Career Decision Making for Korean International College Students: Acculturation and Networking

The authors examined the relationship among acculturation, career networking, and career decision self‐efficacy for Korean international college students. Networking is an essential skill for career success, and acculturation is connected to career outcomes for diverse populations; however, little research has examined the relationship between these factors. A total of 172 Korean international students (117 women, 54 men, 1 not reported) completed measures of acculturation; networking comfort, intensity, and proactivity; and career decision self‐efficacy. Using structural equation modeling, the authors found acculturation to affect career decision self‐efficacy through networking. The relationships among acculturation, networking, and career decision self‐efficacy indicated a medium to large effect size. These findings indicate that career counselors should collaboratively attend to acculturation concerns, such as stress and identity development, as well as provide opportunities for networking skill development. More research is needed on acculturation and networking among additional international student populations.     

Predictors of Student and Career Decision‐Making Self‐Efficacy Among Nontraditional College Women

A study of 354 nontraditional college women found robust levels of confidence in their ability to manage the student role and pursue career‐related tasks. Findings indicated that perceived career barriers and social support accounted for variance in student and career decision‐making self‐efficacy for nontraditional college women with and without children. Social support added to the prediction of self‐efficacy over and above the contribution of perceived barriers. The discussion focuses on recommendations for career counseling interventions to facilitate educational and vocational success among nontraditional college women.     

Decision‐Making Styles,Career Decision Self‐Efficacy,and Career Adaptability Among High School Students

We investigated the relationships between decision‐making styles, career decision self‐efficacy, and career adaptability among high school students. We also sought to determine whether gender moderates the relationships among these three constructs. A total of 216 Serbian final‐year high school students responded to career adaptability and decision‐making measures. Results of structural equation modeling showed that career decision self‐efficacy mediates a positive relationship between the rational and intuitive styles and a negative relationship between the dependent style and career adaptability. The rational style only had a direct effect on career adaptability. Gender moderated one path—a regression weight of self‐efficacy on career adaptability. For male students, self‐efficacy was not a significant predictor of career adaptability. The results suggest that career counselors might approach students differently depending on students' gender and that the role of gender in career decision‐making and adaptability processes should be investigated further.     

Career Self‐Efficacy and Perceptions of Parent Support in Adolescent Career Development

The authors examined the relative contributions of both proximal and distal supports to the career interests and vocational self‐efficacy in a multiethnic sample (N = 139) of middle school adolescents. Consistent with Social Cognitive Career Theory, it was found that (a) vocational self‐efficacy and career planning/exploration efficacy consistently predicted young adolescents' career interests across Holland (J. L. Holland, D. R. Whitney, N. S. Cole, & J. M. Richards, 1969) themes; (b) gender and career gender‐typing predicted interests in Realistic, Investigative, and Social careers; and (c) perceived parent support accounted for 29% to 43% of the total unique variance in vocational self‐efficacy for all Holland theme careers.     

The Influence of Role Models on Women's Career Choices

This study of 368 female undergraduates examined self‐efficacy and role model influence as predictors of career choice across J. L. Holland's (1997) 6 RIASEC (Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, Conventional) types. Findings showed that levels of self‐efficacy and role model influence differed across Holland types. Multiple regression analyses indicated that self‐efficacy and role model influence accounted for significant variance in career choice for all 6 RIASEC types. Role model influence added to the prediction of career choice over and above the contribution of self‐efficacy in all but 1 of the RIASEC types. The importance of attention to role models in career counseling is discussed.     

Tolerance of Uncertainty: Links to Happenstance,Career Decision Self‐Efficacy,and Career Satisfaction

This study investigated the extent to which tolerance of uncertainty affects the relationship between happenstance skills and career satisfaction via career decision self‐efficacy. Moderated mediation analysis was conducted on data collected from 321 graduates (175 men, 146 women) of Korean universities making the school‐to‐work transition. Results showed that career decision self‐efficacy fully mediated the relationship between happenstance skills and career satisfaction. Furthermore, the moderation effect of tolerance of uncertainty had a significant impact on the relationship between happenstance skills and career decision self‐efficacy. Tolerance of uncertainty should be considered an important variable in happenstance career theory and intervention. Unplanned influences should also be considered important factors in the career decision‐making process.     

