"Knowing I Had Someone to Turn to Was a Great Feeling": Mentoring Rural-Appalachian STEM Students

Post-secondary students benefit from mentorships, which provide both emotional and academic support tailored to the unique challenges they face. STEM students, and, in particular, those with historically marginalized identities, have unique strengths and face distinct barriers that can be ameliorated by careful, knowledgeable, and well-situated mentoring relationships. With that in mind, we conducted a narrative case study with 10 rural-Appalachian STEM majors enrolled in an NSF-funded mentoring program, intending to collect stories of their impactful experiences with their mentors. We utilized the narrative reconstruction process, and, in so doing, identified five major themes related to the importance of mentor assignment and the impact of mentors' characteristics and skills related to empathy, consistency, active listening, and teaching. We situate our findings within the existing literature and provide implications for scholars and practitioners who work with mentoring programs dedicated to working with Appalachian communities.

Validation of the College Planning Behaviors Scale

College preparation is an important topic in the educational attainment of high school students. Much of the research on college planning focuses on the importance and timing of preparing for postsecondary education; however, little research has explored the steps students actually take while preparing for college. The current study utilized the Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT) framework to create a validated measure to assess choice behavior. The purpose of the current study was to create a validated measure for choice actions that could be used with diverse student groups. The measure was found to demonstrate good reliability and validity in this population, providing strong internal consistency and construct validity. Further, these findings support college-planning behaviors' linkage to barriers, college-going self-efficacy, and college outcome expectations (COE).

Assessing Postsecondary Barriers for Rural Appalachian High School Students

Social cognitive career theory indicates that perceived barriers negatively affect career and educational self-efficacy beliefs and may also impact interests, goals, and actions. However, measurement of barriers has produced mixed results, and few quantitative studies explore the perceived barriers of rural Appalachian students. In this series of studies, we explored the perceived educational and career barriers of rural Appalachian high school students. Our goal was to identify perceived barriers, but as initial results were analyzed, we then shifted to how best to measure barriers and how culture impacted the reporting of barriers by rural Appalachian students. The results of our mixed-method series of studies offer ideas on how cultural values and beliefs may skew reporting of contextual influences on career and education.

Building on Strengths While Addressing Barriers: Career Interventions in Rural Appalachian Communities

This article describes a model for developing culturally-sensitive career education programs, framed from an ecological contextual understanding (Bronfenbrenner, 1979). This framework allows career practitioners to build on cultural strengths and values to meet the career education needs of diverse communities. To illustrate the application of this model, we describe the cultural context of rural Appalachia and offer theoretically-framed ideas of how to meet the population's career education needs.

Project HOPE: Sociopolitical Development and SCCT Beliefs of Latinx and White Rural Middle School Students

This quasi-experimental investigation tested whether adding a sociopolitical development (SPD) component to a social cognitive career theory–based (SCCT) career intervention program, Project health-care opportunities, preparation, and exploration (HOPE), was more effective than an SCCT-only intervention among a group of eighth-grade students ( n = 94). Results of the study indicated both intervention conditions were associated with increases in health-care career (HC) and math/science (MS) interests among the participants. Results also demonstrated that gains in HC interests (HCIs) were associated with intervention conditions: students in the SCCT + SPD condition only reported statistically significant gains in HCIs. The study found no statistically significant interaction effects between ethnicity and condition on any of the outcome variables. Results suggest limited support for the effectiveness of SPD-infused SCCT interventions and that more research is needed to better understand how rural students can benefit from SCCT/SPD-based career interventions.

Evaluation of an SCCT-Based Intervention to Increase Postsecondary Awareness in Rural Appalachian Youth

Students underrepresented in higher education often require unique support throughout their career and college planning. Rural Appalachian youth characterize a large population of underrepresented students. This article describes a theory-based multiweek career education curriculum aimed at increasing career and college readiness that was delivered to over 1,300 high school students in two rural Appalachian counties. Evaluation data from 867 of these students, as well as from the program staff, are provided. Findings suggest that participants found the intervention useful, learned new information about postsecondary planning and career exploration, and received assistance planning for their futures. Implications for school-based career education with underrepresented students, in general, are discussed.

Influence of perceptions and stereotypes of the nursing role on career choice in secondary students: A regional perspective

BACKGROUND

This study examined the influence that perceptions and stereotypes of the nursing role had on future career choice of rural secondary students.

OBJECTIVE

The study was undertaken to identify a method of attracting final year secondary school students to an undergraduate nursing degree at a rural University.

DESIGN

A mixed method study using a pre-post-interventional design.

SETTING

The rural campus of an Australian university.

PARTICIPANTS

71 secondary students attending a secondary school career development program at a rural Australian university.

METHOD

Semi structured questionnaires were used for data collection. The surveys were analysed using descriptive statistics and content analysis of open-ended survey questions.

RESULTS

The research supports the importance of being aware of young people's impressions about nurses and nursing as a career, to ensure the successful implementation of targeted recruitment.

CONCLUSION

Targeted recruitment strategies can increase students' awareness of the wide variety of pathways within nursing, rather than leaving awareness to what family, friends or career advisers tell them, or how nurses are portrayed on television, movies and the media.

