Vocational skills and outcomes among Native American adolescents: a test of the Integrative Contextual Model of Career Development.

This study tested hypotheses of the Integrative Contextual Model of Career Development (R. T. Lapan, 2004a) by investigating the multivariate effects of 6 interrelated career development skills (career exploration, person-environment fit, goal setting, social/prosocial/work readiness, self-regulated learning, and the utilization of social support) on 6 intermediate vocational outcomes (academic achievement, self-efficacy expectations, positive self-attributions, vocational interests, vocational identity, and proactivity) among Native American adolescents. Results showed that individual and shared variance among the skills positively predicted 79% of variance in 5 of the 6 outcomes. Results suggest that each of the skills contributes substantially and in combination to Native American adolescents' career development.

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Researchers have continued to show "a remarkable disparity in vocational achievement" (Juntunen et al., 2001, p. 274) of Native Americans relative to other ethnic groups. Among Native Americans, the unemployment rate is 2 to 3 times the rate of Caucasian Americans (U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2002). Among Native Americans living on reservations, the unemployment rate is 5 times greater than in the general population (Bureau of Indian Affairs, 2002). Native Americans are classified as members of the working poor at 2 to 3 times the rate of Caucasian Americans and are overrepresented in service, labor, and semiskilled jobs and underrepresented in higher paid technical and managerial jobs (Bureau of Indian Affairs, 1997).

Limited access to full employment is also reflected in the statistics regarding education. The educational system is failing to prepare many Native American young people to enter the labor market. For example, a significant achievement gap exists between Native American young people and "native born, white students" (Berlak, 2004, p. 227). Among Native American adolescents, high school graduation rates are astoundingly low, approaching 50% in some areas of the country (Reyhner, 2002). Moreover, despite evidence of academic ability, Native Americans drop out of postsecondary institutions at a higher rate than do members of any other ethnic group (Reddy, 1993). Supporting the educational and career development of Native American young people has become critical, not only for the economic stability of their communities but also for their personal stability.

There is limited research on the career development of Native Americans. The extant literature suggests that Native Americans conceptualize careers similarly to the way that Caucasian Americans and African Americans do (when examined using the Holland, 1985, theme rubric; Day & Rounds, 1998; Day, Rounds, & Swaney, 1998; Hansen, Scullard, & Haviland, 2000). However, Native American adolescents report career interest patterns that are dissimilar to those of adolescents from other ethnic groups. For example, Native American adolescents from rural, small town, and metropolitan areas report greater interests in Realistic and Conventional careers than do Caucasian American adolescents (Turner & Lapan, 2003b), and Native American inner-city adolescents report greater interests in protective services, working outdoors, professional arts, and social service careers than do inner-city Caucasian American adolescents (Turner & Lapan, 2003a). Native American adolescents also report less career self-efficacy than do Hispanic/Latino and Caucasian American adolescents (Lauver & Jones, 1991), and Native American adolescent girls report lower self-efficacy related to their futures than do African American, Hispanic, or Caucasian American girls (Amick, 1999).

In earlier studies, Native American adolescents reported greater occupational aspirations than expectations (Ludwig, 1984). In addition, when compared with non-Native adolescents, Native Americans reported significantly less confidence in their vocational skills (Jerde, as cited in Krebs, Hurlburt, & Schwartz, 1988) and lower self-estimated abilities for Investigative, Social, and Enterprising careers (Krebs et al., 1988). Although these studies have not been replicated, it is clear that differences in the way Native American adolescents approach the world of work demonstrate that they constitute a distinct population with unique career development needs.

Meeting the ongoing career development needs of Native American adolescents must include the recognition that full employment in this changing labor market (characterized by globalization, outsourcing, downsizing, and elastic corporations) demands a set of career development skills that facilitate workers' flexibility, resiliency, and proactivity. Ongoing changes in the labor market provide additional career opportunities; however, workers who have less than adequate education or less access to a full range of careers tend to be further disadvantaged as the better paying, lower end jobs disappear (Fullerton, 1999).

To help the entering workforce take advantage of emerging opportunities, innovative models of career development counseling are being constructed and explored. One such model is the Integrative Contextual Model of Career Development (ICM; Lapan, 2004a), which hypothesizes how young people develop a more adaptive, resilient, and proactive approach to their present situations and possible career futures (Savickas, 1997). ICM, which is based on sound vocational theories and empirical research, states that youth are more likely to develop such an approach if they can achieve six separate, but interrelated, vocational outcomes: (a) academic achievement, (b) positive self-efficacy expectations (Bandura, 1997), (c) positive self-attributional styles (i.e., confidence that one's own skills, abilities, and efforts will determine the bulk of one's life experiences; Bandura, 1997), (d) vocational identity (i.e., a clear, stable picture of one's interests, personality, and talents; Flum & Blustein, 2000), (e) the crystallization of personally valued vocational interests (Strong, 1927), and (f) the proactive pursuit of one's life goals and ambitions (Markus & Nurius, 1986). These outcomes are independent, but related, constructs that together are hypothesized to form the basis of a lifetime of career success.

