Journal of Counseling Psychology 2006, Vol. 53, No. 2, 272–279
Copyright 2006 by the American Psychological Association 0022-0167/06/$12.00 DOI: 10.1037/0022-0167.53.2.272
Setting the Stage: Career Development and the Student Engagement Process Maureen E. Kenny and David L. Blustein
Richard F. Haase
Boston College
University at Albany, State University of New York
Janice Jackson and Justin C. Perry Boston College A longitudinal model assessing the relationship between indices of career development (career planfulness and career expectations) and school engagement (belonging and valuing) was examined through structural equation modeling for a multiethnic sample of urban 9th-grade students (N ⫽ 416). The model was examined within the context of a career planning intervention implemented in 2 ethnically and racially diverse urban high schools. Higher levels of career planfulness and expectations at the beginning of the year were associated with increases in school engagement over the course of the year. The observed relationship between career planfulness and expectations and school engagement is consistent with emerging models of career development (e.g., R. T. Lapan, 2004) that seek to explicate the value of career development programming as a component of educational reform. Keywords: school engagement, career development, urban youth, school achievement
2000; M. E. Kenny, Blustein, Chaves, Grossman, & Gallagher, 2003; Orfield et al., 2004). The school achievement of our nation’s youth is of paramount concern for a number of reasons. As the United States seeks to compete globally in the 21st century for sustainable jobs, all youth must have the “work-readiness” skills in order to earn a livable income (Hamilton & Hamilton, 1999; Orfield, 1997). Preparing students with the skills needed to meet these challenges is not only an economically wise decision but also a morally compelling cause to ensure that every child has access to the American dream (Noguera, 2003). For youth and their families, academic success determines to a great extent future educational opportunities, career and lifestyle options, as well as lifetime earnings (Arbona, 2000; Murnane & Levy, 1996). The construct of school engagement has been a focus of recent attention for its potential in explaining the academic underachievement and the relatively high student drop-out rate in many public urban high schools (Cothran & Ennis, 2000). School engagement involves positive attitudes toward school, teachers, classmates, and academic learning, whereas disengagement encompasses student perceptions of school as boring, unwelcoming, alienating, and largely irrelevant (Fredericks, Blumenfeld, & Paris, 2004). According to a recent literature review (Fredericks et al., 2004), school engagement is closely linked to academic motivation and students’ willingness to invest psychologically in their education. Students with high levels of school engagement tend to be actively involved in their schoolwork and identify with the roles and responsibilities of being a student (Fredericks et al.). Recent interest in school engagement stems from the premise that engagement reflects an individual– environment interaction that can be positively enhanced through educational reform (Fredericks et al.). Knowledge concerning the determinants and malleability of school engagement remains very limited, however. Exploring these de-
Alarming disparities in academic achievement between students attending relatively affluent schools in the suburbs and those who attend public urban schools have been widely documented in educational research (National Education Association, 2001; U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, 2000). Moreover, the literature clearly demonstrates that inequities in educational and career success are most detrimental for nonWhite, ethnic minority students who are disproportionately represented in the student bodies of underresourced public schools located in urban centers with populations of 200,000 or more (e.g., Orfield, Losen, Wald, & Swanson, 2004). Evidence suggests that a range of factors, including inadequate school funding, low family income, and high proportions of students with limited English language skills, characterize the public school districts of the largest U.S. cities, where only 50% of those who enter ninth grade continue on to high school graduation (Orfield et al., 2004). Indeed, compared with their nonurban peers, urban youth (and especially racial and ethnic minorities) must contend with a wide range of social, economic, and institutional barriers in efforts to attain academic success (Blustein, Juntunen, & Worthington,
Maureen E. Kenny, David L. Blustein, Janice Jackson, and Justin C. Perry, Lynch School of Education, Boston College; Richard F. Haase, Department of Educational and Counseling Psychology, University at Albany, State University of New York. This research was supported in part by grants from the Boston Lynch School of Education Collaborative Fellows Program and the American Honda Foundation awarded to Maureen E. Kenny and David L. Blustein. The data presented, the statements made, and the views expressed are solely the responsibilities of the authors. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Maureen E. Kenny, Lynch School of Education, Boston College, Campion 307, Chestnut Hill, MA 02467. E-mail:
