| This study was designed to explore the differences in the career decision-making process for college students participating in cooperative education. Specifically, this study examined career decision-making using three measures reported in the literature as important to facilitating the career decision-making process: career indecision, career decision-making self-efficacy and the Rational career decision-making style.; A total of 400 subjects were surveyed at two southern universities, hosting accredited traditional alternating co-op programs. Subjects were administered the Career Decision Scale (Osipow, et al., 1980), the Career Decision-making Self-efficacy Scale (Taylor & Betz, 1994), the Assessment of Career Decision Making (Buck & Daniels, 1985), and the Rotter Internal-External Locus of Control (Lefcourt, 1982). Of those surveyed, data for 322 subjects were utilized in the main analysis. A Multivariate Analysis of Covariance was conducted with the Rotter Internal-External Locus of Control serving as a covariate. A significant group main effect was found between co-op participants and non-participants; and a closer examination of the data revealed that the difference between the two groups was primarily contributed to by differences along only two of the three measures-career decision-making self-efficacy and career indecision. The univariate data did not indicate that the Rational style of career decision-making contributed significantly to the differences between the co-op participants and the non-participants.; Suggestions for future research indicate the need for the design of studies on cooperative education to include a pre-test measure. By including a pre-test in the design, researcher could better assess the differences found between participants and non-participants. Subsequent research could also benefit from the replication of the research designs in future studies. By doing so, researchers might yield data to support the findings across co-op programs. Results found in this study, however, offer support to a relationship between cooperative education and career decision-making, although further research would provide the much-needed information to fully assess the linkage between the two. |