According to ICM, these six outcomes are supported by the development of six vocational skills. These skills are (a) career exploration skills (Flum & Blustein, 2000); (b) person-environment fit skills (i.e., understanding how one's own interests, skills, values, and abilities relate to various occupations in the world of work; Parsons, 1909); (c) goal-setting skills; (d) social, prosocial, and work readiness skills (Bloch, 1996); (e) self-regulated learning skills (i.e., a set of learning strategies designed to maximize one's educational and vocational opportunities; Lapan, Kardash, & Turner, 2002); and (f) the consistent utilization of social support (in the case of younger adolescents, parents' support; Turner & Lapan, 2002). Each of these skills is related integratively and contextually so that they together exert multivariate effects on vocational outcomes.

In previous research, the skills identified by ICM have been shown to be individually related to the ICM outcomes. Career exploration has been related to self-efficacy, vocational interests (Turner & Lapan, 2002), positive self-attributions (Luzzo, James, & Luna, 1996), and vocational identity (Vondracek & Skorikov, 1997). Person-environment fit has been related to academic performance and achievement (Henry, 1989), career search and decision-making self-efficacy, and the development of vocational interests (Arbona, 2000; Srsic & Walsh, 2001). Self-regulated learning has been positively associated with academic performance and with educational and occupational goals and aspirations (Pintrich & de Groot, 1990). Social support, mediated through parent support, has been related to self-efficacy and vocational interests (Turner & Lapan, 2002).

Although these studies have shown independent relationships between identified ICM skills and outcomes, no studies to date have examined how the ICM skills in combination relate to the ICM outcomes. Understanding the combined effects of ICM skills on ICM outcomes is especially important for Native American adolescents who, as stated previously, experience multiple disadvantages related to their career development (e.g., lower academic achievement, less career self-efficacy, lower self-estimated abilities, and less confidence in their vocational skills). Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate the predictive validity of the ICM by examining relationships between the combined skills and the interrelated vocational outcomes among Native American adolescents.

We hypothesized that the combined ICM skills would be highly predictive of the interrelated ICM outcomes (Hypothesis 1) and that the nature and overall strength of relationships between these skills and outcomes would support the multivariate effects of the composite skills on the composite outcomes (Hypothesis 2). To test these hypotheses, we used canonical correlation analysis, which is a statistical technique used to model many-to-many relationships.

Method

Participants

Our sample consisted of 183 Native American middle school students (M = 13.1 years, SD = 1.3) from two schools in a metropolitan area of greater than 2 million residents in a midwestern state. Of these participants, 51.9% (n = 95) were boys, and 48.1% (n = 88) were girls. Participants were recruited by their classroom teachers from social studies classes. No research incentives were provided. All students recruited chose to participate.

To control for Type I error, Tabachnick and Fidell (1996) suggested a sample size of 10 cases for each variable represented in the independent and dependent canonical variates for each root that will be interpreted. In this study, there were 12 variables. Thus, we judged that our sample size was sufficient for our analyses.

Measures

Academic achievement. Academic achievement was measured using the mean of participants' self-reported math, science, and language arts grades. These grades were coded on a 5-point scale (A = 4 to F = 0). As shown in Table 1, the mean academic achievement score for this sample was 2.51 (SD = .93). These scores were representative of the grades in these subjects across the two schools from which the sample was drawn.

Mapping Vocational Challenges (MVC; Lapan & Turner, 1997). The MVC was used to measure Vocational Self-Efficacy and social support via Parent Support for pursuing one's career interests. This instrument consists of 90 occupations (e.g., mechanic, psychologist) that are presented in a sequential format. The occupations are evenly distributed across the Holland themes (15 representing each theme) and across educational levels (45 representing 2-year careers and 45 representing 4-year careers).