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terminants is particularly relevant to counseling psychologists who have the skills to develop informed interventions that may promote students’ investment in school. Career development programming has been identified as one means for positively enhancing student attitudes toward school and increasing student engagement (Lapan, 2004). A number of educational reform initiatives, including the 1994 School-To-Work Opportunities Act (STWOA), have been based on this premise. Although the STWOA expired in 2002, many aspects of the STWOA movement have been infused into contemporary school reform efforts, such as small schools and small learning communities, which are often constructed around specific career-oriented themes. Some research has found that K–12 career development programs can enhance academic achievement. In a meta-analysis of 67 studies, Evans and Burck (1992), for example, concluded that career education has a small but positive effect on school achievement. More recently, Lapan, Gysbers, and Petroski (2001) found that students enrolled in schools offering comprehensive guidance and counseling programs, including classroom guidance, obtained higher grades, and viewed school as more relevant than students enrolled in schools with less comprehensive guidance programs. Despite this evidence in support of career education, theoretically driven research has not yet examined the central conceptual premise that school motivation and engagement are linked to an understanding of the importance of school for future career success (Blustein et al., 2000; Lapan, 2004; Solberg, Howard, Blustein, & Close, 2002). The development and evaluation of theoretically based models examining the relationship between career development and school engagement could be helpful in building theory to inform the design of career interventions and in establishing the role of career development as important to secondary school reform. Life career development theory (Gysbers, Heppner, & Johnston, 1998; Lapan, 2004) offers a theoretical framework that is informative in understanding the benefits, including enhanced school engagement, that are expected to accrue from participation in career development programs. Drawing on life span, life space (Blustein & Noumair, 1996; Savickas, 2002; Super, 1990), social– cognitive (Lent, Brown, & Hackett, 1994), and motivational theories (e.g., Ryan & Deci, 2000), Lapan (2004) proposed that an adaptive vocational self-understanding, characterized by vocational planfulness and positive career expectations, can bring a sense of purpose, opportunity, and choice to youth who otherwise might feel academically discouraged. This conceptualization is consistent with research (Blustein, Phillips, Jobin-Davis, Finkelberg, & Roarke, 1997) revealing that planfulness is related to an adaptive transition from school to work and with recent motivational theory (Lapan, Kardash, & Turner, 2002; Pintrich, 2000; Ryan & Deci, 2000). According to motivational scholars (e.g., Pintrich, 2000; Ryan & Deci, 2000), the process of developing meaningful goals and assessing progress toward those goals can provide students with purpose and motivation. In the Ryan and Deci formulation, one of the keys to enhancing motivation is for individuals to understand that a given set of activities will yield valued outcomes. Accordingly, as high school students explore career opportunities and come to understand the value of academic subjects to their future career choices, their motivation for mastering what was otherwise an uninteresting subject may increase (Lapan et al., 2002). In other
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words, career planning can provide an external source of motivation that helps students to understand the connection between doing well in school and having choices and opportunities later in life, thereby enhancing school engagement (Lapan, 2004). Given the dearth of research assessing theoretical models evaluating the linkages between career development and school engagement and limited knowledge concerning the determinants of school engagement, in the present study, we evaluated a longitudinal model assessing the relationships between an adaptive vocational self-understanding, based on vocational planfulness and positive career expectations, and school engagement among urban ninth-grade high school students. We assessed ninth-grade students, who were participating in a career planning intervention, at the beginning and end of the school year. We focused on the ninth grade because this high school transition represents a critical school juncture for youth in urban schools, a time when feelings of disengagement, alienation, school failure, and school drop-out often increase (Newman, Lohman, Newman, Myers, & Smith, 2000; Seidman, Aber, Allen, & French, 1996). The success of urban youth in coping with this transition has been identified, furthermore, as critical in determining whether they eventually drop-out or graduate from high school (Reyes, Gillock, Kobus, & Sanchez, 2000). By using a cross-lagged panel design with measurement at two points in time, we were able to assess the directional nature of the relationship between indices of career development and school engagement. The nature of the relationship between career development and school engagement over time is of substantive interest theoretically, with potential pedagogical and counseling implications. Consistent with the life career development theory (Gysbers et al., 1998; Lapan, 2004), we anticipated, first of all, that students’ expectations for career success and student involvement in career planning would be related to increases in school engagement. Although we were primarily interested in the above relationship, the life career developmental model recognizes the reciprocal nature of relationships such that school engagement may also impact career planning (Lapan & Kosciulek, 2001). Indeed because school success increases access to many higher education and career options (Arbona, 2000), we also expected that school engagement would be positively associated with gains in career expectations and career planning.
