Latent profile analysis: A review and “how to” guide of its application within vocational behavior research

“Yes, I Can”: Testing an Intervention to Increase Middle School Students’ College and Career Self-Efficacy

Effects of a Career Course on Chinese High School Students' Career Decision-Making Readiness

Qualitative career assessment: A review and reconsideration

Social Cognitive Career Theory suggests that students' preparedness for the school-to-work transition is a developmental process. Middle school children explore various careers, obtain feedback about their academic progress, and develop career self-efficacy and outcome expectations. These processes advance provisional educational/occupational goals. The literature has suggested articulations between career and academic development and how both vary across demographic characteristics, but longitudinal studies linking these processes are scarce. This study tested articulations between career preparedness and academic achievement during middle school years and employed gender and geographical location as potential moderators affecting the linkage between career and school domains. Participants included 429 children (47.8% girls) from northern (69.5%) and central Portugal (30.5%) followed across four occasions of measurement (MageWave1 = 10.23, SD = 0.50). Data was collected with school records, the Multidimensional Scales of Perceived Self-Efficacy, Career Exploratory Outcome Expectations Scale, Childhood Career Exploration Inventory and Childhood Career Development Scale. Average and orthnormalized linear, quadratic and cubic trends were computed. Pearson correlation coefficients suggested positive and statistically significant associations between career exploratory outcome expectations and academic achievement average trends. Career planning and self-efficacy expectations were negatively associated with academic achievement quadratic trends. Multiple linear regression models suggested that career exploratory outcome expectations and career planning were respectively statistically significant predictors of the average and quadratic trends of academic achievement. Gender moderated the association between the career variables and academic achievement linear trends as well as the relation of career planning and self-efficacy with academic achievement cubic trends. Additionally, the geographical location moderated the association between the average trend of career exploratory outcome expectations and academic achievement as well as tended to moderate the relation between the career variables and academic achievement quadratic trends. Future research could seek to explore the role of context in shaping the trajectories and linkages between career and academic progress with a more representative sample of participants from a broader array of geographical locations. This study advances extant literature by affirming the longitudinal relationship between the school and work domains in youth, which might sustain practices aimed at fostering students' career preparedness and academic achievement.

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Career Preparedness and School Achievement of Portuguese Children: Longitudinal Trend Articulations.

Using longitudinal survey data, the present study examined the effect of participation on career development skills in 6 career education experiences and school success among South Korean adolescents (2,473 young men, 2,132 young women; mean age = 15.86 years). Regression analyses indicated that students who participated in career education programs in school once or twice over a 2-year period had the highest scores in both career development skills and school success. In contrast, there was no relationship between career education, career development skills, and school success for students who participated in career education programs only once or not at all. Results support the influence of career education interventions on students' career development skills and school success. This study provides accountability information on the effectiveness of career education interventions at South Korean secondary schools. The authors offer suggestions about more effective career interventions that can be applied in South Korean high schools.Keywords: career education interventions, career development skills, school successCareer preparation and meeting academic goals are important tasks for adolescents that influence their future social adaptation and well-being (Akos & Niles, 2007). According to life-span, life-space theory, the ability to resolve career issues is developed throughout the life span, and the theory postulates that one is better prepared for transition to the next developmental stage after accomplishing the tasks of the previous stage (Super, Savickas, & Super, 1996). Adolescents must explore future career options and implement career plans based on their interests, aptitudes, and values. Therefore, the main goal of school counseling is to help high school students understand the connection between their academic achievements and potential careers. To foster adolescent career and academic development, career counseling is increasingly necessary for South Korean high school students because of the historical focus on rigorous preparation for college entrance exams and adolescents' skewed preferences for certain jobs (e.g., teachers, civil servants, and medical doctors), which are highly regarded in South Korea and considered lifetime careers (B. Kim, 2009). Because South Korea has few natural resources, more emphasis is placed on human resource development. However, this emphasis has increased the competition for entrance into the best universities and more popular majors and created the current phenomenon wherein high school students study with the sole goal of doing well on college entrance exams at the expense of their career development (Kang & Lee, 2009; B. Kim, 2009).South Korean adolescents' education fever, a nearly universal preoccupation with schooling (Seth, 2002), is an important feature of the indigenous psychology of future aspirations in South Korea (Y. Park, Kim, & Tak, 2005). Indeed, academic success, which parents, teachers, and entire social groups commonly pursue in Korean society (U. Kim, 2001), is one of the most significant determining factors of one's future career. The education fever of South Korean parents and adolescents might have been a driving force behind the economic growth in South Korea, but it has also caused pronounced academic pressure and immature career awareness in South Korean adolescents (H. Kim, Cho, & Kim, 2010). In fact, a survey of students at several universities reported that of all the issues that trouble freshman, career issues rank the highest (Seoul National University, 2010). Further evidence has suggested that graduating seniors have trouble coping with the transition from school to work (Jun, Yang, Hwang, & Lee, 2011). Therefore, appropriate career intervention and counseling for high school students is urgently needed in South Korea.The Korean Ministry of Education (2010) is currently placing more emphasis on career interventions within the school counseling system to improve students' creative career awareness than it has at any other time since counseling was introduced in the schools. …

Sunkyung Kim

Papers

Career Development and School Success in Adolescents: The Role of Career Interventions