Career Self-Efficacy: A Mixed-Methods Study of an Underexplored Research Area for First-Generation,Low-Income,and Underrepresented College Students in a Comprehensive College Transition Program

Abstract

This mixed-methods study explored whether and how participation in a comprehensive college transition program serving low-income, first-generation, and underrepresented minority students is linked to the development of career self-efficacy in light of the latter’s link to persistence and college completion. Findings suggest that program participation is linked to career self-efficacy, and program participants report significantly higher levels of confidence in their major and career path compared with a control group. Qualitative results indicate that major and career support from college transition program staff and being connected to an ecology of major and career-related activities contributed to the development of program participants’ career self-efficacy. Results hold significance for college transition program design and call attention to an underexplored area of research in the quest to boost college completion for low-income, first-generation, and underrepresented minority students.

Keywords

career self-efficacy college transition program career development mixed methods underrepresented students

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Andridge

Little

(2010). A review of hot deck imputation for survey non-response. International Statistical Review, 78, 40-64.

Angrist

Autor

Hudson

Pallais

(2014). Leveling up: Early results from a randomized evaluation of post-secondary aid (NBER Working Paper No. 20800). Cambridge, MA: National Bureau of Economic Research.

Angrist

Autor

Hudson

Pallais

(2016). Evaluating post-secondary aid: Enrollment, persistence, and projected completion effects (NBER Working Paper No. 23015). Cambridge, MA: National Bureau of Economic Research.

Bandura

(1977). Self-efficacy: Toward a unifying theory of behavioral change. Psychological Review, 84, 191-215.

Becker

H. S.

Geer

Hughes

E. C.

Strauss

A. L.

(1961). Boys in white: Student culture in medical school. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

Betz

(2000). Self-efficacy theory as a basis for career assessment. Journal of Career Assessment, 8, 205-222.

Betz

Hackett

(1981). The relationship of career-related self-efficacy expectations to perceived career options in college women and men. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 28, 399-410.

Betz

Hammond

Multon

(2005). Reliability and validity of five-level response continuua for the career decision self-efficacy scale. Journal of Career Assessment, 13, 131-149.

Betz

Klein

Taylor

(1996). Evaluation of a short form of the career decision-making self-efficacy scale. Journal of Career Assessment, 4, 47-57.

10.

Betz

Luzzo

(1996). Career assessment and the career decision-making self-efficacy scale. Journal of Career Assessment, 4, 413-428.

11.

Boyatzis

(1998). Transforming qualitative information: Thematic analysis and code development. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

12.

Brown

S. D.

Ryan Krane

N. E.

(2000). Four (or five) sessions and a cloud of dust: Old assumptions and new observations about career counseling. In Brown

S. D.

Lent

R. W.

(Eds.), Handbook of counseling psychology (3rd ed., pp. 740-766). New York, NY: Wiley.

13.

Brown

Ryan Krane

Brecheisen

Castelino

Budisin

Miller

Edens

(2003). Critical ingredients of career choice interventions: More analyses and new hypotheses. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 62, 411-428.

14.

Burns

Jasinski

Dunn

Fletcher

(2013). Academic support services and career decision-making self-efficacy in student athletes. Career Development Quarterly, 61, 161-167.

15.

Chung

(2002). Career decision-making self-efficacy and career commitment: Gender and ethnic differences among college students. Journal of Career Development, 28, 277-284.

16.

Cohen

(1988). Statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences (2nd ed.). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

17.

College Board. (2008). Coming to our senses: Education and the American future. Retrieved from http://media.collegeboard.com/digitalServices/pdf/advocacy/admissions21century/coming-to-our-senses-college-board-2008.pdf

18.

Crites

(1961). A model for the measurement of vocational maturity. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 8, 255-259.

19.

Crites

(1978). Career maturity inventory. Monterey, CA: CTB/McGraw-Hill.

20.

DeAngelo

Franke

Hurtado

Pryor

Tran

(2011). Completing college: Assessing graduation rates at four year institutions. Higher Education Research Institute. Retrieved from https://heri.ucla.edu/DARCU/CompletingCollege2011.pdf

21.

DeRoma

Bell

Zaremba

Albee

(2005). Evaluation of a college transition program for students at-risk for academic failure. Research and Teaching in Developmental Education, 21(2), 20-33.