Method Participants included 416 ninth-grade students (48.6% boys and 51.4% girls) from two large urban high schools in the northeast who completed all measures necessary for this study in the fall and spring of the ninth grade. Participants ranged in age from 13 to 16, with a mean age of 14.36 (SD ⫽ .58), with 94.5% of the participants being either 14 or 15 years of age. According to school district reports, the racial representation of one school was 63.4% Black, 22.9% Hispanic, 12.0% White, and 1.4% Asian, and the racial representation of the other school was 51.6% Black, 34.7% Hispanic, 8.3% White, and 5.2% Asian. Participants’ self-reported race/ethnicities for this study were 23% Black/Caribbean; 21% African American; 31% Hispanic/Latino; 7% Caucasian; 4.5% Asian, American Indian, or Pacific Islander; 3% Cape Verdian; 8% biracial/multiethnic; and 2.5% “other.” School records indicate that 85% of the participants in this study met the economic criteria and qualified for the free or reduced lunch program.
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Procedure This research was approved by both the school district’s and the university’s human subjects review boards. The participants were recruited from a larger sample of 883 students who were administered questionnaires as part of a longitudinal study of the career and educational development of urban high school students participating in a career exploration program (M. E. Kenny & Bledsoe, 2005; M. E. Kenny et al., 2003). The 30-hr career exploration program was delivered via a weekly structured group and cofacilitated by a high school classroom teacher and a team of counseling psychology graduate students, supervised by counseling psychology faculty. Group activities were organized in three sequential classroom-based units that focused on personal and ethnic identity exploration, exploration of career paths, and identification of external and internal resources and barriers to future success (Hartung & Blustein, 2002; Solberg et al., 2002). Questionnaires were distributed and administered in the classroom in both the fall and spring semester by university faculty and graduate research assistants. All students with informed consent were invited to participate unless they were absent at the time of data collection. Chi-square analyses revealed no differences between the 416 participants (47% of the total sample) with complete data and those with partial or no data on student gender or self-reported race/ethnicity. Among those not included in this study, 111 (13% of total sample) had no pretest data, 276 (31% of total sample) had no posttest data, and 80 (9% of total sample) had partial data at either pretest or posttest. Independent sample t tests were computed to compare those with and without complete data on the study’s measures. At pretest, those with complete data had higher scores on school belonging, t(685) ⫽ 2.90, p ⬍ .004, and valuing, t(685) ⫽ 3.99, p ⬍ .001, than those with incomplete data. Although statistically significant, these differences were relatively small in magnitude, being less than 1 point and approximately one third of a standard deviation. Nevertheless, it is important to note that those students in our sample who completed all of the questionnaires reported somewhat more school engagement than their classmates who did not complete all questionnaires. No significant differences were found for those with complete and incomplete data at posttest. Those missing all data at either pre- or posttest include the daily absenteeism (16% and 13%) and annual drop-out rates (11% and 5%) at the two participating high schools. In addition, as many as 28% of the students at our participating high schools transfer in and out of the schools over the course of a single academic year (Jan, 2005). This high level of student turnover is characteristic of the public school systems in large U.S. cities (Orfield et al., 2004).
