Understanding the Career Aspirations of Diverse Community College Students

The purpose of the study was to examine the relative contributions of career predictors (self-efficacy, career barriers, and coping-efficacy for overcoming barriers) in predicting educational and achievement aspirations in a diverse sample of community college students. Data from 236 community college students were utilized. Results from hierarchical regressions suggested that career-decision self-efficacy, college self-efficacy, compromising career for partner, perceptions of barriers, and coping efficacy in overcoming barriers were unique predictors of achievement and educational aspirations. As hypothesized, coping efficacy accounted for variance above and beyond the contributions of self-efficacy and barriers in predicting aspirations. Implications of these findings for research and practice are discussed.

Using Photovoice to Bring Career into a New Focus for First-Generation College Students

This study examines how first-generation, low-income college students make meaning of their career development process during their first year of college. Photovoice was employed to collect visual data and accompanying narrative texts providing a rich data set created by students during their transition to college. Four findings emerged from this participatory action method where students captured important aspects of their career development process: (a) extrinsic and intrinsic motivators, (b) struggles, (c) agent of change, and (d) envisioning the future. This study deepens our understanding of how the intersection of students’ individual identities, contexts, and motivations can inform praxis and allow them translate their particular assets toward career meaning-making. Systems theory and photovoice together served as useful lenses from which to unpack these identities in this study.

Fostering Academic Major Satisfaction, Career Curiosity, and Job Search Behaviors Among Electrical/Electronic Technology Education Undergraduates

This study investigates the effect of practical skills-based career training intervention in electrical/electronic works on graduating students’ academic major satisfaction, career curiosity, and self-defeating job search behaviors (SDJSBs). We employed the quasi-experimental design, with a three-wave longitudinal survey. The participants were 101 electrical/electronic technology education undergraduates from two publicly owned universities in Nigeria. Our intervention procedures were guided by the tenets of social cognitive career theory and the theory of planned behavior. The findings revealed significant positive increase in the students’ satisfaction with their academic major, and career curiosity, as well as significant decrease in SDJSBs (viz., procrastination, impulsiveness, and failure to network). We also found mediating effects of learning self-efficacy and perseverance of effort on academic major satisfaction, career curiosity, and SDJSBs.

An analysis of career maturity among Korean youths using latent growth modeling

This study examined the developmental trajectories of career maturity among Korean youths between late adolescence and mid-20s, and explored how career-counseling experiences, academic achievement, household income, parental involvement, and gender affected their career maturity. We used the 2,362 Youth Panel data collected between 2008–2014 by the Korea Employment Information Service. Career maturity increased linearly over time and decreased gradually after the fourth wave. Multivariate latent growth modeling revealed that a higher intercept of household income, academic achievement, and parental involvement were associated with a higher intercept of career maturity, whereas the effect of these variables on career maturity decreased over time. A higher intercept of career-counseling experiences was related to a higher intercept of career maturity. As the frequency of career-counseling experiences increased rapidly over time, so did career maturity. Career-counseling experiences and household income indirectly affected career maturity through the mediation of academic achievement. The female students’ level of career maturity was higher than that of the male students. However, this tendency decreased over time. This study’s results of the impact of career counseling on career maturity implies that schools should expand their career education and counseling programs.