The role of career barriers in high school students' career choice behavior in Taiwan.(Global Visions)

 
  The purpose of this study was to examine the role of career barriers 
  in social cognitive career theory (R. W. Lent, S. D. Brown, & G. 
  Hackett, 1994). The participants were 584 high school students in 
  Taiwan, Republic of China. The gender differences in perceived career 
  barriers and career self-efficacy were significant. Results of 
  hierarchical regression analyses indicated that some of the perceived 
  career barriers were significant in predicting individuals' career 
  choice behavior after controlling for career self-efficacy in certain 
  career types. 

Career counseling for high school students in Taiwan, Republic of China, is important because all the students need to declare their college majors when they apply for colleges and/or take the College Entrance Examination to get into colleges. (The College Entrance Examination is similar to the Scholastic Aptitude Test in the United States. It tests students' understanding in high school learning, including math, Chinese literature, English, natural science, and social science.) To understand factors related to their career choice behavior, empirical studies are needed to aid guidance counselors to effectively intervene to enhance students' educational status. Of the varieties of career models applied in Western culture, we believe the social cognitive career theory (SCCT) developed by Lent, Brown, and Hackett (1994) is the most appropriate one for career counseling practitioners to understand factors related to student career choice behavior.

The SCCT was developed to explain the interplay among person and contextual variables within three important phases of the career development process: the formation of academic and vocational interest, selection and pursuit of career-related choices, and performance and persistence in educational and occupational endeavors. The purpose of the current study was to test the second segment of the models, that is, the choice model. Variables related to choice behavior include person variables such as self-efficacy, outcome expectation, and interest. Contextual variables, on the other hand, are mainly perceived barriers and supports. In our study, we examined the role of contextual barriers in the choice model because recent studies have shown that social-contextual factors might facilitate or impede career development in addition to the person variables such as self-efficacy and outcome expectations (Lent et al., 2001; Richie et al., 1997).

In the past decade, the structure of the SCCT model has been tested in a variety of samples. More and more research has examined hypotheses involving social contextual variables in addition to the social cognitive variables. Lent et al. (2001) tested the model by using a sample composed of 111 college students. Findings indicated that self-efficacy and outcome expectations were jointly predictive of interests and choice intentions. Support and barrier percepts produced only weak direct relations to choice, although barrier percepts were found to moderate interest--choice relations. Lent et al. (2001) found that a model portraying barriers and supports as indirectly (via their impact on self-efficacy) linked to choice produced a better fit to the data than did a model specifying barriers and supports as directly linked to choice. In another study, Lent, Brown, Nota, and Soresi (2003) tested the predictions of the SCCT model. Findings based on 328 students in an introductory engineering course indicated good support for a model portraying contextual supports and barriers as indirectly linked to choice goals and actions through self-efficacy rather than directly as posited by SCCT.

Lent et al. (2005) further examined the utility of SCCT in predicting engineering interests and major choice goals among women and men and among students at historically Black and predominantly White universities. Findings based on a sample of 487 students in introductory engineering courses at three universities indicated that the SCCT-based model of interest and choice goals produced a good fit to the data across gender and university type. The roles of environmental supports and barriers in the choice of science and engineering fields were important. The current study examined the role of career barriers on choice behavior across the six Holland (1997) types (i.e., RIASEC: Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, and Conventional).

To test the model in other cultural settings, Lent et al. (2003) used a sample composed of 796 Italian high school students. The results indicated that self-efficacy and outcome expectations jointly predict interests. Also, interests mediate the relations of self-efficacy and outcome expectations to choice consideration. However, the specific nature of the mediation effect (i.e., full vs. partial) varied somewhat across the Holland (1997) RIASEC types. In addition, contrary to SCCT's predictions, social supports and barriers related to choice consideration mostly indirectly (through self-efficacy) rather than directly. Mani (2005) examined the supports and barriers that Sikh Indo-Canadian young women perceive in their career decision-making process to enter the applied social sciences at the university level. The results indicated that self-efficacy appraisals played an important role in moderating the participants' views of supports and barriers in their career decision-making processes.

To further understand the role of contextual and cognitive variables in career choice behavior, Flores and O'Brien (2002) tested the SCCT model with 364 Mexican American adolescent women. The results indicated that feminist attitudes and parental support predicted career aspiration. However, none of the background contextual variables in their study predicted nontraditional career self-efficacy. Caldera, Robitschek, Frame, and Pannell (2003) assessed intrapersonal, familial, and cultural factors in the process of committing to a career choice of Mexican American and non-Hispanic White college women. The results indicated that Mexican American women's commitment to a career choice was influenced more by their instrumentality and less by their expressiveness or their parents.