The Relationship Between Perceived Career Barriers and Career Decision Self-Efficacy on the Certainty of Initial Career Choice Among Educational Opportunity Fund Program Students

Abstract

This study was an investigation of the predictive value of perceived career barriers and career decision self-efficacy on the certainty of initial career choice among Educational Opportunity Fund Program (EOF) pre-freshman college students, an under-studied college population with respect to career development (Winograd & Shick Tryon, 2009). The moderating effects of certain cultural characteristics (race, gender and college generational status) on the certainty of initial career choice were also examined. A nonexperimental correlational research design was utilized, along with a multiple linear regression analysis, to investigate the predictability of perceived career barriers and career decision self-efficacy, directly and as moderated by the cultural characteristics of gender, race and college generational status on the certainty of initial career choice among pre-freshmen EOF students