Measures Identification With School Questionnaire (IS; Voelkl, 1997). The 16item IS was developed to assess the emotional aspects of school engagement. Nine items assess the degree to which students feel a sense of belongingness at school (e.g., “People at school are interested in what I have to say,” “I feel proud of being a part of my school”), and seven items assess the extent to which students value school and school-related outcomes (e.g., “Most of what I learn in school will be useful when I get a job,” “School is often a waste of time”). Each item is rated using a 4-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly agree) to 4 (strongly disagree). The IS can be used either as a total score or as two separate subscales (Voelkl, 1996, 1997). For the present study, items were summed to compute scores for the two subscales. The possible total score for school belonging ranged from 9 to 36, and the possible score for valuing ranged from 7 to 28, with higher scores indicating higher levels of school identification. With regard to validity, school identification scores have been associated with classroom participation and academic achievement among White and African American eighth-grade students (Voelkl, 1997). Among high school students, school identification scores were negatively and significantly correlated with alcohol and marijuana use at school (Voelkl & Frone, 2000). Reported internal consistency reliability in prior research was .76 for
belonging and .73 for valuing (Voelkl, 1996). The Cronbach’s alphas for this study are reported in Table 1. Outcome Expectation Scale. The six-item Outcome Expectation Scale (OE; McWhirter, Rasheed, & Crothers, 2000) assesses career expectations (e.g., “I will be successful in my chosen career/occupation,” “My talents and skills will be used in my career/occupation,” “The future looks bright for me.”). Responses, based on a 4-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 4 (strongly agree), are summed to obtain a total score. The total possible scores ranged from 6 to 24, with higher scores indicating more positive outcome expectations. Evidence of validity includes significant correlations with a measure of career expectations (McWhirter et al., 2000). Test–retest reliability over a 9-week period was .59, as assessed for a sample of 95 health education participants. Cronbach’s alpha for the same sample was .83 (McWhirter et al.). Cronbach’s alphas for the present study are reported in Table 1. Career planfulness. The Career Planning subscale of the school form of the Career Development Inventory (CDI; Super, Thompson, Lindeman, Jordaan, & Myers, 1981) was used to assess student level of career planfulness, including involvement in career planning activities and knowledge of occupations. Low scores suggest a low level of planfulness, and high scores indicate an awareness of the need to look ahead and engage in career planning (Lightfoot & Healy, 2001). In prior research, the Career Planning subscale was used with ninth-grade students from urban, suburban, and rural school districts, demonstrating an internal consistency reliability of .89 (Super et al., 1981). Among college students, scores on the subscale have been associated with future optimism and the integration of past, present, and future aims (Savickas, Silling, & Schwartz, 1984). We piloted the measure with students from the high schools involved in this research and decided to simplify the format and wording to make the measure easier and less time-consuming to read. We provided a Likert scale at the top of each page, rather than repeating the response options after each item. In piloting, we also found that students had difficulty determining whether they held a “good deal” or “a great deal” of career knowledge. We reduced the original 5-point Likert scale to a 4-point scale, ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 4 (strongly agree) for the planfulness items and from 1 (no knowledge) to 4 (a good deal of knowledge) for the knowledge items. The total possible score ranged from 19 to 76. The alphas for the revised scale with the present sample are reported in Table 1.
Table 1 Means, Standard Deviations, Reliabilities, and Correlations of the Measured Variables Time 1 Career 1
Time 2 School
2
3
Career 4
1
School 2
3
4
1. CDI — 2. OE .341 — 3. Value .318 .191 — 4. Belong .244 .284 .487 — 1. CDI .569 .268 .228 .138 — 2. OE .331 .414 .459 .228 .377 — 3. Value .294 .229 .455 .336 .379 .373 — 4. Belong .249 .218 .312 .524 .278 .297 .507 — M 55.53 20.53 22.29 23.05 54.43 20.64 22.37 22.85 SD 9.40 2.88 2.97 3.38 9.35 2.60 3.10 3.57 ␣ .83 .80 .54 .66 .82 .84 .66 .70 Note. CDI ⫽ Career Development Inventory; OE ⫽ Outcome Expectation Scale.
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Figure 1. The path analytic model of the cross-lagged relationships between career planning and school engagement. All paths are standardized. The correlation between the latent variable residuals of Career 2 and School 2 is .74. CDI ⫽ Career Development Inventory; OE ⫽ Outcome Expectation Scale; Pre ⫽ Pretest; Post ⫽ Posttest. *p ⬍ .05. **p ⬍ .01.
