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Developmental challenges in the transition to adulthood call for a process of empowerment that supports young people in guiding themselves and building capacities toward adult commitments and roles. The purpose of this study is to investigate empowerment in emerging adulthood, aiming to develop interventions to promote college student developmental outcomes, particularly in career exploration processes. A process of theory construction generated an innovative model of developmental empowerment in the transition to adulthood. Empowerment is conceptualized as a systemic process that emerges through the ongoing interaction between individual and relational environment. Empowerment constructs include personal agency and sense of purpose (as internal experiences), and mentoring and engagement in community (as external experiences). In the first study, a survey investigated empowering experiences in college among Virginia Tech students (N= 255). The findings support the theoretical model, confirming the salience and interdependence of the four main empowerment constructs. Preliminary evidence suggests relevant connections among the empowerment constructs and outcomes such as definition of life goals and career identity. Additionally, qualitative findings offered insights about the role of mentors and community in relation to empowerment. In its second phase, the research project narrowed the focus to study how the empowerment framework may be used to support the process of career exploration in college. The final study integrates the conceptual model and findings from the first study in a participatory design-based intervention for Virginia Tech first-year students exploring career options (N=126). A series of workshops generated an extensive data collection, yielding further investigation about empowerment, definition of life goals and career identity. Qualitative and quantitative data analysis demonstrate that the intervention improved scores for agency and purpose, besides improving student career adapting responses, major decidedness, and progress in career choice. Participants also advanced self-knowledge and purpose-driven orientation, and developed personal criteria for choice of major and career. / Doctor of Philosophy / In the transition to adulthood, young people need to learn how to make autonomous decisions, guide themselves, and build capacities to commit to adult roles and responsibilities. Deciding a career and pursuing education are good examples of tasks requiring self-knowledge and empowerment in this period. In this dissertation, we present studies about empowering settings to support development in this period of life, in particular for college students. Besides presenting a model of empowerment which includes internal processes and experiences in community, we propose a series of workshops using design techniques to empower and guide students exploring career options.

Career exploration and decision making can be a stressful experience, and is often accompanied by dysfunctional thinking regarding the world of work and one’s place in it. Individuals who are able to modify their negative career thoughts are more likely to navigate career exploration successfully. Factors which may influence a person’s ability to cope with dysfunctional thoughts include cognitive ability (IQ) and the inadequately explored construct of emotional intelligence (EI). Establishing the validity of EI by demonstrating its relationship to important outcomes is necessary. This study sought to determine the extent to which IQ and EI were associated with negative career thoughts and negative career thoughts change as a result of career exploration. This correlational study measured IQ using a standard measure and EI using an ability-based instrument. In addition, negative career thoughts were measured both before and after a career exploration program. One hundred ninety three unemployed adults between the ages of 25 and 60 participated in the study. Significant correlation relationships were found between IQ and aspects of negative career thoughts post program. Only one branch of the EI model, managing emotions, was seen to correlate significantly with all aspects of negative career thoughts, both before and after career exploration. No correlations were found between either IQ or EI with negative career thoughts change. Regression analysis indicated that IQ predicted overall negative career thoughts as well as decision-making confusion, but only after career exploration. Overall EI scores did not predict negative career thoughts. However, among the four branches of EI, managing emotions predicted negative career thoughts both before and after career exploration for all of global negative career thoughts, decision-making confusion, commitment anxiety, and external conflict. Neither IQ nor EI predicted negative career thoughts change. The results show that the ability to manage emotions is associated with reduced dysfunctional thinking both before and after career exploration, suggesting that EI managing may be a psychological resource that individuals use in coping with stress. / Industrial and Organisational Psychology / D.Litt. et Phil. (Industrial and Organisational Psychology)

Organizations that deliver programs to promote the entry of students from marginalized populations into the U.S. health workforce often struggle to demonstrate the effective achievement of outcomes, and face diminishing fiscal resources. This study was an empirical examination of the extent and manner that a statewide, precollege, health careers exploration program fostered the matriculation of underrepresented minority students into health degree education programs. Schneider and Stevenson's aligned ambitions framework provided the theoretical foundation. The research questions for this study examined the relationship between program participation and the successful health degree matriculation of racial minority students based on the extent of participation, the type of participation, and the extent and type of participation controlling for gender, profession, and region using a quantitative trend analysis of archived program data and longitudinal, preexisting matriculation data. Completion of the analysis used sequential logistic regression. The selection criteria for study included high school students who participated in the program between 2006 to 2010 and who subsequently enrolled in college (N = 246). No statistically significant relationships between program participation and matriculation into health care education programs were found resulting in the recommendation to reassess and revise data collection and analysis processes for future official program evaluation. The resulting white paper recommends that Area Health Education Consortium (AHEC) career exploration program designers create continuous and effective review and evaluation processes to ultimately enable the positive social impact of a more representative number of students from marginalized populations into the U.S. health workforce.

