Identifying heterogeneity in career interest among U.S. high school students
Open Access
- Author:
- Lee, Deborah Dongmi
- Graduate Program:
- Educational Psychology
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- January 28, 2020
- Committee Members:
- Carlomagno Del Carmen Panlilio, Dissertation Advisor/Co-Advisor
Carlomagno Del Carmen Panlilio, Committee Chair/Co-Chair
Pui-Wa Lei, Committee Member
Allison R Fleming, Outside Member
Kisha Shannon Jones, Outside Member
David Lee, Program Head/Chair - Keywords:
- heterogeneity of career interest
latent profile analysis
career guidance counseling
individual differences - Abstract:
- In career guidance counseling, counseling professionals have sought to understand and explain how people make career choices given their individual differences. Particularly among high school students, career choice related decisions are important tasks and may carry implications for their future paths as they transition from late adolescence into early adulthood. As a prominent career theory, the Holland Theory of Career Choice claims that there is heterogeneity in career interests as described by the following six Holland personality types: Realistic (R), Investigative (I), Artistic (A), Social (S), Enterprising (E), and Conventional (C). However, the degree to which we understand how many students are categorized in specific Holland types remains unclear. Therefore, the current study aims to examine the heterogeneity of career interest by empirically testing how individuals are classified into personality profiles as identified by the RIASEC scales and how these profiles are related to individual student characteristics. Latent profile analysis revealed the following six classes of career interest profiles representing distinct RIASEC patterns: Low Interest, Realistic Interest, Social-Enterprising-Artistic Interest, Neutral Interest, High Interest, and Social-Enterprising Interest; these classes were cross-validated through independent subsamples. Other factors like gender, race/ethnicity, and age of individuals were considered for a deeper insight into the career interest differences. Gender, race/ethnicity, and age had a significant influence on RIASEC class membership. The findings demonstrated the utility of the six-class model to look at the proportion of students who are classified under specific RIASEC patterns and the importance of considering the social context that gender, race/ethnicity, and age provide for individuals. The findings also provide implications for career guidance counseling practice such a targeted intervention approaches and resource allocation to support diverse groups of students succeed in their future careers.