Results The means, standard deviations, and correlations of the four indicator variables measured at Time 1 and Time 2 are presented in Table 1. The major focus of this study was on the extent to which the higher order constructs of career development (a latent variable defined by career planfulness and career expectation) and school engagement (a latent variable defined by valuing and belonging) were differentially, and potentially causally, related across time.1 In this study, we implemented a two-wave, crosslagged panel analysis, in which the latent variables of career development and school engagement were each evaluated at two points in time (D. A. Kenny, 1979; Markus, 1979). Although standard correlational analyses can be used for the analysis of cross-lagged panel data (D. A. Kenny, 1975), they are limited to models in which only single indicators are used and higher order constructs defined by more than one measured variable cannot be handled. Such designs suffer from statistical deficiencies (Rogosa, 1980) and, thus, are not suited to the study of latent variables or higher order constructs. Consequently, although we maintained the basic features of the cross-lagged panel design, we analyzed the data by means of a multiple indicator, structural equation model that is better suited to a cross-lagged path analysis on latent variables (Cole & Maxwell, 2003; Jo¨reskog & So¨rbom, 1993b; Long, 1983). The two- (latent) variable, two-wave panel model, as described in previous sections, is graphically displayed in Figure 1. The model of Figure 1 was fitted using LISREL 8.7 (Jo¨reskog & So¨rbom, 1993b). The solution was obtained by the method of maximum likelihood applied to the covariance matrix of the eight indicator variables (four pretest and four posttest measures), displayed in Figure 1.2
The latent variables of career development and school engagement were each defined at Time 1 by their respective pair of indicator variables measured at the beginning of the project. The latent variables of career development and school engagement at Time 2 were defined by readministration of their respective pair of
1
The term causally related is used intentionally here in the sense that the analysis of one variable on another across time is inherently based on causal thinking and involves the testing of causal hypotheses. The problems of inferring cause from observational data are well-known (Freedman, 1988), but recent developments in the philosophy of science are far more forgiving about the idea of potentially inferring cause from nonmanipulated, ex post facto experiments that may approximate unmeasurable deterministic relationships (Galavoti, Suppes, & Costantini, 2003). 2 Because evidence suggests that boys are more at risk for school drop-out in comparison with their female classmates (Orfield et al., 2004), we were concerned about potential gender differences in the model. We initially tested a multiple-group version of the model in Figure 1 by simultaneously fitting the cross-lagged model to the covariance matrices for boys and girls. Following the fit of the model in which all paths (structural, error, factor loading, etc.) were freely estimated, we performed a series of equality constraint tests. We constrained the male and female parameters for the factor loadings, for the error variances, and for the structural paths in subgroups, and at each test, we found the constrained model not to be statistically significantly different from the unconstrained models. Finally, we constrained all parameters to equality across groups and also found no significant difference from the freely estimated model, 2(12, N ⫽ 416) ⫽ 12.37, p ⫽ .83. We took these tests to mean that ignoring gender in the fit of the model would not distort our findings, as the two groups do not show different patterns of relationships among the many paths of both the structural and measurement models.
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indicators at Time 2. The career development latent variable at Times 1 and 2 consisted of the CDI (career planfulness) and OE (career expectations), and the metric of the latent variables (Career1, Career2) were set to the scale of the CDI at each administration. The metric of the latent variables for school engagement at Time 1 and Time 2 (School1, School2) were fixed to the scale of the valuing measure at pre- and posttest, respectively. Consistent with the statistical definition of multiwave, cross-lagged panel models, the latent variables of career and school were allowed to correlate with each other at Time 1 and Time 2 (synchrony; D. A. Kenny, 1975). The latent variable correlation between career and school at Time 1 is a correlation between exogenous variables, whereas the latent variable correlation between career and school at Time 2 was estimated by allowing the residuals of these endogenous variables to correlate. The correlation between career and school residuals at Time 2 is therefore a partial correlation between the two endpoints that controls for the effect of any other variables in the model, including the pretests of the latent variables of career and school, measured at Time 1 (Jo¨reskog & So¨rbom, 1993a). As a result, this correlation is a measure of the relationship between the two latent variables that is the result of causes outside the model (i.e., it is an index of model misspecification). In addition to the correlations between latent variables within time periods, the model also specifies direct paths from the pre- to the posttest occasions of both career and school