The effects of a psychoeducational intervention on rural high school freshmen's self-reported career self-efficacy

The study examined the short-term effects of a career education intervention on participants' self-reported career self-efficacy, while also considering gender, income levels, mothers' education levels, and treatment condition as potential moderators of the participants' career-self efficacy. Sited in a rural Texas community and utilizing a posttest only design, the study used the Career Decision Self-Efficacy Scale - Short Form as the posttest instrument to measure participants' self-reported career self-efficacy levels. Demographic information was obtained from the students and parents who agreed to participant in the study. A 4-way ANOVA was conducted to determine the main effect for the independent variables and the interaction effect between the independent variables that would indicate a moderating effect from any demographic variables. Results indicated that the only statistically significant variable was the treatment (intervention) itself; no other variables indicated a statistical significance, most likely due to the limited variability within the sample regarding ethnicity, mothers' education levels, and socioeconomic status. In addition, the five subscales of the posttest instrument were examined to determine practical application for the study sample. The Planning subscale was the only subscale that yielded statistical significance. Most students expressed already knowing their goals for the future, but indicated they needed assistance with planning for those goals. Based on these and additional results, implications and recommendations include working with this population to focus more efforts on planning, and future similar studies with larger samples that contain more variability to better examine the interaction between the independent variables. More importantly, a recommendation is made for future research with rural areas populations that contain little variability.