As each occupation is presented, participants rate it for efficacy and parent support on dichotomous scales (0 = no efficacy for pursuing this occupation, 1 = efficacy for pursuing this occupation; 0 = no parent support for pursuing this occupation, 1 = parent support for pursuing this occupation). Vocational Self-Efficacy and Parent Support, as measured by the MVC, have been positively associated with career planning and exploration self-efficacy, educational and vocational development self-efficacy, and career interests in nontraditional careers (Turner & Lapan, 2002). Although the MVC scales can be scored in various ways, for the purposes of this current research, the magnitude of efficacy and parent support was determined by taking the mean of the scale scores across all of the 90 careers rated by the participants. Reliabilities for the Vocational Self-Efficacy and Parent Support scales in the original norming sample were .97 and .99, respectively. As reported in Table 1, reliability estimates in this current sample were .95 and .70 respectively. Means, standard deviations, Cronbach's alphas, skewness, and kurtosis for these scales are also reported in Table 1.

The Structured Career Development Inventory (SCDI; Lapan, 2004b). The SCDI is a 52-item scale used to measure five of the vocational skills (Career Exploration, Person-Environment Fit, Goal Setting, Social/Prosocial/Work Readiness Skills, Self-Regulated Learning) and four of the vocational outcomes (Positive Self-Attributions, Vocational Identity, Vocational Interests, Proactivity). Items are scored on a 5-point Likert scale (0 = strongly disagree to 4 = strongly agree). Social/Prosocial/Work Readiness Skills, as measured by the SCDI, have been negatively related to lack of peer support. Proactivity, Self-Regulated Learning, Social/Prosocial/Work Readiness Skills, and Career Exploration have been positively related to readiness to transition into high school and negatively related to magnitude of perceived barriers to successfully reach educational and vocational goals (Turner, in press).

Sample questions for the SCDI scales are as follows: Career Exploration (7 items; "I have participated in career exploration activities"), Person-Environment Fit (8 items; "I understand how my skills relate to the world of work"), Goal Setting (4 items; "Setting goals helps me identify the steps I need to reach those goals"), Social/Prosocial/Work Readiness Skills (6 items; "I get along well with people who have authority over me"), Self-Regulated Learning (7 items; "My grade point average is where I need it to be to reach my career goals"), Positive Self-Attributions (6 items; "Most of the good things that happen to me come from my own effort"), Vocational Identity (4 items; "My work goals are well-defined"), Vocational Interests (4 items; "I am interested in working with people in my future career"), and Proactivity (6 items; "I take advantage of opportunities to achieve my career goals"). Interrater reliability estimates for the SCDI scales were strong (i.e., intraclass correlation coefficients > .80 for each scale). Means, standard deviations, Cronbach's alphas, skewness, and kurtosis for these scales are reported in Table 1.

Results

We hypothesized that the combined ICM skills would be highly predictive of the interrelated ICM outcomes (Hypothesis 1) and that the nature and overall strength of relationships between these skills and outcomes would support the multivariate effects of the composite skills on the composite outcomes (Hypothesis 2). Prior to testing our hypotheses, we examined the sets of independent and dependent variables for multicollinearity (defined as r > .90). As shown in Table 1, the vocational skills were interrelated and the vocational outcomes were interrelated, but neither set of skills or outcomes was multicollinear.

To test our hypotheses, we conducted a canonical correlational analysis, which is a series of correlations between independent and dependent canonical variates. Each independent canonical variate is a linear combination of conceptually related independent variables (in this case the interrelated skills), and each dependent canonical variate is a linear combination of conceptually related dependent variables (in this case the interrelated outcomes). Each pair of variates, which are correlated in the canonical correlation, is termed a characteristic root. In this case, because we were testing all relationships predicted by the ICM, we made an a priori decision to examine only the first characteristic root, which extracts a pair of variates representing the maximum amount of variance derivable from the data.

To interpret this root, Tabachnick and Fidell (1996) recommended assessing the percentage of variance in the dependent variate explained by the independent variate along a given dimension and assessing variance shared between the original variables and the variates on which they load (by examining the structure correlation coefficients, which is analogous to interpreting factor loadings in factor analysis; Levine, 1977). The loadings on these pairs of variates are then interpreted together in order to understand the dimensions by which the variates are related. For this current analysis, we used each of these methods of interpretation.

Results of our analyses partially supported our hypotheses. Canonical correlation yielded six characteristic roots. The first root was significant at the p < .001 level. For this root, Wilks's lambda test of multivariate significance indicated that the independent canonical variate accounted for 79% of the total variance explained in the dependent canonical variate ([LAMBDA] = 12.81, eigenvalue = 3.78; [R.sub.c] = .889).

