College of Education
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Item RETIREMENT PLANNING FROM A CAREER SELF-MANAGEMENT PERSPECTIVE: A TEST OF SOCIAL COGNITIVE CAREER THEORY(2019) Penn, Lee Thomas; Lent, Robert W; Counseling and Personnel Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Although the retirement transition is a complex and multifaceted process for older workers, much of the existing research only examines retirement from a financial or “encore career” perspective (i.e., work after retirement, which represents only one of several possible retirement lifestyles). As the baby boomer generation nears retirement age, a more comprehensive understanding of retirement is needed to improve successful planning for this transition. The career self-management model of social cognitive career theory was used as the conceptual base for the current study. Based on this model, five new social cognitive measures of retirement planning (self- efficacy, outcome expectations, supports, anxiety, and decidedness) and a revised goal measure were developed and administered to 525 older workers anticipating retirement in the near future. Data from the first 200 participants in the sample were subjected to exploratory factor analysis and other analyses to estimate their reliability and validity. Data from the remaining 325 participants were then subjected to confirmatory analysis and to path analyses to predict retirement planning anxiety, decidedness, and goals. The data provided good overall fit to the career self- management model, and support was found for most, though not all, predicted paths in the model. Implications of the findings for the career self-management model, as well as for future research and practice directions, are considered.Item TESTING THE JOINT ROLES OF CAREER DECISION SELF-EFFICACY AND PERSONALITY TRAITS IN THE PREDICTION OF CAREER INDECISION(2016) Penn, Lee; Lent, Robert W; Counseling and Personnel Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Career decision-making self-efficacy and the Big Five traits of neuroticism, extraversion, and conscientiousness were examined as predictors of career indecision in a sample of 181 undergraduates. Participants completed an online survey. I predicted that the Big Five traits and career decision-making self-efficacy would (a) interrelate moderately and (b) each relate significantly and moderately to career indecision. In addition, I predicted that career decision-making self-efficacy would partially mediate the relationships between the Big Five traits and career indecision, while the Big Five traits were predicted to moderate the relationship between career decision-making self-efficacy and career indecision. Finally, I predicted that career decision-making self-efficacy would account for a greater amount of unique variance in career indecision than the Big Five traits. All predicted correlations were significant. Career decision-making self-efficacy fully mediated the relationship of Extraversion to career indecision and partially mediated the relationships of Neuroticism and Conscientiousness to career indecision. Conscientiousness was found to moderate the relationship of career decision-making self-efficacy to career indecision such that the negative relation between self-efficacy and career indecision was stronger in the presence of high conscientiousness. This study builds upon existing research on the prediction of career indecision by examining potential mediating and moderating relationships.Item Re-imagining secondary education: Voices from South African academic and vocational secondary education programs(2014) Balwanz, David; Klees, Steven; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Global discourse on secondary education and vocational skills development offers a narrative which emphasizes increased use of standardized testing; a focus on science, technology, business knowledge, and vocational skills development; and identifies expansion of access to secondary and tertiary education as a solution to poverty, inequality, and unemployment. In South Africa, academic and vocational secondary education is largely shaped by this discourse, which is grounded in the assumptions of human capital theory and privileges the perpetuation of an elite model of secondary education. Apartheid-era practices of racial segregation and racial capitalism, while legally dismantled, still have a significant influence on the political economy of modern day South Africa. This influence includes the distribution of power, resources, and opportunities articulated through South Africa's public education system. This study draws on critical social theory and political economy to understand existing constructions of academic and vocational secondary education in South Africa, including how these constructions dialectically relate education to work and society. The purpose of this study is to allow grassroots voices, teachers and learners at two schools in marginalized communities in South Africa, to "talk back to discourse" about the purpose of secondary education. How do learners and teachers define purpose? Many see secondary school as a place for students to learn about themselves and education as a means to realizing their dreams, even if their dreams are only, as yet, partially formed. This study offers a humanistic counter-narrative to the dominant discourse by sharing the dreams and holistic development interests of learners and the hopes and frustrations of teachers as they learn and work within an inhumane and narrow construction of education, work, and society.Item Job Search Behaviors of Graduating College Seniors: A Test of the Social Cognitive Model of Career Self-Management(2014) Lim, Robert Hiem; Lent, Robert W; Counseling and Personnel Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Due to a changing employment climate and structure, individuals must become more proactive in the management of their careers (Hesketh, 2001; Russell, 2001). It has become increasingly important to know how to manage career transitions, especially between periods of non-employment and employment. Lent and Brown (2013) proposed a Career Self-Management model that examines the active process of managing one's own career. The purpose of this study is to test the Career Self-Management model by examining the roles that job search support, job search self-efficacy, job search outcome expectations, job search intentions, and conscientiousness play in the prediction of job search behaviors of graduating college seniors (N = 240). The study was conducted at two time points, about three months apart, to account for temporal precedence in the prediction of job search behavior. Multiple mediating effects were tested using bootstrapping. The model accounted for 23% of the variance in the prediction of job search behavior, and only job search intention was a direct predictor of job search behavior. Job search intention was found to mediate the relationship between job search self-efficacy and job search behavior. Job search self-efficacy and job search intention also mediated the relationships of job search support and conscientious to job search behavior. Recommendations for future research and implications for counseling practice are discussedItem Elements of Employment Related Disclosure of Disability after Brain Injury(2012) Burnhill, David Asher; Fabian, Ellen; Counseling and