CAREER COUNSELING AS AN ENVIRONMENTAL SUPPORT: EXPLORING INFLUENCES ON CAREER CHOICE, CAREER DECISION-MAKING SELF-EFFICACY, AND CAREER BARRIERS BY

This study was motivated by concerns regarding the difficult academic and career choices facing today’s college students as they navigate higher education and encounter career barriers along their paths. Using Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT; Lent, Brown, & Hackett, 1994) as a primary framework, the study sought to understand the role that individual career counseling could play as an environmental support to help students explore options, make choices, set goals, and take the necessary steps to implement their choices and persist to their goals. The research questions examined both the outcomes of participating in individual career counseling (e.g., changes in career decision-making self-efficacy and perceptions of career barriers), and the process of participation as viewed through students ’ perspectives (e.g., components of career counseling that students found most helpful). This study employed a quasi-experimental design using mixed methods to examine first-year college students ’ interpretations of individual career counseling experiences, as well as the influence of those experiences on career choices, career decision-making self-efficacy (CDMSE), and perceptions of career barriers. Employing a mixed methods approach in dat