Career Aspirations and Expectations of Black,Mexican American,and White Students

The career aspirations and expectations of Black, Mexican American, and White college freshmen were examined. In addition, students' career expectations were compared to the jobs available in the labor market. Results suggested that (a) there seem to be more gender than ethnic differences in students' career aspirations and expectations, (b) differences in the career aspirations and expectations among Mexican American and White students followed traditional gender patterns, and (c) with some exceptions, the career expectations of students resembled the distribution of jobs in the labor market.     

The Validity of Career Maturity Attitude Measures Among Black and White High School Students

To investigate the validity of five career maturity attitude measures among Black and White high school students, the Counseling Form of the Career Maturity Inventory Attitude Scale and a measure of appropriateness of career choices were administered to 83 Black and 239 White high school students. White students scored significantly higher than Black students on Involvement, Independence, and Compromise in Career Decision Making, and on Appropriateness of Career Choices. Reliability coefficients are mostly in the .50s and .60s. None of the five Attitude Scale subscales are related to appropriateness of career choices of Black students, and only one subscale, Compromise, is significantly correlated with appropriateness of career choices of White students. The data do not support the theoretical expectation that career maturity attitudes are related to appropriateness of career choices, and raise questions regarding the validity of inferences made about the career maturity of both Black and White students. Some practical and theoretical implications of the study are identified.     

Career Development Attributes and Occupational Values of Asian American and White American College Students

This study examined differences in career development attributes and occupational values between Asian American and White American college students using (a) the Crites' (1978) Career Maturity Inventory; (b) Harren's (1978) Assessment of Career Decision Making: Styles Subscales; (c) Holland, Daiger, and Power's (1980) My Vocational Situation; and (d) Rosenberg's (1957) Occupations and Values Scale. Asian Americans were found to have greater preferences for Dependent decisionmaking styles and also a lower level of career maturity. No differences in vocational identity were found between the cultural groups. Asian Americans also placed greater emphasis on extrinsic and security occupational value clusters (e.g., making more money, having a stable, secure future) relative to White Americans. The counseling and research implications of the results are discussed.     

Differences Between High School Students from Intact and Divorced Families

Previous research on the effects of divorce has focused primarily on young children. In the present study, 110 high school students from divorced or intact families were administered a variety of questionnaires to ascertain any differences between students from the two family situations. The questionnaires focused on the following areas: beliefs about divorce, family environment, interparental con- flict, and self-depiction. No significant differences were found be- tween the divorced and intact groups. These results suggest that teens from divorced families are as well-adjusted as teens from intact fami- lies. A number of correlations were found to be significant, implying that it is the family environment, not the process of divorce, that influences children's adjustment.     

Religion,Spirituality, and Career Development in African American College Students: A Qualitative Inquiry

The authors explored through semistructured interviews the interrelationships of religion, spirituality, and career development in a sample of 12 African American undergraduate students. Using consensual qualitative research methodology (C. E. Hill, B. J. Thompson, & E. N. Williams, 1997), they identified 6 primary domains or themes related to these students' experiences in this regard, including (a) degree of identification as religious and/or spiritual, (b) parents' influence on religious and spiritual beliefs, (c) roles of religion and spirituality in participants' career development, (d) challenges in dealing with academic and career‐related issues, (e) religious and spiritual strategies to deal with academic and career‐related challenges, and (f) indicators of success in future career or occupation.     

Peer Influences on the College Plans of Canadian High School Students*

Comment les projets des amis des étudiants du secondaire affectent-ils la décision de ceuxci de poursuivre des études au niveau collegial? L'auteur a étudiAeA cette question parmi 889 étudiants de 12e année AaG Port-Arthur et Fort-William. Les étudiants et les étudiantes dont les amis se proposent d'entrer au collège considèrent davantage de le faire que ceux et celles dont les amis ne se le proposent pas. Quand on tient compte du quotient d'intelligence et du milieu socio-économique, cette association persiste sauf dans le cas des jeunes filles de statut économique faible. Parmi ces dernières, les projets de leurs amis ne sont pas assoctés à leurs projets de poursuivre des études universitaires, quel que soit le quotient d'intelligence. L'auteur établit des liens entre ses observations et les conséquences de celles-ci et la notion que les jeunes forment un sousgroupe culturel.     

African American MSW Students: Personal Influences on Social Work Careers and Factors in Graduate School Selection

The research is an empirical examination of who the individuals were that influenced 207 African American respondents to pursue graduate social work education, and what enrollment decision factors (EDFs) led them to select a social work program. Statistically significant relationships between EDFs are also isolated. The purposive sample consisted of MSW graduates from three predominantly White universities in two southeastern states in the United States. Almost 80% were females, the mean age was 44.5 years, and 45% majored in social work as undergraduates. Individuals who reportedly had ‘a great deal of influence’ in their selection of graduate social work education included social work practitioners, family members, and undergraduate professors. The ‘very important’ EDFs included geographical location, type of social work program, class scheduling, and cost of tuition. The strongest EDF correlations were between (1) number of minority students and number of minority faculty (r?=?0.662, p?=?0.000, 0.01 level, 2‐tailed); (2) academic reputation and type of social work program (r?=?0.590, p?=?0.000, 0.01 level, 2‐tailed); and (3) number of minority faculty and school climate toward minorities (r?=?0.523, p?=?0.000, 0.01 level, 2‐tailed). Findings suggest that graduate school recruitment strategies for African Americans and other under‐represented groups should include use of social work practitioners and educators, as well as more informed and deliberate marketing approaches with respect to school curricula and how it translates into future career options.     

