Stability of vocational interests after recent spinal cord injury: comparisons related to sex and race.

OBJECTIVE

To identify the stability of vocational interests first assessed during inpatient rehabilitation for spinal cord injury and again an average of 834.9 days postinjury to determine the extent to which stability of interest varies as a function of race and sex.

DESIGN

Longitudinal.

SETTING

Data were collected at a specialty hospital.

PARTICIPANTS

At enrollment, participants were a minimum of 16 years of age, were currently hospitalized for inpatient rehabilitation, were less than 6 months postinjury, had residual impairment after traumatic spinal cord injury, and were either white or black, and non-Hispanic. Participants (N=304) were assessed an average ± SD of 50±26.6 days after injury and again an average ± SD of 834.9±192.7 days postinjury (averaged 785.1 d between assessments).

INTERVENTIONS

Not applicable.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE

The Strong Interest Inventory, a 317-item vocational interests measure.

RESULTS

A repeated-measures general linear model was used with 4 groups based on a combination of race and sex. Significant cohort by time interactions were observed on 4 general occupational themes (investigative, artistic, enterprising, and conventional). In nearly all cases, black women showed decreases in average interest scores compared with the other groups. There was a clear pattern of change in the direction of greater homogeneity of interests over time as measured by the range of theme scores between cohorts based on sex and race. Although changes in mean interest profiles varied as a function of sex and race, less consistent differences were observed when stability coefficients were the measure of change.

CONCLUSIONS

The direction and degree of change in mean scores for vocational interests was related to sex and race. With the exception of black women, vocational interests increased from baseline to follow-up.