A Qualitative Analysis of Career Choice Pathways of College-Oriented Rural Central Appalachian High School Students

To explore the ways context may shape career choices, we used a qualitative approach to analyze interviews with college-oriented high school students from the rural Central Appalachia region of Virginia. Using social cognitive career theory, we analyzed pathways to career choices and relevant contextual factors, using data from 24 interviews. Results revealed that participants’ pathways partially matched the model, though we also found variant pathways triggered by significant environmental influences and incomplete pathways due to variations in possible career plans. Explanatory factors included status as prospective first-generation college student, outcome expectations that included remaining local and having job stability, and an emergent factor of continuing generation Appalachian. The patterns that emerged with respect to contextual factors and career choice pathways highlight the importance of culture and context when examining how students make career choices. This research extends prior research by examining career pathways using student’s own words as data. Moreover, the patterns offer insights career coaches, counselors, and educators can use in supporting students’ post–high school career planning.

Predictors of Career Decision Self-Efficacy

We examined sex, socioeconomic status (SES), classism, modern sexism, and locus of control as uniquely contributing factors to college students’ career decision self-efficacy. A total of 139 college students participated in the survey, and the hypothesis was tested with hierarchical regression. Results revealed that (a) sex and SES do not significantly contribute to classism and modern sexism to college students’ career decision self-efficacy and (b) classism and modern sexism, internality and luck uniquely contributed to college students’ career decision self-efficacy above and beyond the variances accounted for sex and SES. Results indicate the importance of classism and modern sexism over actual sex and SES in predicting college students’ career decision self-efficacy.

The State of SCCT Research in Relation to Social Class

This article provides an overview of 47 empirical studies of social cognitive career theory (SCCT) and recent SCCT-based models with a focus on social class and socioeconomic status (SES). We summarize the findings across the studies according to (1) the use of social class or SES as a study variable and (2) low-SES samples based on demographic data. We provide an assessment of the current state of SCCT research on social class and offer directions for advancing SCCT theory and research with attention to how social class can be conceptualized and operationalized within SCCT.

Vocational Psychology: Agency, Equity, and Well-Being

The present review organizes the vocational psychology literature published between 2007 and 2014 into three overarching themes: Promoting (a) agency in career development, (b) equity in the work force, and (c) well-being in work and educational settings. Research on career adaptability, self-efficacy beliefs, and work volition is reviewed in the agency section, with the goal of delineating variables that promote or constrain the exercise of personal agency in academic and occupational pursuits. The equity theme covers research on social class and race/ethnicity in career development; entry and retention of women and people of color in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields; and the career service needs of survivors of domestic violence and of criminal offenders. The goal was to explore how greater equity in the work force could be promoted for these groups. In the well-being section, we review research on hedonic (work, educational, and life satisfaction) and eudaimonic (career calling, meaning, engagement, and commitment) variables, with the goal of understanding how well-being might be promoted at school and at work. Future research needs related to each theme are also discussed.

Incorporation of Chance Into Career Development Theory and Research

In a climate in which career transitions are increasingly common, chance events may have a greater influence on career development. This article is a review of how well the current theory and research can account for the interaction between chance events and career development. Chance events are characterized as being unpredictable and unplanned to the person who experiences them. However, existing research and theory have largely failed to consider these unique qualities of chance events. Theories based on learning principles such as happenstance learning theory (Krumboltz, 1996, 2009), social cognitive career theory, and cognitive information processing theory of career development provide a framework for understanding the processes that occur when people are affected by or respond to events that are predictable or unplanned. This review considers this potential and concludes with suggestions for possible avenues for future research.

Educational Barriers of Rural Youth: Relation of Individual and Contextual Difference Variables

The purpose of this study was to examine the relation of several individual and contextual difference factors to the perceived educational barriers of rural youth. Data were from a broader national investigation of students' postsecondary aspirations and preparation in rural high schools across the United States. The sample involved more than 7,000 rural youth in 73 high schools across 34 states. Results indicated that some individual (e.g., African American race/ethnicity) and contextual (e.g., parent education) difference factors were predictive while others were not. Extensions to, similarities, and variations with previous research are discussed. Implications, limitations, and suggestions for future research are also discussed.

Calling and Career Outcome Expectations

Links between young adults’ sense of calling, career outcome expectations, and self-efficacy were examined in a sample of 855 undergraduate students from three universities in Atlantic Canada. Hierarchical multiple regression revealed that participants’ presence of and search for calling accounted for a small, but significant, portion of the variance in career outcome expectations. Mediation analysis, conducted separately for each subdimension of calling, revealed that self-efficacy partially mediated the relation between purposeful work and outcome expectations, and fully mediated the relation for the calling dimensions of search for purposeful work, presence of transcendent summons, and presence of a prosocial orientation. The pattern of findings suggests that the relation between sense of calling and expectations for a successful future occupational outcome is predominantly indirect, working through influencing students’ occupational self-efficacy.

Linking Socioeconomic Status to Social Cognitive Career Theory Factors

The purpose of this study was to investigate the contributions of socioeconomic status (SES) in predicting social cognitive career theory (SCCT) factors. Data were collected from 738 college students in Taiwan. The results of the partial least squares (PLS) analyses indicated that SES significantly predicted career decision self-efficacy (CDSE); however, the relationship between SES and career decision-making outcome expectations (CDMOE) was not significant. In addition, the findings revealed that CDSE had a direct effect as well as an indirect effect, via CDMOE, on career exploratory intentions. Implications for counseling and future research are discussed.