Self-Esteem,Vocational Identity,and Career Salience in High School Students

This study used Super's (1980) life span career development theory to investigate the relations between self-esteem level, vocational identity, and career salience in high school students. Two hundred fifty-one students were randomly selected from junior classes in urban, suburban, rural, and vocational schools. Results indicated that high self-esteem students scored significantly higher than low self-esteem students on vocational identity and career salience (participation, commitment, and values expectations) in school and home or family roles, but they did not differ on work, community, or leisure roles. Implications for life span career counseling are discussed.     

Factors Affecting College Students' Perceptions of Sexual Relationships Between High School Students and Teachers

ABSTRACT

This study explored the effects of respondent gender, gender combination (male teacher/female student versus female teacher/male student), and teacher age (24 versus 39-years-old) on the perception of a sexual relationship between a teacher and a 16-year-old student. Participants were 80 male and 80 female undergraduates. A MANOVA yielded significant main effects for respondent gender and gender combination. Subsequent ANOVAs indicated that men generally viewed the experience more positively and that the male teacher/female student combination was viewed more negatively than the female teacher/male student pairing.     

Influences of Ethnic and Nonethnic Variables on the Career Decision-Making Self-Efficacy of College Students

This study examined differences in career decision-making self-efficacy, trait anxiety, and ethnic identity for 687 undergraduates (589 Whites, 98 racial and ethnic minorities). Significant differences by race and major (declared, undeclared) indicated that White students had higher career decision-making self-efficacy and lower trait anxiety, ethnic identity, and other-group orientation. Declared students had higher career decision-making self-efficacy and lower trait anxiety. Ethnic variables (ethnic identity, other-group orientation) were more significant predictors of career decision-making self-efficacy and trait anxiety for racial and ethnic minorities than for Whites. Implications of the findings and directions for future research are discussed.     

Perceived Norms and Alcohol Consumption: Differences Between College Students From Rural and Urban High Schools

Objective: The authors examined perceived norms and drinking among college students who attended high schools in rural and urban communities. Participants and Methods: Undergraduates (99 men and 85 women) who attended high schools in communities with populations ranging from less than 100 to more than 400,000 completed surveys assessing perceived norms and alcohol consumption. Results: Analyses revealed that students from smaller towns and in smaller high school graduating classes reported heavier drinking and that perceived norms were positively associated with drinking. Perceived norms were unrelated to population variables, and the relationship between perceived norms and drinking did not vary as a function of population variables. Results suggest that differences in drinking as a function of coming from more rural areas contribute to drinking behavior in college independently of perceived norms. Conclusions: College students may adjust to campus drinking norms relatively quickly, and longitudinal research would be useful in understanding this transition.     

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.     

The Use of Genograms in Career Counseling With Elementary,Middle, and High School Students

Genograms have been used successfully in career counseling with adults; however, there has been limited use of genograms in career counseling with elementary, middle, and high school children. This article focuses on the benefits of using genograms and the reasons for them to be integrated into the comprehensive developmental guidance programs used by professional school counselors.     

Race and Loss of Privilege: African American/White Differences in the Determinants of Job Layoffs From Upper-Tier Occupations

Data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics supports predictions from the minority vulnerability thesis concerning the determinants of job layoffs among African Americans and Whites who work in upper-middle-class occupations. Specifically, after controlling for seniority, layoffs for African Americans are relatively unstructured by traditional stratification-based causal factors, namely, background socioeconomic status, human-capital credentials, and job/labor market characteristics. Analyses also indicate that racial differences in the determinants of layoffs are more pronounced in nonservice-based than service-based firms in the private sector and in the private sector relative to the public sector.     

Differences in African American and White college students' drinking behaviors: consequences, harm reduction strategies, and health information sources

The authors explored the differences between African American and White college students' drinking behaviors and their attitudes toward consequences, harm-reduction strategies, and health information sources. They collected data from a randomly selected sample of 1,110 students in a large public university to examine the effects of a high-risk drinking prevention intervention. In the current analysis, they compared African American and White students on indicators of high-risk drinking, drinking consequences, harm-reduction strategies, the sources that students typically used for health information, and the believability of those sources. The African American students scored lower on drinking measures than the White students did, reported fewer negative consequences, and more regularly employed drinking-reduction strategies, with one exception--choosing a designated driver. Both African and White respondents reported that their parents were their most frequent and usual sources of health-related information and said that parents and health professionals were the most credible sources.     

Self‐Efficacy,Perceptions of Barriers,Vocational Identity,and the Career Exploration Behavior of Latino/a High School Students

This study explored the potential relationship between the social cognitive variables of career decision‐making self‐efficacy and perceptions of barriers and the outcome variables of vocational identity and career exploration behaviors in a sample of 128 urban Latino/a high school students. The results indicated that higher levels of career decision‐making self‐efficacy were related to both a more differentiated vocational identity and a greater engagement with career exploration tasks. Perception of fewer barriers was also found to be related to a more integrated vocational identity. Implications for career counseling and future research are discussed.