Table 2 presents the canonical loadings (structure correlation coefficients) for the predictor and criterion variable sets, which describe the correlations between the original variables and the canonical variates on which they load. A criterion of .30 was used as the critical value to determine the significance of these loadings (Levine, 1977). These coefficients indicated that the first root was primarily characterized by positive loadings of (a) each of the skills (ranging from .43 to .92) on the independent variate and (b) five of the outcomes (ranging from .41 to .93) on the dependent variate. Follow-up regression analyses indicated that 61.4% of the variance in self-efficacy, 27% of the variance in positive self-attributions, 54% of the variance in vocational identity, 37% of the variance in vocational interests, 24% of the variance in academic achievement, and 71% of the variance in proactivity were accounted for by the interrelated skills identified in the ICM.

Discussion

The ICM has as its hypothesis that in order for young people to be better prepared for the world of work, they should achieve six separate, but interrelated, intermediate vocational outcomes through the development of six vocationally related skills. Each of these skills is important, in that each contributes substantially and in combination to the hypothesized outcomes. The purpose of this study was to ascertain the predictive validity of the ICM among Native American adolescents.

Results partially supported our hypotheses. The first characteristic root was associated with a pattern of positive relationships between all of the combined skills and five of the interrelated outcomes. Thus, the variate that was composed of the six ICM skills predicted 79% of the variance in the variate that was composed of five of the six ICM outcomes. These results suggest that each of the skills identified in the ICM (i.e., career exploration; understanding how one's own interests, skills, values, and abilities relate to various occupations in the world of work [person-environment fit]; learning to set goals; learning social, prosocial, and work readiness skills; self-regulated learning; and utilizing social support) is important individually and collectively in developing Native American adolescents' educational and vocational self-efficacy, identity, and interests as well as their positive attributions and proactivity. Only academic achievement, as measured by math, science, and language arts grades, was not predicted.

The results of our study suggest that career counselors who work with Native American young people should specifically attend to teaching them each of the skills identified in the ICM. Career exploration, person-environment fit, and goal-setting skills can be taught through providing opportunities for Native American young people to understand their own goals, interests, personalities, and talents and to gather information about the world of work through computer-assisted and print materials. We recommend that counselors use instruments that have been validated on Native American populations, such as the Self-Directed Search (SDS; Gade, Fuqua, & Hurlburt, 1984). This instrument can be particularly effective in that it allows young people to explore their interests in specific activities, their competencies, their occupational preferences, and their self-estimated abilities across the six Holland themes. The SDS can also be used to provide adolescents with information about occupations that are congruent with their Holland personality types. Counselors can then help Native American adolescents do further exploration about careers they have identified as congruent and set educational and vocational goals based on their exploration of self and the environment. This career exploration can be made more culturally relevant by providing job shadowing experiences with Native American workers and business owners.

Person-environment fit skills can be developed by helping Native American adolescents understand the challenges they may face as they endeavor to complete high school and post-high school training and enter into the world of work (Turner, in press). For example, researchers have shown clear links between Native American inner-city adolescents' self-perceptions of control and independence and their perceived lack of academic preparation (Turner, in press). More research needs to be conducted on these relationships, but evidence from studies of other groups of young people suggests that work-based service learning experiences, internships, and part-time work can assist Native American young people in understanding how their skills and values can promote their successful functioning in various work environments (Lapan, Tucker, Kim, & Kosciulek, 2003).

Social, prosocial, and work readiness skills can be taught within the context of learning to use parents' and others' support. For example, Native American adolescents can continue to learn the social skills of how to ask for help in positive ways and of being willing to receive help from parents, peers, teachers, and counselors. Self-regulated learning skills can be taught by helping Native American young people set achievement goals, monitor academic performance, develop study skills, and learn library- and literature-research skills. Both developing social skills and self-regulated learning skills can be tailored specifically to Native American adolescents by developing community-career partnerships with members of the Native American community (Lapan, Osana, Tucker, & Kosciulek, 2002). For example, Native American adolescents can be taught to develop social and self-regulated learning skills by using elders and other Native American community members to model social skills, participate in social skills groups, and help Native American adolescents develop study and library skills.

Our study has several limitations. The first is that although our results can be generalized to Native American adolescents who reside in urban areas, they cannot be generalized to Native American adolescents who reside in rural areas, nor can they be generalized to adolescents from other ethnic groups. Therefore, we suggest that this study be replicated with other populations of adolescents. The second limitation is that although canonical correlation is designed to predict individual and shared variance in the independent and dependent canonical variates, this research design was nonexperimental; therefore, causality cannot be assumed from our results. The third limitation is that the ICM was only partially tested. Further research needs to be conducted to ascertain relationships between the ICM skills and other indicators of vocational development, such as high school completion, college entry, and vocational attainment and satisfaction. The fourth limitation is that the lack of association between the ICM predictors and academic achievement may be due to confounds associated with grading. However, we suggest that for Native American young people, other factors, such as access to culturally relevant teaching and access to technology, could account for a greater percentage of variance in this variable. We therefore suggest that further research be conducted in this area.

