An examination of the effects of supports, barriers, coping efficacy, and acculturation on the math self-efficacy, outcome expectations, math interest, and choice intentions of African American college students

This study examined and extended the Social Cognitive Career Theory (R. W. Lent, S. D. Brown, & G. Hackett, 1994), contextual factors (R. W. Lent, S. D. Brown, & G. Hackett, 2000), and acculturation (H. Landrine, & E. A. Klonoff, 1994) to the math interest and choice intentions of African Americans. The participants were 164 traditional and non-traditional African American college students who were enrolled in a psychology course in a predominantly African American, Midwestern university. By using a cluster analysis, the data was separated into two acculturation groups, traditional and mainstream. Path analytic and correlation results offered a good overall fit to the data of students' math interest and choice intentions. Math self-efficacy and outcome expectations predicted math interest, and math interest predicted choice intentions across acculturation levels. Contextual barriers, supports, and coping efficacy were examined with results yielding notable within group differences among the acculturation groups. For the traditional acculturated African American group, contextual supports and coping efficacy directly influenced math self-efficacy beliefs and math interest, and affected the other social cognitive variables through these variables. With the mainstream acculturated group, these factors only directly affected math self-efficacy beliefs, and through this influenced affected the other social cognitive variables. African American acculturation generally yielded tentative relations to the social cognitive variables and other outcome criteria. Implications for practice and further research on African American students' academic and career development are presented. Results support the R. W. Lent, S. D. Brown, & G. Hackett's SCOT model's application to this African American population.