The relationship of career development interventions to English self-efficacy and English motivation in high school students

Graduation date: 2002Although some studies have demonstrated different career development interventions to be associated with positive student outcomes such as increased academic achievement, increased educational planning and increased career maturity, there has been no investigation of different quantities of career development interventions related to the student outcomes motivation and self-efficacy. Substantial research has demonstrated motivation and self-efficacy to be related to academic achievement. Over half of America's l2th graders read below proficiency level. Therefore, interventions that promote English self-efficacy and English motivation in students are as important as interventions that help students achieve other positive outcomes. This exploratory study investigated the relationship of four career development\ud intervention taxa (titled Awareness, Field, Curriculum, and Advising) to the English\ud self-efficacy and to the English motivation of high school students. Self-respondent and archival data were collected from 17 different high schools in three separate regions of the United States. A total of 249 high school seniors completed an English\ud motivation and English self-efficacy measure as well as an instrument that measured the quantity of career development interventions experienced across high school. Stepwise multiple regression revealed prior achievement to be a significant predictor of\ud English self-efficacy. The background variables SES, Gender, Parent Educational\ud Level, Race/Ethnicity as well as the four career development intervention taxa were not\ud significant predictors of English self-efficacy. Gender and the Advising taxon were determined to be statistically significant predictors of English motivation. The other career development taxa, Awareness, Field, Curriculum and the remaining background variables (SES, Parent Educational Level, Race/Ethnicity, and Prior Achievement) were not determined to be significant predictors of English motivation. Implications for practitioners include a rationale for increasing the quantity of interventions experienced by high school students. Research implications involve improving the design and measurement of career development interventions. Several research questions are posed as potential areas for future investigation