Occupational Engagement and Academic Major Satisfaction: Vocational Identity's Mediating Role

This study examined vocational identity as a mediator of the relationship between occupational engagement (i.e., participation in a breadth of activities and interactions) and academic major satisfaction. Furthermore, the authors evaluated whether satisfaction with academic major related to academic success (i.e., grade point average). The mediational model was tested in a sample of undergraduate students (N = 215). Results indicated that occupational engagement significantly predicted academic major satisfaction and that vocational identity fully mediated that relationship. These findings support occupational engagement as an important contributor to adaptive career decision making and encourage research on occupational engagement as an intervention point for career counselors.     

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.     

Leisure Behavior and Occupational Identity in University Students

This study examines relationships between leisure behavior and occupational identity in a group of 109 undergraduate students at a Midwestern state university. Significant relationships (p < .01) were found among thinking and contemplating, ethical leisure behavior, and occupational identity. University students who participated more in intellectual and creative leisure activities were more advanced in occupational identity achievement. Implications for life span career development interventions are discussed.     

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.     

Leisure, recreation, and play from a developmental context

Participation in activities and experiences defined as play, recreation,and leisure has important developmental implications for youth. Elements and characteristics of leisure experiences contribute directly to the development of identity, autonomy, competence,initiative, civic duty, and social connections. Whether in informal or formal, appropriately structured and organized programs,leisure experiences can help facilitate adolescent development in these areas. For example, one of the defining elements of leisure is that it is characterized by free choice and self-determination. Programs that promote leadership, choice, autonomy, and initiative can help adolescents deal with developmental challenges associated with this age group. Leisure experiences can also promote civic engagement and provide important peer-to-peer, peer to-adult, and peer-to-community connections. The social context of leisure is important to adolescent development in that it provides opportunities to learn empathy, loyalty, and intimacy in their group activities, as well as to negotiate with peers, resolve conflict,and work together for communal goals. In addition, adolescents often report positive emotional experiences in leisure, which can serve as a relief from the stress they feel in other areas of their lives and contribute to positive psychological adjustment and well-being. A case study is used to show how planned, purposive programs can be used as critical components of efforts to contribute to adolescent development.     

Career Certainty and Short-term Changes in Work Values During Adolescence

This study examined how career certainty, grade level, and gender relate to short-term changes in work values (Human-Personal, Non-Work, Power-Control, Money-Security) among junior high and high school students (N = 496). With scores based on multivariate ANOVAs, the high and moderate career certainty groups scored significantly higher than the low certainty group on all work values except Non-Work at time 1 (similar results were found at time 2, 6 months later). Between time 1 and 2, each work value declined slightly but significantly; for both Human-Personal and Power-Control, however, the decline over time was greater for the high certainty group than for the low certainty group. The findings suggest that during adolescence, higher career certainty reflects greater engagement in a vocational identity search and a more active consideration of work values.     

What Adolescents Learn in Organized Youth Activities: A Survey of Self‐Reported Developmental Experiences

This research inventoried adolescents' reports on different developmental and negative experiences in organized youth activities, including extracurricular and community‐based activities. High school students' experiences were assessed using a newly developed instrument, the Youth Experiences Survey (YES). These youth reported higher rates of learning experiences in youth activities than in 2 other major contexts of their lives. Youth activities were associated with experiences related to initiative, identity exploration and reflection, emotional learning, developing teamwork skills, and forming ties with community members. The findings also suggest that different youth activities offer distinct patterns of learning experiences. Service, faith‐based, community, and vocational activities were reported to be frequent contexts for experiences related to identity, prosocial norms, and links to adults. Sports were a frequent context for those related to identity work and emotional development.     

From River God to Research Grunt: Identity,Emotions, and the River Guide

Leisure identities and occupational identities are often assumed to be opposites. Drawing on two ethnographic studies, evidence is provided to illustrate how organizational contexts (or lack thereof) both interrupt and influence the social construction of identities. River running is but one activity that provides participants with opportunities to achieve a desired identity using situated emotion cues. In this study river guides are examined to highlight the negotiations they must employ as they attempt to establish a “river” identity in contexts that distinguish their work and leisure roles.     

