Oliveira Íris M, Taveira Maria do Céu, Porfeli Erik J
Department of Applied Psychology, School of Psychology, University of MinhoBraga, Portugal.
College of Medicine, Family and Community Medicine, Northeast Ohio Medical UniversityRootstown, OH, USA.
Front Psychol. 2017 Apr 24;8:618. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00618. eCollection 2017.
Social Cognitive Career Theory suggests that students' preparedness for the school-to-work transition is a developmental process. Middle school children explore various careers, obtain feedback about their academic progress, and develop career self-efficacy and outcome expectations. These processes advance provisional educational/occupational goals. The literature has suggested articulations between career and academic development and how both vary across demographic characteristics, but longitudinal studies linking these processes are scarce. This study tested articulations between career preparedness and academic achievement during middle school years and employed gender and geographical location as potential moderators affecting the linkage between career and school domains. Participants included 429 children (47.8% girls) from northern (69.5%) and central Portugal (30.5%) followed across four occasions of measurement ( = 10.23, = 0.50). Data was collected with school records, the Multidimensional Scales of Perceived Self-Efficacy, Career Exploratory Outcome Expectations Scale, Childhood Career Exploration Inventory and Childhood Career Development Scale. Average and orthnormalized linear, quadratic and cubic trends were computed. Pearson correlation coefficients suggested positive and statistically significant associations between career exploratory outcome expectations and academic achievement average trends. Career planning and self-efficacy expectations were negatively associated with academic achievement quadratic trends. Multiple linear regression models suggested that career exploratory outcome expectations and career planning were respectively statistically significant predictors of the average and quadratic trends of academic achievement. Gender moderated the association between the career variables and academic achievement linear trends as well as the relation of career planning and self-efficacy with academic achievement cubic trends. Additionally, the geographical location moderated the association between the average trend of career exploratory outcome expectations and academic achievement as well as tended to moderate the relation between the career variables and academic achievement quadratic trends. Future research could seek to explore the role of context in shaping the trajectories and linkages between career and academic progress with a more representative sample of participants from a broader array of geographical locations. This study advances extant literature by affirming the longitudinal relationship between the school and work domains in youth, which might sustain practices aimed at fostering students' career preparedness and academic achievement.
社会认知职业理论表明，学生为从学校向工作过渡所做的准备是一个发展过程。中学生探索各种职业，获取有关其学业进展的反馈，并培养职业自我效能感和结果期望。这些过程推动了临时的教育/职业目标。文献提出了职业发展与学业发展之间的联系，以及两者如何因人口特征而异，但将这些过程联系起来的纵向研究很少。本研究检验了中学阶段职业准备与学业成绩之间的联系，并将性别和地理位置作为影响职业与学校领域之间联系的潜在调节因素。参与者包括来自葡萄牙北部（69.5%）和中部（30.5%）的429名儿童（47.8%为女孩），在四个测量时间点进行跟踪（=10.23，=0.50）。数据通过学校记录、自我效能感多维量表、职业探索结果期望量表、儿童职业探索量表和儿童职业发展量表收集。计算了平均和正交归一化的线性、二次和三次趋势。皮尔逊相关系数表明，职业探索结果期望与学业成绩平均趋势之间存在正相关且具有统计学意义。职业规划和自我效能期望与学业成绩二次趋势呈负相关。多元线性回归模型表明，职业探索结果期望和职业规划分别是学业成绩平均趋势和二次趋势的统计学显著预测因素。性别调节了职业变量与学业成绩线性趋势之间的关联，以及职业规划和自我效能与学业成绩三次趋势之间的关系。此外，地理位置调节了职业探索结果期望平均趋势与学业成绩之间的关联，并倾向于调节职业变量与学业成绩二次趋势之间的关系。未来的研究可以寻求以更具代表性的样本，从更广泛的地理位置探索背景在塑造职业与学业进展的轨迹和联系方面的作用。本研究通过确认青年时期学校和工作领域之间的纵向关系，推进了现有文献，这可能支持旨在培养学生职业准备和学业成绩的实践。
