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Asian Americans' Career Choices: A Path Model to Examine Factors Influencing Their Career Choices,☆☆,

https://doi.org/10.1006/jvbe.1998.1651Get rights and content

Abstract

Research on Asian American career development has found that Asian Americans' occupational interests are typically predominant in the Investigative and Realistic areas and that they may pursue a limited range of occupations. This study investigates factors that might influence Asian Americans' career choices and tests Lent et al.'s model to investigate the relationships among the predicting variables and the outcome variable (career choice) for 187 college students. Variables investigated are level of acculturation, family SES, family involvement, occupational interests, and career self-efficacy. It was hypothesized that career choices are influenced by the predicting variables in such a way that lower acculturated individuals tend to choose more typical occupations (i.e., Realistic and Investigative occupations), that family background is influential on their choices, and that interest may not necessarily be related to their occupational choices. The results generally support the path model in explaining the factors influencing Asian American career choices. Asian Americans are influenced by acculturation, family background, and self-efficacy in choosing occupations. Implications are discussed for working with the Asian American population.

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    This article is based on a doctoral dissertation by Mei Tang under the supervision of Nadya A. Fouad. The study is supported by the grant from the Strong Research Advisory Board, Consulting Psychologist Press.

    ☆☆

    Address correspondence and reprint requests to Mei Tang, Division of Human Services, College of Education, P.O. Box 210002, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH 45221-0002. E-mail:[email protected].

    J. T. KapesM. M. Matstie

    f3

    [email protected]

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