Assessing the interest of African American students in the field of Accounting

African Americans make up a very small number of certified public accountants in the United States, despite efforts by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) and the National Association of Black Accountants (NABA) to increase numbers. The AICPA has determined that approximately 4% of American CPAs are African American. Guided by the social cognitive career theory, this study determined if there was a direct link between the interest of African American students in accounting, the number of African American accounting instructors in the college classroom, and the overall knowledge of African American students about the accounting discipline. A survey research approach utilizing a stratified random sample approach was employed in this study. Participants in the study were African American professionals with undergraduate degrees in accounting who met requirements to sit for the CPA exam, but had not taken the exam. Participants also included African American CPAs, accounting faculty at historically black colleges and universities, and students majoring in business administration. Due to lack of response from accounting professors and professionals, students are the majority of the population (N = 16). An ANOVA was used to test for a statistical relationship between self-efficacy, fear of the CPA exam, competition for jobs, the 150 hour rule and the number of African Americans majoring in accounting. Results indicated no significant differences between the mean scores of self-efficacy, fear of the CPA exam, competition for jobs, the 150 hour rule and the number of African American students majoring in accounting. This study contributes to social change by informing college advisors and high school guidance counselors that self-efficacy is not a key factor of African American students choosing accounting as a career option.