given behavior. Bandura3
identified four sources of information that shape self-efficacy: (1)
performance accomplishments, (2) vicarious experience, (3) verbal persuasion, and (4)
physiological and affective states.
Robert Lent4
and his associates expanded on general self-efficacy theory to develop a Social
Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT), a “conceptual framework aimed at understanding the
processes through which people develop educational/vocational interests, make career-relevant
choices, and achieve performances of varying quality in their educational and occupational
pursuits” (p. 62). In addition to highlighting cognitive-person variables, such as self-efficacy,
SCCT emphasizes the role of other personal, contextual, and learning variables (e.g., gender,
race or ethnicity, ability, social support, external barriers) that can help shape career trajectories,
including the means to remediate any disadvantages from being under-represented in particular
occupations.5
SCCT theory has also made an impact on models attempting to explain the withdrawal of students
from undergraduate education. Early theories of student persistence stressed the importance of
academic performance and student-institution match, referring to the degree to which the student has
been involved and integrated into the collegiate experience especially during the first year.6 7 8 9
SCCT has more completely explained persistence rates by focusing on cognitive-person variables,
such as self-efficacy, that can enable students to exercise personal agency in their career endeavors.
What is especially important about these variables is that they can be assessed and their conditions
altered in order to enhance students’ perceived consequences of succeeding in college.10 In
particular, consistent with SCCT theory, recent studies have found that enhanced self-efficacy and
social support during the collegiate experience can lead to improved adjustment and academic
performance, which, in turn, shape overall satisfaction and commitment to remain in school.11 12 13
While this study’s pathways model (Figure 1) bears some resemblance to Lent’s theoretical SCCT
model,14 he and his colleagues use outcome expectations and interests as additional cognitiveperson
variables.15 This study concentrates on support and self-efficacy constructs, especially
since the latter are believed to be the most central and pervasive mechanism of personal agency.16
Subsequent analyses will focus on the effects of these variables on retention.
Other than Lent’s work on contextual factors, there has been some modest research on
counseling interventions that may lead to increased self-efficacy. In theoretical papers, Betz17
and Brown and Lent18 discussed ways that counselors could increase the self-efficacy beliefs of
their clients, such as by structuring successful performance experiences, finding successful role
models, providing techniques for anxiety management, offering encouragement and support,
encouraging data gathering that might counteract detrimental self-efficacy beliefs, and helping
process efficacy-relevant data. At the secondary school level,19 a three-day problem-based camp
experience was found to increase students’ self-efficacy for specific tasks as well as general selfefficacy.
At the college level, Hutchison, Follman, Sumpter, & Bodner20 more recently reported
a relationship between academic and advisory support and female students’ academic selfefficacy.
Focusing in particular on cooperative education, a pilot study21 was performed by the
University of Wyoming’s and Northeastern University’s Colleges of Engineering to discriminate
the effect of co-op versus other competing measures on self-efficacy. Cooperative education was
found to significantly predict change in work self-efficacy. Prior academic achievement was