22.

Folsom

Reardon

(2003). College career courses: Design and accountability. Journal of Career Assessment, 11, 421-450.

23.

Foltz

Luzzo

(1998). Increasing the career decision-making self-efficacy of nontraditional college students. Journal of College Counseling, 1, 35-44.

24.

Fouad

Ghosh

Chang

Figueiredo

Bachhuber

(2016). Career exploration among college students. Journal of College Student Development, 57, 460-464.

25.

Freeman

Lenz

Reardon

(2017). Career course impact on college students’ career decision and affective states. VISTAS Online. Retrieved from https://www.counseling.org/docs/default-source/vistas/article_3289ce2bf16116603abcacff0000bee5e7.pdf?sfvrsn=17d84b2c_4

26.

Gloria

Hird

(1999). Influences of ethnic and nonethnic variables on the career decision-making self-efficacy of college students. Career Development Quarterly, 48, 157-173.

27.

Grier-Reed

Ganuza

(2012). Using constructivist career development to improve career decision self-efficacy in TRIO students. Journal of College Student Development, 53, 464-471.

28.

Guba

Lincoln

(1981). Effective evaluation: Improving the usefulness of evaluation results through responsive and naturalistic approaches. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

29.

Hackett

Betz

N. E.

(1981). A self-efficacy approach to the career development of women. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 18, 326-339.

30.

Hackett

Betz

N. E.

Casas

J. M.

Rocha-Singh

I. A.

(1992). Gender, ethnicity, and social cognitive factors predicting the academic achievement of students in engineering. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 39, 527-538.

31.

Hansen

Pedersen

(2012). An examination of the effects of career development courses on career decision making self-efficacy, adjustment to college, learning integration, and academic success. Journal of the First Year Experience & Students in Transition, 24(2), 33-61.

32.

Harper

S. R.

(2010). An anti-deficit achievement framework for research on students of color in STEM. New Directions for Institutional Research, 2010(148), 63-74.

33.

Harper

S. R.

Patton

L. D.

Wooden

O. S.

(2009). Access and equity for African American students in higher education: A critical race historical analysis of policy efforts. Journal of Higher Education, 80, 389-414.

34.

Harper

S. R.

Simmons

(2019). Black students at public colleges and universities: A 50-state report card. Los Angeles: University of Southern California. Retrieved from https://race.usc.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Black-Students-at-Public-Colleges-and-Universities-A-50-State-Report-Card-Harper-and-Simmons-1-9-26.pdf

35.

Jahn

Myers

(2014).Vocational anticipatory socialization of adolescents: Messages, sources, and frameworks that influence interest in STEM careers. Journal of Applied Communication Research, 42, 85-106.

36.

Kezar

(Ed.). (2010). Recognizing and serving low-income students in postsecondary education: An examination of institutional policies, practices, and culture. New York, NY: Routledge.

37.

Komarraju

Swanson

Nadler

(2014). Increased career self-efficacy predicts college students’ motivation, and course and major satisfaction. Journal of Career Assessment, 22, 420-432.

38.

Kuh

G. D.

Whitt

E. J.

(1988). The invisible tapestry: Culture in American colleges and universities. Washington, DC: George Washington University.

39.

Leech

(2012). Writing mixed research reports. American Behavioral Scientist, 56, 866-881.

40.

Leech

Onwuegbuzie

(2009). A typology of mixed methods research designs. Quality & Quantity, 43, 265-275.

41.

Lent

R. W.

Brown

S. D.

Sheu

H.-B.

Schmidt

Brenner

B. R.

Gloster

C. S.

. . . Treistman

(2005). Social cognitive predictors of academic interests and goals in engineering: Utility for women and students at historically Black universities. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 52, 84-92.

42.

Lent

R. W.

Hackett

(1987). Career self-efficacy: Empirical status and future directions. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 30, 347-382.

43.

Lent

R. W.

Lopez

A. M.

Jr. Lopez

F. G.

Sheu

H. B.

(2008). Social cognitive career theory and the prediction of interests and choice goals in the computing disciplines. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 73, 52-62.

44.

Lincoln

Y. S.

Guba

E. G.

(1985). Naturalistic inquiry. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.

45.