Career exploration and decision making can be a stressful experience, and is often accompanied by dysfunctional thinking regarding the world of work and one’s place in it. Individuals who are able to modify their negative career thoughts are more likely to navigate career exploration successfully. Factors which may influence a person’s ability to cope with dysfunctional thoughts include cognitive ability (IQ) and the inadequately explored construct of emotional intelligence (EI). Establishing the validity of EI by demonstrating its relationship to important outcomes is necessary. This study sought to determine the extent to which IQ and EI were associated with negative career thoughts and negative career thoughts change as a result of career exploration. This correlational study measured IQ using a standard measure and EI using an ability-based instrument. In addition, negative career thoughts were measured both before and after a career exploration program. One hundred ninety three unemployed adults between the ages of 25 and 60 participated in the study. Significant correlation relationships were found between IQ and aspects of negative career thoughts post program. Only one branch of the EI model, managing emotions, was seen to correlate significantly with all aspects of negative career thoughts, both before and after career exploration. No correlations were found between either IQ or EI with negative career thoughts change. Regression analysis indicated that IQ predicted overall negative career thoughts as well as decision-making confusion, but only after career exploration. Overall EI scores did not predict negative career thoughts. However, among the four branches of EI, managing emotions predicted negative career thoughts both before and after career exploration for all of global negative career thoughts, decision-making confusion, commitment anxiety, and external conflict. Neither IQ nor EI predicted negative career thoughts change. The results show that the ability to manage emotions is associated with reduced dysfunctional thinking both before and after career exploration, suggesting that EI managing may be a psychological resource that individuals use in coping with stress. / Industrial and Organisational Psychology / D.Litt. et Phil. (Industrial and Organisational Psychology)

Deficits in career decision making self-efficacy, career decidedness, and academic motivation have contributed to prolonged cycles of poverty, an increase in the number of years it takes to complete an undergraduate degree, and an upsurge in the amount of financial debt incurred. Recurrently, students are saddled with large amounts of debt for a degree that was never attained. One group heavily affected by this phenomenon is African American urban adolescents (AAUA). This quantitative study used a social cognitive career theory framework and a repeated-measures research design to examine whether a significant change in scores occurred from Time 1 to Time 2 on the Career Decision Self- Efficacy Scale—Short Form (CDSE-SF), Career Decision Scale (CDS), and Academic Motivation Scale—High School (AMS-HS). African American adolescents attending an urban high school in a midwestern state participated. Students were surveyed before and after completing the Strong Interest Inventory and participating in an educational session designed to aid them in making career and educational choices. Paired-samples t tests revealed no significant changes in scores on the CDSE-SF, CDS, or AMS-HS. However, findings from Pearson correlations suggest that career self-efficacy is largely correlated with both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. This research contributes to social change by informing urban school districts and families of the need to deliver comprehensive career exploration programming for AAUA. This programming has the potential to aid students in making educational choices that align with their expected career paths, reduce their time to completion in postsecondary programs, and increase their potential for economic stability. Assessing

The Information Age is revolutionizing the way we communicate, acquire knowledge, and perform work. Society is shifting from occupations rooted in industrial production to those associated with knowledge and information, requiring the development of new skills for changing occupations and updating old educational methods. Educators need to be aware of economic and social changes and have a vision for how to design career education to respond to those changes. Individuals must also be prepared to learn on their own as careers evolve and change. The training necessary to adapt to the changing career culture needs to be made available to everyone, regardless of social class and background. In order to learn how to help students prepare for life, it is necessary to understand their views on careers. There is a critical and acute need to understand the perceptions of students from disadvantaged backgrounds, such as Upward Bound participants (identified by the U.S. Department of Education as part of the TRIO Program for low-income and first generation college students). This study used Personal Construct Psychology (PCP) to access representations of students' thinking by means of a repertory-test grid methodology. Using the traditional constructivist repertory-test method, a custom designed instrument called the WOAR (Weingarten Occupational Awareness Rep-test) was used by students in a Utah Valley State College Upward Bound group to generate constructs for personally identified occupations. These constructs provided the data for a qualitative content analysis designed to better understand how marginalized students construct careers and the world of work. The resulting analysis reflected the students' perceptions about (a) what their life experiences were, (b) what they had in common with one another, and (c) what they had in common with the rest of the population at large, in terms of career knowledge. The findings showed that the students were influenced by people they knew such as doctors, teachers, church leaders and so on, as indicated by the career choices they identified. They were also affected by their unique experiences such as identifying drug dealing and other illegal means as a way of earning money. The collective responses identified sixteen common career themes among the students.

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Understanding the practical implications of work-based learning opportunities (WBLOs) is complex. Although WBLOs are not new learning environments, understanding and clearly defining them is increasingly necessary. In Kentucky, WBLOs are part of the political discourse in post-secondary education. The Council on Postsecondary Education (CPE) and local/regional economic and workforce development agencies have incorporated strengthening and growing WBLOs into their strategic plans. By interviewing students that have completed WBLOs at three colleges in the Kentucky Community and Technical College System (KCTCS), this study intended to explore student perspectives of WBLOs by asking the following research questions: 1) What role do WBLOs play in transmitting dominant workplace cultural capital and how has that transmission impacted student career pathway decisions? 2) What impact do WBLOs have in developing workplace expectations post-graduation? The dissertation is produced in three manuscripts, including a companion piece written in collaboration with Lauren McCrary, examining faculty perspectives of WBLOs in Kentucky. The second manuscript is an essay addressing the concept of workforce mis-alignment between the skills possessed by post-secondary graduates and the need of industry. The third manuscript is a review of the research, which was conducted to explore student perspectives of WBLOs in relation to the research questions.

This study examined social and psychological factors influencing the career exploration process of young adults. The predictor variables of this study were parental attachment, peer attachment, and self-efficacy; the outcome variables were environmental/occupational exploration, self-exploration, and career indecision. Data for this study were collected using various measures that were compiled into one survey hosted on Qualtrics. Results indicated that secure maternal attachment predicted secure peer attachment and high self-efficacy in young adults. Greater peer attachment was negatively correlated with environmental exploration. A higher level of self-efficacy was positively correlated with environmental exploration and negatively correlated with career indecision. These results imply that maternal attachment has an indirect influence on a young adult’s career exploration process.