The Benefits of Congruence

This study examined the relation between 3 aspects of congruence (vocational, leisure, and skill utilization) and 6 well-being (or strain) measures (occupational satisfaction, work satisfaction, anxiety, burnout, somatic complaints and self-esteem). The study was conducted among 120 participants (lawyers, psychologists, and physicians). Findings were that (a) correlations among the congruence aspects ranged between .24 and .36, (b) all correlations between each of the congruence aspects and each of the well-being measures were in the expected direction, and (c) all 3 congruence aspects showed an additive effect on all well-being measures. Thus, supportive evidence for the benefits of congruence in its broader meaning was found.     

Effects of Orientations to Happiness on Vocational Identity Achievement

There is an increased interest in vocational psychology and career counseling regarding the link between career development and well‐being, yet, little is known about how different ways to achieve well‐being or happiness relate to career development. This study explored the relationship between 3 orientations to happiness (meaning, pleasure, and engagement) and vocational identity achievement among 2 groups of Swiss adolescents (n = 268, 8th grade; n = 208, 11th grade). The results indicated that more orientation to meaning and engagement but not to pleasure positively related to vocational identity achievement.     

Social Cognitive Factors,Support, and Engagement: Early Adolescents’ Math Interests as Precursors to Choice of Career

The authors examined the central hypothesis that students’ early perceptions of support and sense of engagement in math classes and math activities strongly influence the broadening or narrowing of their math interest. The focus was on the first wave of qualitative data collected from 5th‐, 7th‐, and 9th‐grade students during the 2007–2008 academic year as part of a longitudinal study. Findings indicate the importance of using group work and extrinsic motivation in middle school math classes to broaden interest; peer classroom behavior was often a detractor of math interest.     

The role of ethnic identity in school engagement: perceptions of immigrant Tibetan adolescents in select US public schools

This purpose of the study was to ascertain the level of ethnic identity formation and its perceived role on school engagement for Tibetan adolescents enrolled in public schools in two Midwestern states in the USA. The journey of these students from culturally encapsulated schools from Nepal, Bhutan, and India to multiculturally diverse settings was one of the most fascinating facets of the Tibetan Diaspora. Subjects included 16 girls, 25 boys, and 2 who did not identify their gender. The multigroup ethnic identity measure was used to determine the level of ethnic identity formation of Tibetan students while a questionnaire gathered information on school engagement. The overall ethnic identity measure for this sample was high with a mean of 3.58, while the cognitive and affective aspect of the measure was also high with a mean of 3.56 and 3.74, respectively. The girls showed more emotional commitment to ethnic identity, as their mean score was 3.92, while boys scored 3.62. The results clearly corroborated findings and conclusions drawn by other scholars. School and community partnership contributed to the healthy ethnic identity development of adolescents who were thus encouraged to be more engaged in meaningful school activities.     

Vocational Identity Resources in Emerging Adulthood: Associations With Facets of Dispositional Mindfulness

The processes of career development and forming a crystallized identity can be fraught with emotional turmoil. One multidimensional construct known to reduce emotional reactivity is dispositional mindfulness (DM). We used canonical correlation analysis to examine relationships involving measures of resources for establishing a vocational identity (Hirschi, 2012a) and facets of DM in emerging adults (134 women, 38 men). Observing, describing, and nonreactivity to inner experiences contributed uniquely to the first canonical function with career agency and occupational engagement. Observing, describing, and nonjudging contributed uniquely to the second function with occupational engagement and negative career outlook. These results shed light on key facets of DM that help emerging adults to effectively utilize emotion within the context of career‐life planning. Future research should examine relationships between DM facets and additional constructs subsumed within the career resources model. Counselors may find utility in understanding how clients conceptualize conscious emotional experience and use it in career‐life planning.     

Religion,Convention, and Paternal Involvement

Family scholarship has generally overlooked the influence that religion may have on paternal involvement. Accordingly, using longitudinal data taken from the National Survey of Families and Households, I examined the influence of religious affiliation and attendance on the involvement of residential fathers in one‐on‐one activities, dinner with their families, and youth activities and found religious effects for each of these three measures. Virtually no evidence was found for a competing hypothesis that these effects are artifacts of a conventional habitus such that the type of men who are more conventional in their patterns of civic engagement are both more religious and more involved with their children. However, civic engagement is positively related to paternal involvement.     