Mindfulness and Decision‐Making Style: Predicting Career Thoughts and Vocational Identity

Mindfulness has been a focus of psychological research and practice in recent decades. Yet, there is limited research on the relationship between mindfulness and vocational decision‐making. This study’s purpose was to examine the role of mindfulness in a career context by investigating the relationships among mindfulness, decision‐making style, negative career thoughts, and vocational identity. The sample included 258 undergraduate students (204 women, 54 men) at a large southeastern U.S. university. Mindfulness was significantly (p < .01) associated with fewer negative career thoughts, external and thinking‐based decision‐making styles, and higher vocational identity. Multiple regression procedures found that mindfulness, coupled with decision‐making style, accounted for 31% of the variance in negative career thoughts and 22% of the variance in vocational identity. These findings suggest that more holistic career counseling interventions could incorporate mindfulness techniques to help reduce anxiety and negative thoughts while increasing self‐clarity and problem‐solving skills. Future research could include more diverse samples, additional constructs (e.g., choice volition, self‐efficacy), and a pretest–posttest design to examine the efficacy of mindfulness‐based career interventions.     

Relative Deprivation and Career Decision Self‐Efficacy: Influences of Self‐Regulation and Parental Educational Attainment

Nearly 70% of Korean women pursue postsecondary education, yet they occupy lower‐status positions than do men (K. Kim & Han, 2008 ). Therefore, the authors examined relative deprivation in equal opportunities and its effect on career‐related self‐efficacy among 603 Korean female college students. Self‐regulation was hypothesized to mediate the effects of relative deprivation on career decision self‐efficacy. This effect was hypothesized to differ according to parents’ educational attainment due to different degrees of parental support. As expected, self‐regulation mediated the relationship between relative deprivation and career decision self‐efficacy for participants whose parents had high education levels. However, participants whose parents had low education levels demonstrated less involvement in resolving relative deprivation. Findings suggest that career counselors should use different interventions based on parental education level to influence students’ self‐regulation and to enhance career decision self‐efficacy.     

Basic Confidence Predictors of Career Decision‐Making Self‐Efficacy

The extent to which Basic Confidence Scales predicted career decision‐making self‐efficacy was studied in a sample of 627 undergraduate students. Six confidence variables accounted for 49% of the variance in career decision‐making self‐efficacy. Leadership confidence was the most important, but confidence in science, mathematics, writing, using technology, and cultural sensitivity all contributed significant incremental variance. There were some differences as a function of race and gender, but leadership confidence was the most significant predictor in all subgroups. Implications for educational and career counseling are discussed.     

A Moderated Mediation Model of Planned Happenstance Skills,Career Engagement,Career Decision Self‐Efficacy,and Career Decision Certainty

This study examined how college students’ levels of planned happenstance skills influenced the relationships among career engagement, career decision self‐efficacy, and career decision certainty. Moderated mediation analysis was used with a sample of 217 Korean undergraduate students. The results indicated that career decision self‐efficacy mediated the relationship between career engagement and career decision certainty. Moreover, the positive indirect effect of career engagement on career decision through career decision self‐efficacy was strengthened as the level of planned happenstance skills increased. In conclusion, college students’ career engagement strengthens their career decision certainty via career decision self‐efficacy when they have enough planned happenstance skills to discover unexpected career opportunities.     

Academic Support Services and Career Decision‐Making Self‐Efficacy in Student Athletes

This study examined the relationship between evaluations of academic support services and student athletes’ career decision‐making self‐efficacy. One hundred and fifty‐eight NCAA athletes (68% male) from 11 Division I teams completed measures of satisfaction with their academic support services, career decision‐making self‐efficacy, general self‐efficacy, and locus of control. Results indicated that evaluations of academic support services were positively related to levels of career decision‐making self‐efficacy. In addition, this relationship was moderated such that student athletes with lower levels of general self‐efficacy and internal locus of control benefited more from positive experiences with academic support services. Limitations and implications are discussed.     

An Outcome Study of Career Decision Self‐Efficacy and Indecision in an Undergraduate Constructivist Career Course

This study explored outcomes in a constructivist career course. Using a pretest‐ posttest design, the authors assessed the empowerment (operationalized as career decision self‐efficacy) and career indecision of 82 culturally diverse college students at a large, midwestern university. Data were analyzed using a multivariate analysis of variance. Results indicated that students reported significant increases in empowerment with no commensurate decreases in career indecision. In addition to shedding light on the nuanced relationship between empowerment or career decision self‐efficacy and indecision, results indicate the potential constructivist career development has to empower culturally diverse college students.     

Computer Science Majors: Sex Role Orientation,Academic Achievement,and Social Cognitive Factors

This study examined the sex role orientations endorsed by 188 male and female students majoring in computer science, a male‐dominated college degree program. The relations among sex role orientation and academic achievement and social cognitive factors influential in career decision‐making self‐efficacy were explored. Findings revealed that androgynous‐ and feminine‐oriented students scored significantly higher on career decision‐making self‐efficacy as compared with undifferentiated students. No significant sex role orientation differences were found for academic achievement and general and career locus of control.     

