The effects of career planning instruction on self-esteem, vocational identity, and career self-efficacy of ninth-grade business education students

Purpose. The purpose was to investigate the effects of career planning instruction on self-esteem, vocational identity, and career self-efficacy of ninth-grade students enrolled in business education classes.; Procedures. The study was conducted at West Junior High School during the fourth quarter of the 1993-1994 school year. The population consisted of 57 students enrolled in four sections of business education classes. Students in the experimental group received 15 sessions of career/world-of-work instruction in three sections of an Introduction to Business class. Students in the control group were enrolled in a Keyboarding Applications class and received no career planning instruction. The four sections were taught by the same business education teacher.; The analysis of covariance was used to determine whether career planning instruction was effective in promoting career development outcomes. The independent variable was career planning instruction and the dependent variables were self-esteem, vocational identity, and career self-efficacy. Grade point averages were used to control for the influence of academic achievement.; Findings. No significant differences existed between the experimental group and the control group on self-esteem, vocational identity, or career self-efficacy due to career planning instruction. However, the change in self-esteem of students receiving career/world-of-work instruction was marginally successful at the.10 level.; In addition, approximately 96% of the students reported that they had learned "a lot" in the unit of study. Fifty percent of the students indicated that they had participated in additional career exploration activities during the two weeks after the unit of instruction was completed; 85% reported that they had spent time thinking about themselves and their careers.; Conclusion. The conclusion was that instructional strategies other than those traditionally used in Introduction to Business classes may be necessary to bring about significant gains in self-esteem, vocational identity, or career self-efficacy.; Recommendations. Recommendations included the need for further research regarding the effectiveness of various career planning and exploration curriculums to promote the career development of adolescents. In addition, numerous questions were raised regarding the effects of demographic variables on the career development of junior high school students.