Career course impact on adolescents' levels of career decision self-efficacy, hope, and self-esteem

Research indicates that during the adolescent years, career choices are major concerns for student contemplation. Many adolescents are graduating from high school without knowing what careers they wish to pursue. The purpose of this dissertation was to evaluate if activities implemented in a career course could potentially increase students' confidence in making career decisions, hope about their future goals, and improve their self-esteem. Eighty high school students participated in this study (37 in the treatment group and 43 in the control group). Participants were given the Career Decision Self-Efficacy Scale -- Short Form, the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, and the Hope scale. These three psychometric scales were administered in a pretest, and ten weeks later a posttest. The quantitative study utilized a nonequivalent group, quasi-experimental design, and the data was analyzed with descriptive statistics, chi-square test of homogeneity, and repeated measures ANOVA. Findings indicated significant main effect differences for career decision self-efficacy in the pretest ( M = 94.91, SD = 12.10) and posttest scores ( M = 100.56, SD = 13.18), F(1, 78) = 20.67, p < .001, as well as significant interaction effects between the pretest and posttests and the treatment and control groups F(1, 78) = 20.81, p < .001, indicating that there were differences based on the treatment and control groups in their confidence levels with making career decisions. No significant main effects or interactions were found for hope and self-esteem. The results indicate that the career course influenced career decision self-efficacy in the treatment group, however, not hope and self-esteem on either groups. The findings support the idea that Social Cognitive Career Theory is an effective model which has components that can be translated to bolster students' confidence in making career decisions and raise hope and esteem levels. Future research recommendations include implementation of a 16-week format, and addition of supplemental activities. Furthermore, a mixed method analysis may be used which includes a follow-up measure to determine the durability of the impact of the class.