latent variables (autoregressive symmetry; D. A. Kenny, 1975), which can be thought of as a form of test–retest reliability of the latent variables. Finally, the paths of most theoretical interest in this study are specified as the direct paths from Career13 School2 and from School13 Career2—these paths are the essence of the cross-lagged analysis. As a final part of the specification of the model, the errors of pre- and posttests of the measured indicator variables were allowed to correlate across occasions. Insofar as these variables constitute longitudinal, repeated measures on the same subjects, such error correlations are justified as part of the model specification (MacCallum, 1986). The model was fitted to the data by the method of maximum likelihood, with parameters estimated by LISREL 8.7 (Jo¨reskog & So¨rbom, 1993b). By virtually all contemporary criteria (Hu & Bentler, 1999; McDonald & Ho, 2003), the model presented in Figure 1 fits the data remarkably well. The chi-square goodnessof-fit test, 2(10, N ⫽ 416) ⫽ 12.68, p ⫽ .242, suggests an adequate fit, although this test statistic is not highly regarded as a measure of model adequacy. Several other goodness-of-fit indices also suggest that the two-wave, cross-lagged panel model fits the data exceptionally well, including the Jo¨reskog and So¨rbom’s (1993a) goodness-of fit index (GFI ⫽ .992), Bentler and Bonett’s (1980) comparative fit index (CFI ⫽ .998), and the Tucker and Lewis (1973) nonnormed fit index (NNFI ⫽ .991). Moreover, the root-mean-square-error of approximation (RMSEA; Cudeck & Browne, 1983) was well below conventional levels of adequacy (RMSEA ⫽ .025, pclose fit ⫽ .841, confidence interval [CI]90 ⫽ .00, .06), and the standardized root-mean-square residual (SRMSR) is also well below conventional levels of acceptability (SRMSR ⫽ .020). In addition to the fit measures, the proportion of variability in Career2 accounted for by Career1 and School1, as indexed by the R2 for that structural equation was R2 ⫽ .686, and the proportion of variability in School2 accounted for by its struc-
tural equation (Career1 and School1) was R2 ⫽ .468. Much of the magnitude of these R2 values is attributable to the pretest–posttest relationship between the latent variables of the same name. Given all these indicators, we conclude that the model is a reasonable account of the relationships between school and career outcomes consistent with the path analytic model of Figure 1. More important, however, is the test of the differential contribution of the cross-lagged paths in the model. We require a test of the hypothesis that the “causal” path from Career13 School2, adjusted for School1 (␥21 ⫽ .112, standardized ␥21 ⫽ .277) is both significantly different from zero and significantly different from the path coefficient of School13 Career2, adjusted for Career1 (␥43 ⫽ ⫺.168, standardized ␥43 ⫽ ⫺.061). The LISREL T tests3 of the individual path coefficients indicate that the School13 Career2 path does not differ statistically from zero, T(N ⫽ 416) ⫽ ⫺0.466, p ⬎ .90, whereas the path from Career13 School2 is significantly different from zero, T(N ⫽ 416) ⫽ 2.35, p ⬍ .02. The correlation between the residuals of the latent variables at Time 2 was found to be .74. This is a partial correlation between the two endpoints (Career2 and School2) and reflects the influence of factors that are outside of the present model. More important, examination of the coefficients of Figure 1 and their associated test statistics clearly suggests that school engagement at Time 2 is far better predicted from the level of career development at Time 1 (adjusted for beginning school engagement at Time 1) than career development at Time 2 is to be predicted from school engagement at Time 1 (adjusted for pretest career development). The pattern of the T tests suggests that the contribution of career development to school engagement is stronger than is implied in the path from school engagement to career development. Although it behooves us to be cautious about inferring causal direction from observational data, the results of the cross-lag analysis certainly favors the career development-toschool engagement pattern of influence.
Discussion The results of the present study revealed a modest, yet significant, contribution of indices of career development to indices of school engagement, including feelings of valuing and belonging in school. This relationship was observed for a sample of predominantly non-White, low-income students attending urban public high schools, a segment of America’s high school youth experiencing sizable inequities in educational and career success (National Education Association, 2001; Orfield et al., 2004). Of substantive interest was the nature of the relationship between career development and school engagement over time. Our findings indicate, consistent with our expectations and life career development theory (Gysbers et al., 1998; Lapan, 2004; Lapan & Kosciulek, 2001), that higher levels of career planfulness and expectations are associated with school engagement. Additionally, 3 The authors of LISREL (Jo¨reskog & So¨rbom, 1993a, 1993b) designated the single degree of freedom test of individual parameters in a structural model as “T tests.” These tests are not the traditional t tests. The test statistic T is a critical ratio test whose significance is determined by reference to the normal distribution. As such, it does not have degrees of freedom that demarcate different t distributions. All the T tests reported herein are based on a sample size of 416.