Personnel Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Few studies have examined the elements of disclosing a disability in the workplace. Those few studies had a primary focus on reasonable accommodations (RA) where the disclosure process was either secondary or tertiary to the study. Further, there have been no studies to date which have examined elements of disclosure for individuals with brain injury (BI). Disclosure of disability is a crucial first step in the request process for a reasonable accommodation in the workplace and is required by the ADA for individuals requesting job related accommodations. This study examined the (a) experiences of work-related disability disclosure for individuals with BI, (b) the injury, demographic and other factors associated with the decision to disclose a disability at work, and (c) employment-related outcomes associated with disclosure. The primary goal of the current study is to describe the population of people with brain injury who disclose their disability in the workplace and to make inferences about the contributing factors involved in the disclosure process. The study used a cross-sectional survey methods research design. The study consisted of 200 individuals recruited from an online survey hosted on the Brain Injury Association of America's website. Of these participants, 144 (74.6%) disclosed their disability on at least one job and 91 (45%) were currently working. Level of education (X2 =11.945, 3, p=.008), self-efficacy score (F=7.52; p=.007) and time between injury and current age (F=4.56; p=.034) were significantly related to disclosure. Logistic regression analyses were used to examine the combined effects of several predictor variables with disclosure. In this analysis, only time since injury and self-efficacy (SE) scores were significant, where higher SE scores increased the odds of disclosure, and time since injury decreases the odds of disclosure (the more recent the injury, the more likely the individual was to disclose).Item AN EXPLORATORY STUDY OF A MEASURE OF VOCATIONAL IDENTITY FOR SPANISH-SPEAKING PERSONS(2012) Tosado, Luis; Gottfredson, Gary D; Counseling and Personnel Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Two overlapping issues have given rise to this study: the need for assessment instruments to use with Spanish-speaking Latinos and the need for normative data on current and future Spanish-language instruments. Numerous career assessment instruments exist for the English-speaking population. These instruments may be administered on computer-based systems or in paper and pencil format, but few instruments exist for use with the Spanish-speaking population. Holland's Vocational Identity Scale is widely used both as a screening instrument to assess the need for vocational assistance and as an outcome measure in studies of counseling effects. To examine the feasibility of using this English-language instrument with a Spanish-speaking population, a translation of the English- language instrument was prepared, internal consistency of the translated scale was scrutinized, and explorations of the construct validity of the instrument were undertaken. Norms based on a Spanish speaking sample were produced. An overarching question for this study was whether a Spanish translation of My Vocational Situation, which contains the Vocational Identity scale, would yield similar results in terms of reliability and correlations with other variables as the English-language version. The study focused on two additional questions pertaining to the translated scale: To what degree does Identity have a positive correlation with other measures of psychological adjustment? Do groups presumed to be higher in Vocational Identity (more educated persons, persons higher in age) score higher than groups presumed to be lower in vocational identity? Data were collected via the Internet. Measures included Spanish-language versions of four established instruments: My Vocational Situation, Career Decision Self-Efficacy Short Form (CDSE-SF), Hope Scale, and the Neuroticism Scale of Goldberg's International Personality Item Pool. A new experimental scale devised for the present research, Latino Barriers, was also included. Items for each measure were subjected to internal consistency item analyses. Most Spanish language scales were satisfactory based on the item analysis, but one item in the translated Neuroticism scale was deleted. Analysis of the reliability of the measures revealed that the Spanish-language version of the Vocational Identity scale had an alpha of .86 which was comparable to reliability with the English version for high school students (á = .86) and for college students and workers (á = .89) (Holland, Gottfredson, & Power, 1980). Correlations of the translated Vocational Identity scale with other instruments imply that it provides a measure of vocational adjustment with a psychological meaning similar to that of the English language Vocational Identity scale. It appears appropriate to apply the translated instrument in research and practical applications while continuing to study its psychometric properties and practical utility with Spanish speaking persons.Item The Impact of Career and Technical Education on Post-school Employment Outcomes among Youth with Disabilities(2011) Hunter, Cherise Janelle; McLaughlin, Margaret J; Special Education; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Given the college- and career-readiness national education agenda and the demands of the 21st century labor market, the purpose of this study was to describe and compare the relationship between post-school employment outcomes and the completion of a secondary education career and technical education concentration among youth with disabilities. Specifically, this study examined the labor force participation, employment, wages, and receipt of fringe benefits up to 11 years after exiting high school among youth with disabilities who completed a CTE concentration as part of their overall high school course of study. Data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 which includes a nationally representative sample of youth who attended high school in the late 1990's and beginning of the 21st century was used. A subsample of this data containing youth with disabilities was utilized and their 2006 post-school outcomes were analyzed using logistic regression and ordinary least squares regression analyses. The results suggest that youth with disabilities who complete a CTE concentration in high school have a higher likelihood of participating in the labor force, being employed, and earning higher wages up to 11 years beyond exiting high school controlling for household income, race, ethnicity, gender, location, and marital status. However, the likelihood that youth would have a job that provided fringe benefits was reduced for youth who concentrated in secondary CTE. Academic achievement, academic course-taking, and postsecondary degree attainment mitigated the effects of CTE on post-school employment outcomes. These findings emphasize the importance of CTE being utilized as a course of study option for youth with disabilities, especially for youth with disabilities who choose not to obtain a postsecondary degree. The findings also support the need for secondary CTE programs to integrate standards-based academic curricula and increase the facilitation of youth with disabilities into postsecondary education.