Cultural Factors, Perceived Barriers, and Asian American Career Development

2017 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 649-665 ◽  
Author(s):  
Neeta Kantamneni ◽  
Kavitha Dharmalingam ◽  
Grant Orley ◽  
Sutha K. Kanagasingam
Keyword(s):  
College Students ◽  
Career Development ◽  
Asian American ◽  
Self Efficacy ◽  
Contextual Factors ◽  
Outcome Expectations ◽  
Cultural Factors ◽  
Perceived Barriers ◽  
Efficacy Outcome ◽  
Asian American College Students

Contextual factors can play an important and influential role in the career development of Asian American students. The purpose of this study was to examine how specific cultural factors, such as ethnic identity, internalization of Asian American stereotypes, Asian values, parental influences, and perceived barriers, predicted Asian American college students’ self-efficacy, outcome expectations, and interests in occupations and academic areas in which Asian Americans are highly represented. Two social cognitive career theory models were tested in this study: the first model examined how distal and proximal contextual influences predicted self-efficacy and interests in occupations with high Asian American representation and the second model examined how distal and proximal contextual variables predicted math and science self-efficacy, outcome expectations, goals, and intentions. Three hundred and eighty-one Asian American college students participated in this study. The findings from path analyses found a strong fit for the first model, suggesting that distal and proximal contextual factors predicted self-efficacy and interests in occupations with high Asian American representation. An adequate fit was found for the second model. The findings from this study provide psychologists and counselors with a more nuanced understanding of how career decisions are made for Asian American college students.

Influence of perfectionism on career decision self-efficacy and vocational outcome expectation among Asian American college students

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Han Na Suh
Keyword(s):  
Career Development ◽  
Asian American ◽  
Self Efficacy ◽  
Development Process ◽  
Outcome Expectations ◽  
Career Decision ◽  
Asian American Students ◽  
American Students ◽  
Vocational Outcome ◽  
Maladaptive Perfectionism

[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT AUTHOR'S REQUEST.] In this study, Social Cognitive Career theory (SCCT; Lent, Brown, and Hackett, 1994; 2000) was the conceptual framework to understand Asian American students' career development process that incorporates cultural (person and contextual level). Due to the strong cultural emphasis on family obligations for achievement in academic and vocational realms, perfectionism is a salient construct among Asian American students (Chao and Tseng, 2002) and thus was included to explore its influence on Asian American students' career decision self-efficacy and vocational outcome expectations. The relationships among the study variables were explored through structural equation modeling analysis. As expected, a positive relationship between adaptive aspect of perfectionism and career variables (i.e., career decision self-efficacy and vocational outcome expectations) was found. This is in line with Asian culture in which there is the tendency to set high standards and strive to reach that standard to honor the family (Wang, 2010). Also, consistent with expectations, a negative association of maladaptive perfectionism on career decision self-efficacy and vocational outcome expectations was found. Career decision self-efficacy and vocational outcome expectations play a crucial role for successful career performance and outcomes (e.g., Gysbers, Heppner, and Johnson, 1998; Kim, 2000; Swanson and Woitke, 1997). Some studies in the past have focused on only the negative aspect of perfectionism (Blatt, 1995), limiting and invalidating its importance in certain cultures. However, considering these significant implications of career decision self-efficacy and vocational outcome expectations on career outcomes, the study's results suggest that it is important for career counselors and psychologists to intervene to increase adaptive perfectionism and lower maladaptive perfectionism. The research model was significant even after acculturation and enculturation were controlled, which was previously considered to be major constructs influencing Asian American students' career development. So the findings present a new aspect of understanding Asian American students' career development process, stressing the importance of perfectionism among this group of students. Suggestions for future research directions, clinical implications, and limitations are further provided.

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