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the findings suggest that student reports of school engagement do not explain levels of career development. These findings are important, as it appears that those students who enter ninth grade with higher levels of planfulness and more positive expectations regarding their career success may develop feelings of valuing and belonging in school over the course of the year but that being engaged in school will not necessarily lead to career planfulness and positive career expectations. Given the widely documented risks and declines in school engagement that follow the transition to high school (Newman et al., 2000; Reyes et al., 2000; Seidman et al., 1996), our findings are encouraging with regard to the possible protective value of career planfulness and positive career expectations. The direction of the relationship did not support the position that school engagement leads to progress in career development. This serves to support the hypothesized importance of internalized career goals and expectations as motivational factors in the educational realm. The experience of school engagement may thus contribute to academically related behaviors and attitudes (Fredericks et al., 2004) without also evoking changes in career development. Although the present findings are preliminary and additional research is needed to replicate these findings, the results lend support for the educational and motivational value of career development and suggest that the contribution of intentional career development education deserves continued attention in research and policy discussion concerning educational reform. As this study represents an initial effort at assessing premises derived from life career development theory (Gysbers et al., 1998; Lapan, 2004; Lapan & Kosciulek, 2001), further research is needed to more fully assess the model and to determine whether interventions derived from these premises can actually modify school engagement and ultimately enhance school and career achievement. Career planfulness and positive career expectations were identified in the present study as two career development processes associated with school engagement. Although these indices were selected on the basis of existing theory (Lapan, 2004; Lapan et al., 2001) and research (Blustein et al., 1997), future research might seek to assess the contributions of other proposed components of adaptive vocational self-understanding (Lapan et al., 2001), such as perceived opportunities, empowerment, and commitment. Vocational and counseling psychologists may then seek to design interventions to promote career planfulness, positive career expectations, and other relevant processes and to assess whether students involved in these interventions differ in levels of school engagement and academic achievement in comparison with students not involved in the interventions. Future research might also seek to identify the range of individual, family, school, and community factors that enable some students to enter ninth grade with higher levels of career planfulness and expectations than other students. On the basis of these findings, interventions might be developed to bolster relevant family, school, and community factors. The finding that career development and school engagement are substantively related among an ethnically diverse sample of lowincome urban high school youth is also noteworthy. Despite the range of economic and social challenges, such as insufficient economic resources and ethnic and racial discrimination, that might serve to hamper the career attainment of youth who attend urban public high schools (Constantine, Erickson, Banks, & Tim-
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berlake, 1998; Wilson, 1996), our findings suggest that positive career expectations and planfulness are educationally adaptive. Further research may seek to explore and identify the factors that enable low-income and ethnic minority youth attending urban schools to sustain positive expectations and planfulness, despite the presence of social, racial, and economic barriers. Future research and intervention must also consider ways to reduce the systemic social and economic barriers confronted by these youth. The findings of the present study must be evaluated with a number of limitations in mind. First, the correlational findings of this study cannot be definitively interpreted as indicating causality, and, thus, it is possible that both career development and school engagement are related to a common factor or set of factors not considered in this research. Our model was assessed over the course of the ninth grade, so that our findings cannot be generalized to other grades or to other time intervals between assessments. Also, the students included in this study are those for whom complete pretest and posttest data were available. Thus, any students who had dropped out of school prior to our second assessment were not included. Similarly, those students with incomplete data at pretest reported somewhat less school engagement than students who completed all measures. Although it makes sense that students who are not engaged in school would also be difficult to engage in the completion of questionnaires, our knowledge of those students who are most disengaged remains limited. With regard to measurement, the indicator of school belonging evidenced particularly low reliability at pretest. Although we recognize this less-than-desirable reliability, structural equation modeling, which was the method of analysis used for this study, can circumvent this problem because the correlations between latent variables are disattenuated (i.e., error free), with the errors of measurement being explicitly modeled in the analytic process. In addition, the observed relationships between career development and school engagement were obtained for a group of students who had participated in a career intervention. Our conclusions must therefore be tempered by the acknowledgment that the observed relationships may have been influenced by the intervention. Nevertheless, the cross-sectional correlations observed between career development and school engagement in the fall semester provide evidence for a positive association between these constructs prior to our intervention. Moreover, the means for the career scales in the fall and spring semester and the direct pathway between Career 1 and Career 2 in the model indicate considerable stability in scores over the year. Despite the limitations of the study, the findings identify two career development processes, career planfulness and career expectations, associated with student engagement in school. Our findings suggest that those concerned about the academic achievement and career attainment of urban youth should continue to examine the merits of career development programs and the importance of career planfulness and expectations for academic and career success. The identification of these and other processes may clarify the mechanisms by which career development education can contribute to academic achievement (Evans & Burck, 1992; Lapan et al., 2001). Further theoretical development and model assessment can set the stage for the development of career interventions designed to address the present achievement crisis that limits the work readiness and career attainment of a sizable group of urban high school students.
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278 References
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Received April 14, 2005 Revision received September 22, 2005 Accepted September 28, 2005 䡲
