocational identity and career choice congruence of gifted and talented high school students

This study examined the career development of gifted high school juniorss in terms of vocational identity and congruence. The My Vo;cational Situation (MVS)was used to measure the career development of gifted high school ljuniors. Gender differences in vocational identity were found. Students who hasd tentative career and college major choices were found to have a higher level of vocational identity than those who did not have tentative choices. Measures of career choice congruence and college major choice congruence were obtained by examining the agreement between the Holland interest code and the tentative career and college major choices of participants. Gender differences were found o;n college major choice congruence, but not on career choice congruence. Vocational identity was related to college major choice congruence, but not to career choice congruence. Implications for counselling gifted students and research were discussed.     

An investigation of African-American women's prestige domain interests and choice goals using Social Cognitive Career Theory

Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT; Lent, Brown & Hackett, 1994) provides a framework for understanding career development, taking into account background and contextual variables using a social cognitive perspective. Given SCCT's focus on both personal and contextual factors, it has been widely applied to understanding the career development of ethnic minorities and women. This study extends the SCCT framework by testing the SCCT career choice model with variables defined along the prestige dimension, in a sample of 198 African-American college women. Path analysis results supported SCCT propositions for the relations of prestige self-efficacy and prestige outcome expectations with prestige of vocational interests, and of prestige outcome expectations and prestige of vocational interests with prestige of choice goals. The relation of prestige self-efficacy to prestige of choice goals was fully mediated by prestige of vocational interests; the relation between prestige outcome expectations and prestige of choice goals was partially mediated by prestige of vocational interests. Contrary to SCCT, the hypothesized relation of prestige self-efficacy to prestige outcome expectations was non-significant. These findings provide preliminary evidence for the utility of SCCT in explaining the development of prestige-related career interests and choice goals among African-American women.     

Employability during unemployment: Adaptability, career identity and human and social capital

Recently, Fugate et al. [Fugate, M., Kinicki, A. J., & Ashforth, B. E. (2004). Employability: A psycho-social construct, its dimensions, and applications. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 65(1), 14] defined employability as a psycho-social construct comprised of three dimensions: (i) adaptability; (ii) career identity; and (iii) human and social capital. The aim of the current paper was to empirically test Fugate et al.’s model in a sample of 416 unemployed Australians (n = 126 for longitudinal sample). Specifically, this research explored employability in relation to three aspects of unemployment: (1) self-esteem during unemployment; (2) job search during unemployment; and (3) re-employment (at a 6-month follow-up). Overall, the results of this longitudinal study provide broad support for the psycho-social construct of employability and demonstrate its applicability to the unemployment context.     

Individuation in relation to parents as a predictor of career goals and career optimism in emerging adults

The aim of this study was to examine the associations of Slovenian emerging adults’ individuation characteristics (in relation to mother and father) with career goals and career optimism. We were interested in contributions of age, gender, certainty of study choice, and individuation dimensions when predicting intrinsic/extrinsic career goals and career optimism. The participants provided self‐reports on the Individuation Test for Emerging Adults, the Career Goals Scale and the Career Futures Inventory. The results showed that age did not relate to emerging adults’ career goals; however, older students reported lower career optimism than their younger counterparts. Furthermore, certainty of study choice was the most important predictor of career optimism, and, along with gender, of intrinsic career goals. Emerging adults who reported higher connectedness with both parents and self‐reliance in relation to mother had higher intrinsic career goals, while self‐reliance in relation to mother was positively associated with stronger optimism about an individual's future career. Fear of disappointing both parents significantly contributed to the prediction of extrinsic career goals and optimism, while parental intrusiveness did not add significantly to the prediction of the two measured career outcomes. The study confirmed the correlational effects of positive and negative aspects of individuation on career outcomes in emerging adulthood.     

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.     

Image theory and career aspirations: Indirect and interactive effects of status-related variables

The present study applied Image Theory (Beach, 1990) to test how different components of a person's value image (i.e., perceived social status identity and conformity to masculine and feminine gender role norms) interact to influence trajectories toward high career aspirations (i.e., high value for status in one's work and aspirations for advancement and achievement in one's career). Results from 224 undergraduate students demonstrated that value for status in work mediated the relationship between perceived social status and career aspirations. Conformity to feminine, but not masculine, gender role norms moderated the relationship between perceived status and value for status in work. Conformity to feminine norms also moderated the indirect relationship between perceived status and aspirations via value for status in work, yielding a pattern of moderated mediation.