The Effects of Socioeconomic Status and Proactive Personality on Career Decision Self‐Efficacy

This study investigated the relationship of family socioeconomic status and proactive personality to career decision self‐efficacy in a sample of 336 Taiwanese college students. The results of the partial least squares path modeling analysis showed that both socioeconomic status and proactive personality were positively associated with career decision self‐efficacy. These findings support person input variables as being predictive of career decision self‐efficacy and provide career counselors with insight into how to design career interventions for improving college students’ career decision self‐efficacy. Implications for career counseling and suggestions for future research are discussed.     

Rural Latino Youth Career Development: An Application of Social Cognitive Career Theory

This study used social cognitive career theory (Lent, Brown, & Hackett, 1994 ) to investigate the career development of 9th‐grade students living in 2 rural communities with large numbers of Latino immigrants. Participants (55.3% Latino) responded to measures of vocational skills self‐efficacy, career decision outcome expectations, career aspirations, and barriers to postsecondary education. Contrary to previous findings, results indicated that Latino students in these communities reported higher self‐efficacy beliefs than did White students. Latino students also reported higher perceived barriers, but this did not seem to relate to their career aspirations. Results suggest that school and career counselors should focus on programming that attends to Latino students' self‐efficacy and outcome expectations, as well as efficacy for overcoming barriers. Doing so could prove useful for increasing career achievement among rural Latino youth.     

Career Choice Anxiety,Coping, and Perceived Control

Extrapolating from D. H. Barlow (2000), the authors explored whether perceived control moderated the relation between coping with career indecision and choice anxiety among 126 women in low‐level jobs. Analyses of the women's career indecision, coping, perceived control, and career choice anxiety scores through regression identified the moderator effect. Perceived control interacted with problem‐focused coping to increase accountable variance in choice anxiety (p < .05). Women perceiving high control and doing more problem‐focused coping reported lower anxiety than did women doing comparable coping but perceiving lower control. Implications are discussed for interventions with women in low‐level jobs.     

The Role of Career Barriers in High School Students' Career Choice Behavior in Taiwan

The purpose of this study was to examine the role of career barriers in social cognitive career theory (R. W. Lent, S. D. Brown, & G. Hackett, 1994). The participants were 584 high school students in Taiwan, Republic of China. The gender differences in perceived career barriers and career self‐efficacy were significant. Results of hierarchical regression analyses indicated that some of the perceived career barriers were significant in predicting individuals' career choice behavior after controlling for career self‐efficacy in certain career types.     

Factors That Influence Persistence in Science and Engineering Career Aspirations

The author investigated students' persistence regarding career aspirations in science and engineering (SE) professional careers as a function of race and sex. In a nationally representative sample of 8th graders, persistent racial minority and female students were compared with nonpersistent racial minority and male students regarding their self‐concept, parental involvement, socioeconomic status, and academic achievement. Men were more likely than women to persist in SE career aspirations. Persistent students scored higher than did nonpersistent students on all of the variables studied. Academic proficiency and math self‐efficacy were 2 of the strongest predictors of persistence in SE careers.     

Explaining Career Decision‐Making Self‐Efficacy: Personality,Cognitions, and Cultural Mistrust

The authors explore the hypothesis that career decision‐making self‐efficacy could be affected by negative career thoughts, Big Five personality factors, and cultural mistrust in a sample of African American and Caucasian college students. Findings demonstrated that negative career thinking, openness, and conscientiousness explained a significant amount of variance in career decision‐making self‐efficacy in a general sample of college students, but no unique variance was explained by cultural mistrust in a sample of African American college students.     

Self‐Construal,Career Decision Self‐Efficacy,and Perceived Barriers Predict Mexican American Women's Life Satisfaction

This study used the social cognitive theory of well‐being (SCTW; Lent, 2004 ) to examine the role of career decision self‐efficacy (CDSE), perceived educational barriers, and independent self‐construal on the life satisfaction of 176 Mexican American college women. A 3‐step hierarchical regression analysis indicated that independent self‐construal, CDSE, and fewer perceived educational barriers significantly predicted greater life satisfaction among Mexican American college women above and beyond the influence of socioeconomic status and generational status. These findings are consistent with SCTW and highlight the need for counselors and researchers to be aware of the role that self‐construal, CDSE, and perceived educational barriers can have on Mexican American women's life satisfaction. Implications for practice at the secondary‐school and university levels are discussed.