Saba Rasheed Ali and Kristen A. Menke
This study used social cognitive career theory (Lent, Brown, & Hackett, 1994)
to investigate the career development of 9th-grade students living in 2 rural communities
with large numbers of Latino immigrants. Participants (55.3% Latino)
responded to measures of vocational skills self-efficacy, career decision outcome
expectations, career aspirations, and barriers to postsecondary education. Contrary
to previous findings, results indicated that Latino students in these communities
reported higher self-efficacy beliefs than did White students. Latino students also
reported higher perceived barriers, but this did not seem to relate to their career
aspirations. Results suggest that school and career counselors should focus on
programming that attends to Latino students’ self-efficacy and outcome expectations,
as well as efficacy for overcoming barriers. Doing so could prove useful for
increasing career achievement among rural Latino youth