Using Marcia's Identity Model to Examine Critical Features of Career Readiness

• In Event: 52.036 - Career Narratives to Understand Adolescent Career Identity Development: Exploratory Mixed-Methods Comparative Study Using Three Theories

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: The first paper will describe the: (a) methods used to gather the narrative data; career narrative results using Marcia’s identity theory by providing sample responses associated with each classification, and (c) share the results comparing the four derived identity categories in relation to a range of academic resiliency indicators.

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK: Based on Marcia’s model, youth who demonstrated that they have engaged in more self and career exploration and are committed to pursuing a career goal were classified as an “Achieved” career identity. Youth engaged in exploration without deciding on a career goal were classified as a “Moratorium” career identity. Youth who are highly committed to a career goal without providing evidence of career exploration are referred to as possessing a “Foreclosed” career identity.

METHODS AND DATA SOURCES: Study 1 consisted of a convenience sample of 1653 students that were drawn from 14 high schools from four states in U.S. Sample characteristics included: Grade level - 49% 10th grade, 51% - 12th grade; Race/Ethnicity: 51% White, 29% African American, 13% Latino/a, 4.2% Native American and 2% Asian American; Income Status: 39% free/reduced lunch; Disability status: 7.7% Students with high-incidence disabilities. Participants responded to 18 open-ended questions about their career decision-making process based on a model from van Esbroeck and colleagues. In addition, they responded to a range of academic resiliency skill survey items.

RESULTS: Results indicated that 40% of the students were classified as either achieved or moratorium indicating that 60% of the students were not actively engaging in career exploration and the results were similar for youth with and without disabilities and did not differ by whether the students were in the 10th or 12th grade.

Furthermore, the results indicated that youth classified as being more engaged in career exploration (i.e., Achieved and Moratorium) reported higher academic motivation, more engagement in goal setting, and increased career search self-efficacy as well as less academic stress and less difficulty engaging in career decision-making.

SIGNIFICANCE: Compared to students classified as foreclosed, those classified as being actively engaged in career exploration, that is, those classified as either Achieved or Moratorium, were found to report a number of positive youth development indicators which indicates that something about their engagement in exploration may be associated with becoming more self-regulated and self-directed learners. This result indicates that efforts to implement career exploration opportunities that enable youth to evaluate and create tentative future goals can be effectively measured using Marcia’s identity model and can be shown to link directly to key academic resiliency skills that are known to improve academic outcomes.

Authors

• V. Scott H. Solberg, Boston University

• Zi Chen, Boston University