LoPresti

Pace

Mondo

Nota

Casarubia

Ferrari

Betz

(2013). An examination of the structure of the career decision self-efficacy scale (short form) among Italian high school students. Journal of Career Assessment, 21, 337-347.

46.

Lumpkin

Franco

Multon

Achen

(2014). Sport management career decision making self-efficacy. College Student Journal, 51, 539-549.

47.

Luzzo

Day

(1999). Effects of strong interest inventory feedback on career decision-making self-efficacy and social cognitive career beliefs. Journal of Career Assessment, 7, 1-17.

48.

Maples

Luzzo

(2005). Evaluating DISCOVER’s effectiveness in enhancing college students social cognitive career development. Career Development Quarterly, 53, 274-285.

49.

Means

Bryant

Crutchfield

Jones

Wade

(2016). Building bridges: College to career for underrepresented college students. Journal of College Student Development, 57, 95-98.

50.

Merton

R. K.

(1957). Social theory and social structure. New York, NY: Free Press.

51.

Myers

Jahn

Gaillard

Stoltzfus

(2011). Vocational anticipatory socialization (VAS): A communicative model of adolescents’ interests in STEM. Management Communication Quarterly, 25, 87-120.

52.

O’Brien

(2003). Measuring career self-efficacy promoting confidence and happiness at work. In Lopez

S. J.

Snyder

C. R.

(Eds.), Positive psychological assessment: A handbook of models and measures (pp. 109-126). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

53.

Patel

(2016). Decolonizing educational research: From ownership to answerability. New York, NY: Routledge.

54.

Peterson

(1993). Career decision-making self-efficacy and institutional integration of underprepared college students. Research in Higher Education, 34, 659-685.

55.

Peterson

DelMas

(2001). Effects of career decision-making self-efficacy and degree utility on student persistence: A path analytic study. Journal of College Student Retention, 3, 285-299.

56.

Pitre

(2009). Increasing underrepresented high school students’ college transitions and achievements: TRIO educational opportunity programs. NASSP Bulletin, 93, 96-110.

57.

Robbins

(1985). Validity estimates for the career decision-making self-efficacy scale. Measurement and Evaluation in Counseling and Development, 18, 64-71.

58.

Ryan

N. E.

(1999). Career counseling and career choice goal attainment: A meta-analytically derived model for career counseling practice (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Loyola University, Chicago.

59.

Sablan

(2014). The challenge of summer bridge programs. American Behavioral Scientist, 58, 1035-1050.

60.

Soldner

Rowan-Kenyon

Inkelas

Garvey

Robbins

(2012). Supporting students’ intentions to persist in STEM disciplines: The role of living-learning programs among other social-cognitive factors. Journal of Higher Education, 83, 311-336.

61.

Strayhorn

(2010). Bridging the pipeline: Increasing underrepresented students’ preparation for college through a summer bridge program. American Behavioral Scientist, 55, 142-159.

62.

Tashakkori

Teddlie

(1998). Mixed methodology: Combining qualitative and quantitative approaches: Vol. 46. Applied social research methods series. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

63.

Tashakkori

Teddlie

(2010). Overview of contemporary issues in mixed methods research. In Teddlie

Tashakkori

(Eds.), Sage handbook of mixed methods in social and behavioral research (2nd ed., pp. 1-44.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

64.

Tate

Caperton

Kaiser

Pruitt

White

Hall

(2015). An exploration of first-generation college students’ career development beliefs and experiences. Journal of Career Development, 42, 294-310.

65.

Taylor

Betz

(1983). Applications of self-efficacy theory to understanding and treatment of career indecision. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 22, 63-81.

66.

Tinto

(1993). Leaving college: Rethinking the causes and cures of student attrition (2nd ed.). Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

67.

Tinto

. (2012). Completing college: Rethinking institutional action. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

68.

Tsui

(2007). Effective strategies to increase diversity in STEM fields: A review of the research literature. Journal of Negro Education, 76, 555-581.

69.

Van Maanen

. (1984). Doing new things in old ways: The chains of socialization. In Bess

J. L.

(Ed.), College and university organization: Insights from the behavioral sciences (pp. 211-247). New York: New York University Press.

70.

Yosso

(2005). Whose culture has capital? A critical race theory discussion of community cultural wealth. Race, Ethnicity and Education, 8, 69-91.