Discipline: Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences
Subcategory: Social Sciences/Psychology/Economics
Katherine A. Johnson - Tennessee State University
Self-efficacy has been found to be a factor in African American career development in engineering and computer majors (Lent et al., 2015; Lent, Lopez et al., 2008). African American students are less likely to use themselves in certain occupations (DeVaney & Hughey, 2000) and have barriers, such as study skills, ethnic identity, and financial issues, to their career development (Luzzo, 1993). Supports, such as parental (Raque-Bogdan et al., 2013) and peer (Falconer & Hays, 2006), and ethnic identity (Tovak-Murray et al., 2012) have been shown to be influential in career aspiration and development. However, there is a gap in the literature focusing on African American agricultural students and these concepts. For this analysis, a control group was not appropriate for this research question. A correlational analysis was conducted between the variables of STEM self-efficacy, coping efficacy, STEM interests, technology interests, supports, barriers, and ethnic identity. Results showed 9 of 28 correlations were significant, with significant correlations ranging from .261 to .662, p < .005. Implications for practice and future research will be discussed. References: DeVaney, S.B., & Hughey, A.W. (2000). Career development of ethic minority students. In D.A. Luzzo (ed.), Career Counseling of College Students: An Empirical Guide to Strategies That Work (p. 233-252). doi:10.1037/10362-013 Falconer, J.W., & Hays, K.A. (2006). Influential factors regarding the career development of African American college students. Journal of Career Development, 32(3), 219-233. doi:10.1177/0894845305279166 Lent, R.W., Lopez Jr., A.M., 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. doi:10.1016/j.jvb.2008.01.002 Lent, R.W., Miller, M.J., Smith, P.E., Watford, B.A., Hui, K., & Lim, R.H. (2015). Social cognitive model of adjustment to engineering majors: Longitudinal test across gender and race/ethnicity. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 86, 77-85. doi:10.1016/j.jvb.2014.11.004 Luzzo, D. (1993). Ethnic differences in college students’ perceptions of barriers to career development. Journal of Multicultural Counseling & Development, 21(4), 227-236. doi:10.1002/j.2161-1912.1993.tb00233.x Raque-Bogdan, T.L., Klingaman, E.A., Martin, H.M., & Lucas, M.S. (2013). Career-related parent support and career barriers: An investigation of contextual variables. The Career Development Quarterly, 61, 339-353. doi:10.1002/j.2161-0045.2013.00060.x Tovar-Murray, D., Jenifer, E.S., Andrusyk, J., D’Angelo, R., & King, T. (2012). Racism-related stress and ethnic identity as determinants of African American college students’ career aspiration. The Career Development Quarterly, 60, 254-262.
Funder Acknowledgement(s): This study was supported in full by an NSF HBCU-UP grant awarded to Marie S. Hammond, Department of Psychology, Tennessee State University, Nashville, TN.
Faculty Advisor: Marie S. Hammond, mhammond1@tnstate.edu
Role: For this abstract, I conducted the literature review, ran the statistical analyses, and wrote the abstract.