Relationships Among Middle‐School Adolescents' Vocational Skills,Motivational Approaches,and Interests

This study examined gender differences in relationships among vocational skills, motivational approaches, and same‐gender and cross‐gender interests for urban adolescents. Results showed gender differences in interests, with males having greater Realistic interests and females having greater Artistic and Social interests, based on Holland's (1997) theory of interest types. Structural equation modeling revealed that males tended to approach the occupational world with assertiveness, the desire to create opportunities, and the use of instrumental support. Females tended to approach the occupational world by being adaptable, capitalizing on their skills and abilities, actively preparing themselves for the future, exploring options, and using emotional support. Recommendations for career development practice are provided.     

Practising family history: ‘identity’ as a category of social practice

Research on family history argues it performs the task of anchoring a sense of ‘self’ through tracing ancestral connection and cultural belonging, seeing it as a form of storied ‘identity‐work’. This paper draws on a small‐scale qualitative study to think further on the identity‐work of family history. Using practice theory, and a disaggregated notion of ‘identity’, it explores how the storying of family histories relates to genealogy as a leisure hobby, a form of historical research, and an information‐processing activity; and examines the social organization of that narrativity, where various practical engagements render certain kinds of genealogical information more, or less, ‘storyable’. Key features of ‘identity‐work’ in family history, such as the construction of genealogy as a personal journey of discovery and identification with particular ancestors, emerge as a consequence of the procedures of family history, organized as a set of practical tasks. The paper explores ‘identity‐work’ as a consequence of people's engagement in specific social practices which provide an internal logic to their actions, with various components of ‘identity’ emerging as categories of practice shaped within, and for, use. Focusing on ‘identity’ as something produced when we are engaged in doing other things, the paper examines how the practical organization of ‘doing other things’ helps produce ‘identity’ in particular ways.     

Activity Engagement in Residential Care Settings: Findings from the National Survey of Residential Care Facilities

Assisted living and similar residential care is an important source of care for elders, including those with dementia. Meaningful activities may help residents maintain function, improve self-esteem, and enhance quality of life. Using data from the 2010 National Survey of Residential Care Facilities, this study identifies the extent of resident engagement in different types of activities; examines the extent to which cognitive status, other resident characteristics, and residential care community characteristics relate to activity engagement; and, among cognitively impaired residents, assesses whether being in dementia-specific settings is associated with activity engagement. Compared with persons without cognitive impairment, those with severe cognitive impairment are less likely to go on outings (79% versus 36%) and talk with family and friends (85% versus 72%). Residents with mild to severe cognitive impairment have higher participation in leisure activities than other residents if they live in dementia-specific settings (73% higher) than those who do not.     

Work rehabilitation for migrant workers with work injury--the magic of Chinese paper cutting

As China has gradually transformed from agricultural economy into industrial economy since 1978, occupational injuries and diseases become a serious social problem in China. For occupational rehabilitation professionals, helping workers with occupational injuries and diseases, return to work and re-integrate to community are the ultimate goals of occupational rehabilitation. This article reports a new indigenous initiative with cultural notions in occupational rehabilitation piloted by Guangdong Provincial Rehabilitation Center. Case studies reflected that by learning and practicing traditional Chinese paper cutting, workers with occupational injury and disease could regain their self confidence, identity their strengths, learn more vocational skills as well as to re-integrate into community.     

Project Employ: engineering hope and breaking down barriers to homelessness

The homeless population in the US has dramatically increased in the past two decades. People who are homeless often lack skills sets such as stress management and social skills, independent living skills, and skills for vocational and leisure engagement. Best practice vocational education and training programs for individuals who are homeless recognize that success in the worker role often hinges on a person's capacity to manage day-to-day living. Life skills and pre-employment training are essential components of vocational programs but no more important than interpersonal skill development including anger management, developing self esteem and motivation, building goal setting capacity, and skills for money management, personal budgeting and self-advocacy. These areas of performance have all been traditionally included in occupational therapy's domain of practice. This article describes Project Employ, a grant funded supportive employment program that has grown out of collaboration between Duquesne University's Department of Occupational Therapy and Bethlehem Haven, an emergency shelter and residential recovery program and primary service provider for homeless people in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The purpose of this article is to describe the history, structure and outcomes of Project Employ.