Now, more than ever, it is imperative that all adolescents be prepared to make successful career transitions into the adult world. The career development skills learned in adolescence can put young people in a more advantageous position to create and re-create satisfying life structures across their life spans. Helping Native American adolescents learn the skills identified in the ICM can lead to vocational outcomes that could help them capitalize on an array of educational, training, and work opportunities leading to more successful economic participation in our ever-changing global society.

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Sherri L. Turner, Michelle J. Trotter, Katherine A. Czajka, Pahoua Yang, and Annette E. A. Brissett, Department of Educational Psychology, Counseling and Student Personnel Psychology, University of Minnesota; Richard T. Lapan, Department of Educational, School, and Counseling Psychology, University of Missouri-Columbia. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Sherri L. Turner, Counseling and Student Personnel Psychology, University of Minnesota, 139A Burton Hall, 178 Pillsbury Drive SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455 (e-mail: [e-mail]).

TABLE 1 Means, Standard Deviations, Cronbach's Alphas, and Correlations
of the Skills and Outcomes Identified in the Integrated Contextual Model
of Career Development

Item               M     SD    [alpha]  Sk     Ku     1

 1. Exploration    1.33  0.42  .88      -0.68  -0.32   --
 2. P/E Fit        1.24  0.44  .80      -0.88   0.53  .75***
 3. Goals          1.31  0.44  .79      -0.92  -0.81  .78***
 4. Social Skills  1.36  0.37  .72      -0.65   0.72  .61***
 5. S/R Learning   1.41  0.37  .70      -0.56  -0.03  .59***
 6. Support        0.14  0.11  .70       0.28   0.14  .23*
 7. Achievement    2.51  0.93  .79      -0.40  -0.24  .24*
 8. Self-Efficacy  0.16  0.12  .95       0.26   1.00  .32**
 9. Attributions   1.19  0.33  .70       0.33   0.25  .31**
10. Identity       1.33  0.55  .72      -0.71   0.26  .62***
11. Interests      1.33  0.38  .81      -0.07  -0.75  .56***
12. Proactivity    2.18  0.59  .84      -1.08   1.10  .74***

Item               2       3       4       5       6        7

 1. Exploration
 2. P/E Fit         --
 3. Goals          .62***   --
 4. Social Skills  .40***  .41***   --
 5. S/R Learning   .42**   .58***  .44***   --
 6. Support        .07     .16     .32*    .05       --
 7. Achievement    .11     .11     .51***  .31**    .03      --
 8. Self-Efficacy  .18     .23*    .43**   .02      .73***  .11
 9. Attributions   .34**   .38**   .42**   .26*     .05     .28*
10. Identity       .51***  .33**   .33**   .45**    .13     .11
11. Interests      .56***  .40**   .31**   .22*    -.10     .05
12. Proactivity    .57***  .81***  .46***  .57***   .14     .26*

Item               8     9       10      11    12

 1. Exploration
 2. P/E Fit
 3. Goals
 4. Social Skills
 5. S/R Learning
 6. Support
 7. Achievement
 8. Self-Efficacy   --
 9. Attributions   .19    --
10. Identity       .15   .33**    --
11. Interests      .23*  .17     .30**    --
12. Proactivity    .23*  .42***  .79***  .29*  --

Note. N = 183. Sk = skewness; Ku = kurtosis; Exploration = Career
Exploration; P/E Fit = Person-Environment Fit; Goals = Vocational Goals;
Social Skills = Social/Prosocial/Work Readiness Skills; S/R Learning =
Self-Regulated Learning; Support = Social Support (Parent Support);
Achievement = academic achievement; Attributions = Positive Self-
Attributions; Identity = Vocational Identity; Interests = Vocational
Interests.
*p < .05. **p < .01. ***p < .001.

TABLE 2 Canonical Loadings for the Predictor and Criterion Variable Sets

Variable                                  Canonical Loading

Skills                                    Root 1
  Career Exploration                      .925
  Person-Environment Fit                  .739
  Goal Setting                            .919
  Social/Prosocial/Work Readiness Skills  .600
  Self-Regulated Learning                 .589
  Social Support                          .297

Outcomes                                  Root 1
  Academic achievement                    .215
  Self-Efficacy                           .416
  Positive Self-Attributions              .436
  Vocational Identity                     .801
  Vocational Interests                    .582
  Proactivity                             .927

Note. N = 183.