Abstract
The present study tests the utility of the Social Cognitive Model of Well-Being (SCWB) in the context of work, with a sample of 348 women engineers. Using structural equation modeling, we examined the relations of positive affect, self-efficacy, work conditions, goal progress, and environmental supports and barriers that were assumed to account for job satisfaction and life satisfaction of women engineers. Overall, the model provided a good fit to the data, and SCWB predictors accounted for a significant amount of variance in job satisfaction (63%) and life satisfaction (54%) with our sample of women engineers. As expected, most paths of the SCWB model were significant; however, we also found nonsignificant relations among variables in the model. In particular, goal progress did not play a critical role in the present study. In addition, we examined the indirect effects of environmental variables (e.g., supports and barriers) on job satisfaction via sociocognitive variables (e.g., self-efficacy and perceived work conditions) in the engineering work domain. Implications for practice, theory, and future vocational and organizational research in engineering are discussed.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
