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An Investigation of Background and Contextual Variables Related to Career Decision Self-Efficacy and Vocational Outcome Expectations for College Women With Learning Disabilities

xiii, 94 p. / The purpose of this study was to explore theoretically linked social cognitive factors that may predict career development outcomes for college women with learning disabilities (N = 136). Following Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT), I hypothesized that specific person inputs and background and contextual variables would be predictive of career decision self-efficacy and career outcome expectations. The specific model tested was whether the person input of GPA and contextual inputs of parent education level, perceived barriers, and perceived supports predicted career decision self-efficacy and vocational outcome expectations and whether these relationships were mediated by career education and exploration. These relationships represent early-occurring constructs within SCCT. I used Path Analysis to determine whether the experiences of college women with learning disabilities fit these early-occurring constructs within SCCT. Results demonstrated that the early-occurring constructs of the SCCT model did not fit for this population. I conducted revised and exploratory post hoc models to achieve a better fit for the data. In the revised and exploratory models, one potentially important finding was that real world work experiences, such as paid work, volunteer work, and internship experience, may be of particular importance for the formation of career decision self-efficacy and career outcome expectations for college women with learning disabilities. Implications for practice and future research are discussed. / Committee in charge: Dr. Benedict T. McWhirter, Chair;
Dr. Ellen H. McWhirter, Member;
Dr. Lauren Lindstrom, Member;
Dr. Douglas Blandy, Outside Member

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:uoregon.edu/oai:scholarsbank.uoregon.edu:1794/12024
Date09 1900
CreatorsMiesch, Jennifer Jefferson
PublisherUniversity of Oregon
Source SetsUniversity of Oregon
Languageen_US
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeThesis
Rightsrights_reserved
RelationUniversity of Oregon theses, Dept. of Counseling Psychology and Human Services, Ph. D., 2011;

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